US president’s remarks to Time magazine about PM’s role in conflict draw heavily critical response from Israeli government
Joe Biden has said that there is “every reason” to draw the conclusion that Benjamin Netanyahu is prolonging the war in Gaza for his own political self-preservation.
Biden made the remarks about the Israeli prime minister in an interview with Time magazine published on Tuesday morning, drawing a sharp response from the Israeli government, which accused the US president of straying from diplomatic norms.
Netanyahu’s popularity plummeted after the 7 October attack by Hamas, which exposed serious flaws in Israeli security. Most political observers say Netanyahu would lose elections if they were held now, and would be forced into opposition, facing court hearings on corruption charges. But elections have been put off until the war is over, or at least until major military operations are deemed to have been completed.
Time asked Biden whether he believed Netanyahu was “prolonging the war for his own political self-preservation”.
“I’m not going to comment on that,” the president said in response, but added: “There is every reason for people to draw that conclusion.”
Which is the world’s most condescending way to say he doesn’t think so but like a kid on the playground isn’t going to tell us why.
I’m curious how the sentence “There is every reason for people to believe that” gets translated to “sure, you can think that if you want [to be wrong].”
It reads more like, “I can’t say whether it’s ‘1 plus 3’ or ‘2 plus 2’ but everybody is getting 4.” The evidence is all there.
It’s how he said it in the interview. First he says he can’t comment. Then he sighs and lets that line loose. It’s entirely calculated to make you think there’s some secret intelligence behind it.
And he walked out back anyways because even that was too much for piss baby Netanyahu.