Biden indicates Israel can pursue Hamas leadership after war, which ‘should end now’
After shaky start to news conference, president gives detailed answers on Gaza war, rules out Israeli occupation, says progress being made to bridge gaps on hostage-ceasefire deal
In a much-anticipated news conference following the end of the NATO Summit in Washington on Thursday, US President Joe Biden appeared to suggest that ending the war in Gaza would not mean Israel would have to stop going after Hamas’s leadership.
The 81-year-old president, who is under intense scrutiny due to concerns about his chances of reelection following his weak debate performance last month, urged Israel to bring the fighting in Gaza to an end and revealed that the plan he is pushing for the post-war management of the Palestinian enclave will pave the way for a two-state solution.
“It’s time to end this war,” Biden said, addressing Israel. “It doesn’t mean walk away from going after [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar and Hamas.”
While US officials privately told the Times of Israel in May that the administration would still support Israel going after Hamas’s leadership after the war is over, this appeared to be the furthest Washington has gone in saying as much publicly.
The president’s news conference appeared to start on shaky footing after Biden mixed up the names of Vice President Kamala Harris and his opponent, former president Donald Trump, in response to a query about his confidence in Harris.
“I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president if she was not qualified to be president,” he said.
The error followed an earlier blunder from the president, who had mistakenly referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin.”
“And now I want to hand it over to the president of Ukraine, who has as much courage as he has determination, ladies and gentlemen, President Putin,” Biden had said, referring to Zelensky, before correcting himself.
“Going to beat President Putin, President Zelensky. I am so focused on beating Putin,” Biden quickly corrected himself to the sound of gasps.
Despite the bumpy start to his news conference, Biden’s responses grew steadier as he fielded questions from reporters. The president overcame a childhood stutter and has frequently mangled names and misspoke throughout his political career.
Framework agreed, gaps remain
Addressing the war between Israel and Hamas, now in its tenth month, Biden said that while the two parties have agreed on the “framework” for a ceasefire and hostage release deal that he laid out in May, they have yet to reach an agreement. He insisted, however, that progress was being made on bridging the gaps.
Biden didn’t specify when Israel and Hamas agreed to the ceasefire framework, and it wasn’t clear how significant the development was, given that an Israeli official told The Times of Israel yesterday that the sides are still two to three weeks away from an agreement and have major gaps to bridge.
Israeli negotiating teams have traveled between Israel, Doha and Cairo over the last week in order to meet with US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators. Negotiating countries have voiced cautious optimism about the direction that the talks are heading, although Hamas said in a statement Thursday that mediators had not yet provided the group any updates.
For months now, the US “has worked to secure a ceasefire in Gaza to bring the hostages home, to create a path for peace and stability in the Middle East,” Biden told the press conference, stressing that he was keen to bring an end to the war, which began with Hamas’s murderous October 7 terror onslaught in southern Israel. “Six weeks ago, I laid out a detailed plan… that was endorsed by the UN Security Council, the G7,” the grouping of the seven major industrial powers.
“That framework is now agreed on by both Israel and Hamas,” he said. “So I sent my team on the region to hammer out the details.
“These are difficult, complex issues,” Biden said of the differences that remain between Israel and Hamas. “There’s still gaps to close, but we’re making progress. The trend is positive. And I’m determined to get this deal done and bring an end to this war, which should end now.”
The president acknowledged that he has, at times, been frustrated with the Israeli government over its handling of the war.
He recalled his visit to Israel days after “the massacres that occurred at the hands of Hamas” on October 7 — a trip that saw him convince Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow aid into Gaza after imposing a siege on the Strip at the start of the war.
“I met with most of the Arab leaders to try and get a consensus going as to what had to be done to get more aid and food and medicine into the Gaza Strip,” Biden said. “We pushed [getting aid in] really hard. Israel occasionally was less than cooperative.”
“I know Israel well, and I support Israel, but his war cabinet is one of the most conservative war cabinets in the history of Israel,” he continued, apparently confusing Netanyahu’s broader cabinet with the now-defunct small panel of ministers that included moderate ministers Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, who left the emergency government last month.
“There’s a lot of things that, in retrospect, I wish I had been able to convince Israelis to do,” he said.
Reiterating what he told the war cabinet when he visited Israel shortly after October 7, Biden said he warned Israel’s leaders not to “make the same mistake America made after bin Laden.”
“There’s no need to occupy anywhere. Go after the people who did the job… Don’t think that’s what you should be doing, doubling down. We’ll help you find the bad guys — Sinwar and company,” he said.
No 2,000-lb pounds
Referring to another area of disagreement that has cropped up with Israel in recent weeks, and in particular with Netanyahu, Biden doubled down on his decision to withhold a shipment of 2,000-lb bombs.
“I know all this criticism about how I wouldn’t provide the weapons they needed. I’m not providing the 2,000-lb bombs. They cannot be used in Gaza or any populated area without causing great human tragedy and damage,” he said, indicating that he has no plans to remove the hold he placed on the shipment.
Still, he asserted that the US is continuing to help secure Israel in other ways, pointing specifically to the Iranian missile and drone attack that he helped thwart with European and Arab allies in April.
“I was able to unite the Arab nations as well as Europe and nothing happened. It sent an incredible lesson to what was going on for the Middle East,” he said.
‘Day after’ Gaza vision
On his vision for unity in the Middle East, Biden told the press conference that the plan he is pushing for the post-war management of Gaza will begin a process leading to a two-state solution, with Arab nations helping secure the Strip during a transitional period, thereby avoiding the possibility of Israel occupying the enclave following the end of the war.
“There’s no ultimate answer other than a two-state solution,” he said.
“What was able to be done in terms of the plan I put together was that there would be a process for a two-state solution, and we get the Arab nations — from Egypt all the way to Saudi Arabia — to be in a position where they would cooperate in the transition so that they can keep the peace in Gaza without Israeli forces staying in Gaza,” Biden said.
“The question that has been from the beginning [is], what’s the day after in Gaza? And the day after in Gaza has to be… no occupation by Israel of the Gaza Strip, as well as the ability for us to access, get in and out as rapidly as you can all that’s needed there,” he said, apparently referring to a freer flow of humanitarian assistance into the Strip.
Hamas’s control of Gaza is unpopular, Biden said, claiming that — despite recent polls suggesting otherwise — support for the terror group was on the decline among Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
“If you notice, there is a growing dissatisfaction in the West Bank, from the Palestinians, about Hamas. Hamas is not popular now,” he said.
A poll released last month by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) found that overall support for Hamas in the West Bank and Gaza stood at 40 percent, a six-point increase from the previous survey three months ago. Before the war, overall support for Hamas stood at 22%.
In the West Bank, 41% of residents said they support Hamas (compared to 35% three months ago), while 17% support Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party (compared to 12% three months ago).
In the Gaza Strip, support for Hamas today stands at 38% (34% three months ago) and support for Fatah at 24% (25% three months ago).
Biden also claimed, incorrectly that his own polling numbers in Israel were better than in the US. “Look at the numbers in Israel. My numbers are better in Israel than they are here. Then again, they’re better than a lot of other people here too,” Biden said.
A poll published last week on Channel 12 found that 48 percent of Israelis prefer Donald Trump to be the next US president compared to 27% who prefer Biden.
A Washington Post poll of registered American voters published earlier today found Biden and Trump polling at 46%.
Age has ‘created a little bit of wisdom’
Biden’s responses to questions regarding the war in Gaza were detailed and clear, despite several instances throughout the news conference in which his answers appeared to trail off before he had completed his thoughts.
Still, he insisted that he was uniquely qualified to take on Trump later this year, touting his decades of experiences on the world stage to argue his case.
“The only thing age does is create a little bit of wisdom if you pay attention,” said Biden, who is already the oldest person to ever serve as president.
He acknowledged, however, that he needed to “pace himself” a little more than he used to, and complained that his aides sometimes overscheduled him. “I’m catching hell from my wife,” he said.
Biden said his health was in good shape but added that he would take another neurological exam to determine his mental acuity if his doctors recommended it.
The news conference gave the president an opportunity to tout his successes on the world stage at the close of the NATO summit in Washington, where members extended support to Ukraine to combat the invasion that Russian President Vladimir Putin launched in February 2022.
He argued Trump would weaken NATO and drive up prices for US consumers by imposing steep tariffs on imported goods.
He took credit for bringing Sweden and Finland into the alliance and said he brought together 50 nations to support Ukraine.
