image source, Reuters
We begin our tour with the British newspaper The Guardian and a report entitled “Biden says he and Netanyahu need to meet Jesus.”
The report addresses an audio leak that accidentally occurred to President Biden, during a private meeting with officials after he delivered the State of the Union address last Thursday.
The report believes that the audio clip shows Joe Biden’s continued growing frustration with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as the US President was heard over a microphone saying that he and the Israeli Prime Minister would need to “come to the Jesus meeting.”
In the American dialect, this expression means a serious meeting for frankness, in which one of the parties comes to their senses, or realizes important facts that they did not realize.
Biden’s comments came while speaking with Democratic Senator from Colorado, Michael Bennet, on the House floor in Washington after his State of the Union address on Thursday evening.
In return, Bennett congratulated Biden on his speech and urged the president to maintain pressure on Netanyahu regarding the growing humanitarian concerns in Gaza. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg were also part of the brief conversation, according to the report.
Biden then responded, using Netanyahu’s nickname, saying: “I told him, Bibi (Netanyahu’s nickname)… You and I are going to have a ‘Come Meet Jesus’ meeting.
An aide to the president standing nearby then spoke quietly into the president’s ear, apparently alerting Biden that the microphones remained on while he spoke.
“I’m talking with the microphone still on here. Good. That’s good,” Biden said after being alerted.
The report stated: “Biden has become increasingly vocal about his frustration with the Netanyahu government’s unwillingness to open more land crossings for badly needed aid to reach Gaza.”
He added: “In his speech on Thursday, Biden called on the Israelis to make more efforts to alleviate the suffering even as they try to eliminate Hamas.”
Biden said: “To Israel I say this: humanitarian assistance cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining chip.”
We turn to the Times of Israel newspaper and a report entitled “Biden says Netanyahu is doing more harm to Israel than good, and he is ready to deliver a speech before the Knesset,” written by Yaaqoub Majid.
The report addresses US President Joe Biden’s meeting with the American channel MSNBC on Saturday, in which he “sought to prove that Israel must significantly change its course in the war against Hamas in Gaza, indicating that he is ready to return to… Israel and to speak before the Knesset in order to do so.”
In a strongly worded interview with the American channel, Biden highlighted deep American concerns about the killing of civilians in Gaza, stressed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is doing more harm to Israel and its interests than good, and described the planned Israeli army operation in Rafah in southern Gaza as a “red line.” According to the report.
The report says: “With growing divisions between the United States and Israel over the war, some left-leaning pundits urged Biden to bypass Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-line government and speak directly to the Israeli public — in the Knesset or elsewhere — capitalizing on his popularity after his state of the art speech. “Union to try to promote the American vision to end the war in Gaza.”
This vision begins with an extended truce based on a prisoner and hostage exchange deal, followed by Arab stakeholders helping to reconstruct the Gaza Strip, the return of a reformed Palestinian Authority to rule the Gaza Strip, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia normalizing its relations with Israel, establishing a path towards a Palestinian state, and strengthening a broader regional alliance. Against Iran, according to the newspaper.
In response to a question about his willingness to return to Israel and deliver a speech before the Knesset, Biden answered “yes” without going into further details.
When asked whether this should be at the invitation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or President Isaac Herzog, Biden replied: “I would prefer not to discuss it further.”
The newspaper saw that the interview witnessed the first time that Biden revealed any intention to take this long-term step (addressing the Knesset), as well as his continued use of more aggressive rhetoric against Israel. This language has intensified since February 29, when dozens of Palestinians were killed while trying to collect humanitarian aid in Gaza City, where law and order collapsed amid desperate conditions, according to the report.
The US President stressed that Israel has “the right to continue pursuing Hamas,” but Netanyahu must pay more attention to innocent civilians caught in the crossfire.
Biden said that ignoring the lives lost “goes against what Israel believes in, and I think that is a big mistake.”
The report added: “The president asserted that Netanyahu is hurting Israel more than helping it, and appeared to repeat the argument he has made in the past that the prime minister is losing the battle for public opinion around the world, before jumping to make a different point – something that happened several times in the interview.” .
The report continued: “Turning to his post-war plans, Biden said that he is working, first, to secure a ceasefire for six weeks, and we hope that this will be by the month of Ramadan, which begins on Monday.”
The Israeli newspaper’s report monitored fluctuations and decline in Biden’s statements during the interview, as he described Israel’s plans to carry out a ground attack on the city of Rafah as a red line, “but then he seemed to retreat, saying: I will never abandon Israel. Defending Israel is still crucial. There is no A red line at which I will cut off our weapons (to Israel) so that they do not have the Iron Dome (missile defense system) to protect them.”
“A slip of the tongue or boredom on the part of Netanyahu?”
image source, Reuters
Finally, we conclude our tour from Al-Arab newspaper, with an article entitled “Biden’s red line on Gaza… a slip of the tongue or boredom with Netanyahu?”
The article addresses President Biden’s previously mentioned interview with MSNBC, in which he described a large-scale Israeli attack on Rafah as a red line.
The report stated: “Biden said: ‘This is a red line,’ but he quickly backtracked, saying there is no red line and ‘I will never abandon Israel.’” He added, “Defending Israel remains of the utmost importance.” “There is no red line within which I want to stop arms shipments completely,” because then the Israelis would not be “protected by Iron Dome.”
Biden added, “There are red lines… It is not possible for another 30,000 Palestinians to die.”
“There are other ways to deal with the shock caused by Hamas,” Biden said, referring to the group’s October 7 attack in southern Israel, which Israel says killed 1,200 people.
According to the American website Axios, Biden’s statements in the interview are considered another sign that the president’s patience with Netanyahu’s government is running out, according to the article.
The US President stressed that Netanyahu “must pay more attention to the innocent lives lost as a result of the measures taken.”
Biden said: “I sat with the man (Netanyahu) and said to him, ‘Look, do not repeat the same mistake that the United States made. The United States made a mistake (even though) we pursued (Osama) bin Laden until we got to him, but we should not have entered Iraq.’” “And Afghanistan. This was unnecessary, and it caused more problems than it solved.”
The article considered that Biden’s contradictory speech, which he quickly retracted, raises questions about whether these statements were a new slip of the tongue for the American president, who has been haunted by these slips recently, and is disturbing his path to the White House.
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