‘Bibi, you’ve got no strategy’: Biden said to yell at Netanyahu, and call him ‘liar’ and ‘son of a bitch’

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 had become Hamas’s last stronghold in Gaza.

“Bibi, you’ve got no strategy,” responded Biden, according to Woodward.

In May, Israeli forces entered Rafah in a limited operation that went far more smoothly than the US had predicted.

Also in April, Israel allegedly assassinated two Revolutionary Guard generals in the Iranian embassy in Damascus, Syria. After the US and other allies helped Israel intercept most of the missiles Iran fired in response, Biden urged Netanyahu to not respond and to “take the win.”

According to the 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 told advisers.

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 talk about Netanyahu in February, but the White House quickly issued a denial.

In July, Israel took out Fuad Shukr, Hezbollah’s top military commander.

“Bibi, what the fuck?” yelled Biden in their next conversation. “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 writes about US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s meeting with 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.”