The White House posted a version of President Biden’s talk at a Jewish/Democratic fundraiser in Washington on Dec. 12. It can be read as a message to President Netanyahu, though not always a very consistent one. Here are some highlights:
Of note, Biden complained that the current government in Israel—calling out National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir by name—is opposed to a two-state solution. He claimed that he had warned Netanyahu that carpet bombing Gaza would cost him the support of the world. But nonetheless, he expressed full support for Israel’s war on Gaza. “I believe, without Israel as a freestanding state, not a Jew in the world is safe—not a Jew in the world is safe.”
”[O]ne of the things that Bibi understands, I think, now—but I’m not sure Ben-Gvir and his War Cabinet do, who I’ve spoken to several times—is that Israel’s security can rest on the United States, but right now it has more than the United States,” Biden went on. “It has the European Union, it has Europe, it has most of the world supporting it. But they’re starting to lose that support by the indiscriminate bombing that takes place.”
Biden recalled that Netanyahu had pointed out to him the carpet bombing of Germany and the atomic bombing of Japan during World War II, all of which killed a lot of civilians. “I said, ‘Yeah, that’s why all these institutions were set up after World War II to see to it that it didn’t happen again—it didn’t happen again. Don’t make the same mistakes we made at 9/11. There was no reason why we had to be in a war in Afghanistan at 9/11. There was no reason why we had to do some of the things we did.’”
