President Joe Biden criticized the role of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Israel-Hamas war but it signaled no major change in US policy toward its Middle East ally.
“I think what he did was wrong,” Biden said Interview with Univision which aired Tuesday night in response to a question about Netanyahu’s political survival over Israeli national interests.
“I don’t agree with his approach,” Biden said in a taped interview last Wednesday.
The remarks show that Biden is increasingly willing to publicly criticize Netanyahu amid criticism from progressives about Israel’s handling of the war in Gaza.
Biden praised Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s speech last month He criticized Netanyahu and called for new elections in Israel. Schumer, D.N.Y., argued that Netanyahu had allowed his “political survival to take precedence over Israel’s best interests.”
At the same time, Biden has been criticized for not backing up his comments on the terms of US arms sales to Israel. Earlier on NBC News informed The US decided to send more weapons to Israel last month.
Last week, more than 30 Democrats in Congress — including former California House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — signed a letter urging Biden not to hand over weapons unless Israel “sufficiently mitigates the harm to innocent civilians in Gaza, including aid workers.”
In an interview with Univision, Biden said he called on the Israelis to “just call for a ceasefire, full access to all food and medicine coming into the country for the next six, eight weeks.”
“I’ve talked to everybody from the Saudis to the Jordanians to the Egyptians. They’re ready to come in,” Biden said. “They’re willing to move this food. I don’t think there’s any excuse not to meet the medical and nutritional needs of these people. It needs to be done now.”
Biden had criticized Netanyahu before Israel’s April 1 airstrikes the killer seven World Central Kitchen aid workers, however, began to take a harder line after the strike.
“Israel has not done enough to protect aid workers trying to deliver much-needed aid to civilians.” he said last week.
In the first days after the October 7 attack by Hamas, Biden repeatedly emphasized that his support for Israel was “iron-clad”. Since then, he has had to contend with anti-war and pro-Palestinian protesters. interferes his speeches, as well as a campaign urging voters to vote protest ballots In the Democratic primaries, not for him, but for “non-threat”.
The families of the US hostages met with Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday to provide an update on the White House’s efforts to bring the hostages home.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Jonathan Dekel-Chen, the father of American hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen, said “there is an agreement on the table right now that all parties agree to and are willing to work with.”
“They are waiting for Hamas to reach ‘yes’,” he said.
Netanyahu pointed out that Israel has set a date for the attack on the city of Rafah, which the United States opposes. “A major ground operation in Rafah would be a mistake,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said in March.
In a conversation with Netanyahu last month, Biden expressed his “deep concern” over Israel’s attack in Rafah, the White House said.
Tara Prindiville contributed.