WASHINGTON – President Biden said Tuesday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should “change” his approach to the Palestinian issue, warning that Israel is losing support for its military response to the October 7 Hamas terror attack.
Biden made the dramatic request at a fundraiser hours after making similar comments during Monday night’s Hanukkah celebration at the White House.
“Bibi has a tough decision to make,” Biden said Tuesday, using a popular nickname for Netanyahu. “This is the most conservative government in Israel’s history.”
The president added that some members of Israel’s national unity government, which includes hard-line nationalists and Orthodox parties, “do not want a two-state solution” to the protracted conflict.
Biden specifically criticized Knesset member Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s national security minister and head of the Jewish Power party, who has supported settlements in the Palestinian territories and even defended spitting on Christians as an “ancient Jewish custom.”
“I know every, every, every head of state in Israel since Golda Meir. And I know them because I’ve spent time with them many times,” Biden said. “And this is a different group. Ben-Gvir and the company and the new people, they want nothing more than a two-state solution.”
“I think he needs to change,” Biden said of Netanyahu, “and with this government, this government in Israel makes it difficult for him to move.”
At an afternoon press conference in Washington with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Biden was asked about Israeli forces beginning to flood tunnels dug by Hamas in Gaza — even as dozens of hostages, including up to eight Americans, remain in the region.
“Regarding the tunnel flooding… allegations are being made [by Israel] that they were pretty sure there were no hostages in any of these tunnels. I don’t know that actually,” Biden said.
Biden says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should “change” his approach to the Palestinian issue POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Netanyahu, 74, began his third term as Israel’s prime minister last December. He formed a national unity government shortly after the October 7 attacks, in which Hamas terrorists killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel and kidnapped to Gaza about 250 others.
The new coalition includes one of Netanyahu’s main left-wing rivals, Benny Gantz, but another, Yair Lapid, has refused to join, citing continued infiltration by certain factions.
Statements by some of Netanyahu’s allies have sparked internal criticism of his government.
The remarks by some of Netanyahu’s allies have sparked internal criticism of his government.
Photo taken in southern Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip on December 11, 2023. AFP via Getty Images
For example, Knesset member Galit Distal Atbaryan, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, called after 7 Oct. for Israel to “Erase Gaza from the face of the earth.”
Meanwhile, Netanyahu has acknowledged that he opposes the Biden administration’s goal of having the Palestinian Authority take control of the Gaza Strip after Hamas is defeated there.
Biden made the remarks hours after making similar comments during the Hanukkah celebration. AP
“There is disagreement about the ‘day after Hamas,’ and I hope we will reach an agreement here as well,” the prime minister said in a statement Monday night. “I want to make my position clear: I will not allow Israel to repeat the mistakes of Oslo.”
“It is impossible, after the great sacrifices of our people and fighters, that we will allow into Gaza those who teach terrorism, support terrorism, finance terrorism,” Netanyahu added. “Gaza will not be a Hamas-stan nor a Fatah-stan.”
The Israeli leader previously suggested that his forces maintain a security presence in the Palestinian enclave for an “indefinite period” after Hamas is defeated.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
