Netanyahu says Biden’s counsel throughout the war was repeatedly off mark

Speaking in the Knesset plenum nearly two weeks after the US election, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly criticizes the Biden administration’s judgment and policies at major junctions in Israel’s ongoing war against Iran and its proxies.

“The US objected, had reservations, expressed opposition, it did not threaten, it did not apply sanctions, not at that time,” he says. “It expressed reservations and suggested that we not go in on the ground. It said, ‘It can be handled from the air.'” It sent experts. We decided to follow our view and go in, a ground offensive.”

The US, adds Netanyahu, also opposed going into Gaza City, the city’s Shifa Hospital, Khan Younis, and especially Rafah.

Biden officials had publicly urged Israel to calibrate its Rafah offensive to minimize civilian harm.

“President Biden told me that if we go in, we will be alone,” he claims. “He also said that he would stop shipments of important weapons to us. And so he did. A few days later, [US Secretary of State Antony] Blinken appeared and repeated the same things and I told him — we will fight with our fingernails.”

The US withheld a single shipment of 2,000-lb bombs, allowing all other weapon transfers to continue.

Netanyahu notes that the US “helped us significantly” at the beginning of the war, and the Biden visited Israel.

The premier criticizes voices in Israel who urged him to heed Washington’s directives, and those who pushed for an end to the war.

Netanyahu criticizes US positions after Iran’s drone and missile attacks on Israel. “Again, we were told by our friend that there is no need to respond. And I said that sitting and not reacting is not acceptable, and we responded.”

The prime minister says that Israel’s response took out air defense batteries and “inflicted real damage on Iran’s ballistic missile production capability.”

On attempts to reach a ceasefire in Lebanon, Netanyahu says that “the important thing is not the piece of paper.”

“In order to ensure security in the north, we have to take systematic action against Hezbollah attacks that could come,” he argues. “This is not only our reaction, but our ability to prevent Hezbollah’s ability to build up its power.”

Netanyahu’s address is interrupted repeatedly by opposition lawmakers and by protesters in the gallery who laid out posters with the faces of hostages held in Gaza. Some are ejected by Knesset security.

Netanyahu says he met with aides and members of security services until 3 a.m. last night to discuss new ways to get hostages home.

Netanyahu says the focus now, after destroying the vast majority of Hamas’s organized military structure, is on harming Hamas’s ability to rule Gaza — a claim he has made for months.

“I asked the IDF to come up with an orderly plan to eradicate the governmental capacity, which is related to the denial of their ability to distribute humanitarian aid,” he says. “We want to ensure that the humanitarian aid is not looted by Hamas and others.”

As he has done repeatedly in recent weeks, Netanyahu blasts the “countless leaks from the cabinet and the negotiating team.”

“The leaks seriously harm the chance of obtaining a deal for the release of hostages, they delay the release of our hostages,” he says.

He denounces leaks that he says help Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah, and says “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

He refers to the ongoing investigation of the alleged theft of IDF intelligence documents and the alleged leak of one of the documents by his former aide Eli Feldstein, who has been in detention for three weeks: “They are destroying the lives of young people.”

He implies that there is a discriminatory focus in what the law enforcement authorities choose to investigate, saying: “I have called time after time for the phenomenon [of leaks from the cabinet and negotiating team] to be investigated. I asked, how can it be that leaks that cause immense damage to the State of Israel are not investigated? … I was told: You need to send a letter. So I sent a letter, setting out a range of terrible, criminal leaks, that do tremendous harm to Israel.”

He continues, “And yet, as of this moment, nobody has been investigated and nobody has been arrested [for those leaks]. Nobody’s life has been ruined,” he says, another implied reference to the ongoing detention of Feldstein. “Everybody understands what’s going on here. Nobody is stupid. The public is not stupid… The people are not stupid.”