President Joe Biden sensationally called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the “main obstacle” to Middle East peace, according to a shocking new report.
The comments come as Israeli airstrikes killed 67 Palestinians and wounded dozens more in Rafah, the southern Gaza city that is the last refuge for around a million displaced civilians.
A source close to the president said NBC News that Biden feels Netanyahu is “giving him hell” over the ceasefire negotiations.
‘Just feel like this is enough. It has to stop,” another source told the network.
The White House on Friday sought to downplay harsh criticism leveled at Israel by President Joe Biden and a top national security official over how Netanyahu negotiated his nation’s response to the brutal Hamas attack on Oct. 7.
Biden, speaking to reporters Thursday night, called Israel’s military operations in Gaza “overblown” and said the suffering of innocent people “has to end.”
A source close to the president told NBC News that Biden feels Netanyahu is “giving him hell” over the ceasefire negotiations.
The comments come as Israeli airstrikes killed 67 Palestinians and wounded dozens more in Rafah, the southern Gaza city that is the last refuge for around a million displaced civilians.
While Biden has previously expressed concern about the rising number of Palestinian civilian casualties (more than 27,000 have died in Gaza since the conflict broke out), his direct criticism of the Israelis has been muted.
Then on Friday, the New York Times reported that it had obtained a recording in which the president’s top deputy national security adviser, Jon Finer, expressed a “lack of confidence” in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government.
Those comments were taken from a meeting with Arab American and Muslim community leaders this week. The White House National Security Council confirmed that Finer’s comments, as reported by the Times, were accurate.
An administration official told The Associated Press that Finer was speaking specifically about the Netanyahu government’s commitment to pursuing a two-state solution — one in which Israel would coexist with an independent Palestinian state — once the war ends.
Netanyahu throughout his political career has systematically opposed the creation of a Palestinian state.
More than four months after October 7, much of the densely populated Mediterranean strip of land lies in ruins, with 28,340 Palestinians dead and 67,984 injured, according to Gaza health officials, who say many others are buried under the rubble. .
The Israeli military says 31 hostages have been killed since then, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday’s rescue showed military pressure should continue, ignoring international alarm over his plans for a ground assault on Rafah.