Biden recalls telling Netanyahu in October 2023: ‘You can’t be carpet bombing’ Gaza
Outgoing US president says he doesn’t believe ‘my friend’ Netanyahu held up hostage talks for political reasons, says PM must accommodate ‘legitimate concerns’ of Palestinians

Outgoing US President Joe Biden recalled in an interview Thursday a conversation he had with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shortly after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught in which he told the Israeli premier, “You can’t be carpet bombing these communities.”
In an interview with MSNBC, he said that Netanyahu then countered that the US had used nuclear bombs in civilian areas in World War Two.
“I said: ‘But that’s why we came up with the UN,’” Biden recalled responding.
“And he made a legitimate argument, his perspective, and said, ‘Look, these are the guys that killed my people,’” Biden said, adding that he doesn’t believe Netanyahu held up negotiations to achieve a hostage-ceasefire deal with the terror group for his own political interests.
“I do think he’s in a position where, even now, it takes a lot of courage and to take on that coalition he has, because they could vote him out of office tomorrow,” the outgoing US president said.
Biden additionally said that Netanyahu “has to find a way to accommodate the legitimate concerns” of Palestinians for the long-term sustainability of Israel.
Biden: And I said, “Bibi, you can't be carpet bombing these communities.” And he said to me, “well, you did it, you carpet bombed.” Not his exact words, but “you carpet bombed Berlin. You dropped a nuclear weapon.” pic.twitter.com/S0loEkO0aJ
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 17, 2025
“And the idea that Israel is going to be able to sustain itself for the long term without accommodating the Palestinian question … It’s not going to happen,” said Biden. US President-elect Donald Trump will be inaugurated on Monday.
“And I kept reminding my friend, and he is a friend, although we don’t agree a whole lot lately, Bibi Netanyahu, that he has to find a way to accommodate the legitimate concerns of a large group of people called Palestinians, who have no place to live independently.”
Ties between Biden and Netanyahu have been notably rocky during their shared time in office.
Though the pair have known each other for decades, the White House was sharply critical of the prime minister forming a coalition with incendiary far-right figures in late 2022, and expressed deep concern about the government’s judicial overhaul plans in 2023.

Biden became the first US president in history to visit Israel during a time of war, touching down in Tel Aviv on October 18, 2023, and expressing deep solidarity with the country and its people. But over the past year, the two leaders have publicly and privately sparred over the war and the ongoing hostage negotiations.
Biden has reportedly called Netanyahu an “asshole” and a “fucking liar,” and has told staff that he’s “a bad guy,” according to a book by US journalist Bob Woodward.
Netanyahu, for his part, has criticized the Biden administration’s judgment and policies — notably over weapons shipments and criticism over Israel’s military actions — at major junctions during the war, claiming that Biden’s counsel throughout the war was repeatedly off-mark.

The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led terrorists stormed the border, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.
According to Hamas-run health authorities in Gaza, more than 46,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 18,000 combatants in battle as of November and another 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
Israel has also said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 407.