Biden: There’s a lot I wish I’d been able to convince the Israelis to do
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
US President Joe Biden acknowledges that he has been frustrated with the Israeli government at times over its handling of the war in Gaza.
He recalls his visit to Israel days after “the massacres that occurred at the hands of Hamas” on October 7 — a trip that saw him convince Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow aid into Gaza after imposing a siege on the Strip during the first weeks of the war.
“We pushed [getting aid in] really hard. Israel occasionally was less than cooperative,” Biden says.
“I know Israel well, and I support Israel, but his war cabinet is one of the most conservative war cabinets in the history of Israel,” he continues, apparently confusing the broader cabinet with the now-defunct small panel of ministers that included moderate ministers Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, who left the emergency government last month.
“There’s a lot of things that in retrospect, I wish I had been able to convince Israelis to do,” he says.
