Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with President Biden on Sunday for the first time since the US leader called Israel’s war on Hamas “over the top” — and as Israel preps for its controversial ground invasion of Rafah.
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with President Biden on Sunday for the first time since the US leader called Israel’s war on Hamas “over the top” — and as Israel preps for its controversial ground invasion of Rafah.
The 45-minute phone call came after Netanyahu told “Fox News Sunday” that he had not spoken to his supposedly close ally since Thursday, when Biden openly criticized the prime minister’s war campaign against the Palestinian terror group Hamas — with Bibi defiantly adding that America would be doing far worse under similar circumstances.
“I don’t know exactly what he meant by that,” Netanyahu claimed of Biden saying last week, “I am of the view that the conduct of the response in the Gaza Strip has been over the top.
“Look, we were attacked in the worst attack on Jewish people since the Holocaust,” Netanyahu said. “That Oct. 7 massacre was equivalent to 20 9/11s in one day and the equivalent of 50,000 Americans slaughtered, burned, maimed, raped, beheaded, and 10,000 Americans taken hostage, including mothers and children.
“So, what would America’s response be? I would say it would be at least as strong as Israel’s and many Americans tell me, ‘We would have flattened them. We would have turned them into dust,’ ” Netanyahu added.
The two leaders finally spoke again Sunday afternoon to discuss Israel’s war effort and the need to free the hostages held by Hamas, with Biden specifically urging the Jewish nation to mitigate the civilian casualties in Gaza as it continues to try to destroy the terror network, according to the White House.
The president cautioned Israel not to proceed into the southern Gazan city of Rafah “without a credible and executable plan for ensuring the safety of and support for the more than one million people sheltering there.
