Biden said to call Netanyahu ‘a f**king liar’ after Israeli troops entered Rafah
According to new book from journalist Bob Woodward, the US president yelled at Israeli PM for having 'no strategy' for operation, said Israel was perceived as a 'rogue state'
US President Joe Biden called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “fucking liar” after IDF troops went into Rafah, and yelled at the premier after an Israeli Air Force strike took out a top Hezbollah commander, according to an upcoming book by US journalist Bob Woodward.
The relationship between the two leaders grew increasingly tense during the spring of 2024, according to CNN, which snagged an advance copy of the book, entitled “War.”
According to the excerpts, during an April phone call, Biden asked Netanyahu: “What’s your strategy, man?”
Netanyahu said Israel had to go into Rafah, the Gaza-Egypt border city that the IDF said had become Hamas’s last stronghold in Gaza.
“Bibi, you’ve got no strategy,” responded Biden, according to Woodward, who also wrote that the US president said Netanyahu “doesn’t give a damn” about Hamas and “only about himself.”
In May, Israeli forces entered Rafah in a limited operation that went more smoothly than the US had predicted, garnering a muted response after months of the White House warning against the move.
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 Netanyahu’s handling of the war and the ongoing hostage negotiations.
After Israel entered Rafah, Biden said of Netanyahu: “He’s a fucking liar.”
“That son of a bitch, Bibi Netanyahu, he’s a bad guy,” said Biden privately, according to Woodward. “He’s a bad fucking guy!”
Politico was the first to report that Biden had been using this phrase to speak about Netanyahu in February, but the White House quickly issued a denial.
In April, Israel allegedly assassinated two Revolutionary Guard generals in an Iranian consular annex in Damascus, Syria. After the US and other allies helped Israel intercept most of the missiles Iran fired in response, Biden urged Netanyahu to “take the win” and refrain from responding.
According to Woodward’s book, Biden considered Israel’s limited response to the Iranian attack a success. “I know he’s going to do something, but the way I limit it is tell him to ‘Do nothing,'” Biden reportedly told advisers.
In July, Israel killed Fuad Shukr, Hezbollah’s top military commander, in an airstrike in Beirut.
“Bibi, what the fuck?” yelled Biden in their next conversation, according to the book. “You know the perception of Israel around the world increasingly is that you’re a rogue state, a rogue actor.”
Shukr played a key role in the bombing of the US Marine Corps barracks in Beirut in 1983, which left 241 US servicemembers dead. The US had a $5 million bounty on Shukr’s head when he was killed.
Woodward also wrote about a meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about normalizing ties with Israel.
Blinken asked about whether the Saudis insisted on a Palestinian state as the price of normalization.
“Do I want it?” asked bin Salman. “It doesn’t matter that much. Do I need it? Absolutely.”
Woodward is most famous for being part of the investigative team that exposed the “Watergate” scandal in 1972 that eventually led to the resignation of US president Richard Nixon.