Biden recalls telling Netanyahu in October 2023: ‘You can’t be carpet-bombing these communities’

US President Joe Biden recalls in an interview 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 says 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 recalls responding.

“And he made a legitimate argument, his perspective, and said, ‘Look, these are the guys that killed my people,’” he says, 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 says.

Netanyahu’s office confirmed earlier this morning that the Israeli and Hamas negotiating teams had signed the deal in Doha. The security cabinet is set to meet this morning to approve the agreement. National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir announced last night that his far-right party will leave the government if the deal is passed.

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