From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, February 6, 2024
Ben Gvir’s son implies Biden has Alzheimer’s, suffers cognitive decline; far-right minister apologizes
The son of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir causes a storm after he likens US President Joe Biden to an Alzheimer’s patient, implying that he is suffering cognitive decline.
Shuvael Ben Gvir tweets a photo of Biden, writing “in these difficult times it is important to raise awareness of Alzheimer’s, a degenerative brain disease that is the most common cause of cognitive decline and dementia.”
“A serious disease that affects a person’s functions and ability,” he writes.
The far-right minister later apologizes for his son’s post, writing that it was a “serious mistake with a tweet I deeply disapprove of.”
“The United States of America is our great friend and President Biden is a friend of Israel. Even if I have a disagreement with his conduct, there is no room, God forbid, for a disparaging style,” Ben Gvir writes. “I apologize for my son’s words.”
A couple of minutes later, the minister’s son also apologizes, tweeting a picture of Biden with the sentence “Mr President, sorry!”
The tweet and subsequent apologies come two days after an interview with Ben Gvir was published by the Wall Street Journal, in which the Otzma Yehudit leader harshly criticized the Biden administration’s handling of the war in Gaza, accusing it of benefitting Hamas and arguing that Israel would have been better off dealing with a second Trump administration.
The interview was not the first time Ben Gvir has criticized Biden and the US. He recently declared that Israel was “not another star in the American flag.”
