US President Biden called Israel PM Netanyahu a ‘bad f-cking guy’, sources reveal

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US President, Joe Biden, reportedly called Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, a “bad f-cking guy”, amid growing frustrations and tensions between the two over Tel Aviv’s ongoing war on the Gaza Strip.

According to a report by Politico, unnamed sources who spoke to Biden recently said that the President has grown increasingly suspicious of Netanyahu over the course of Israel’s war on Gaza – now in its fourth month – even to the point of privately calling him a “bad f-cking guy”.

The report clarified that Biden’s spokesperson, Andrew Bates, denied that took place and claimed that “the president did not say that, nor would he”. The two leaders, he said, maintain a “decades-long relationship that is respectful in public and in private.”

Whether the reports are true or not, the President’s alleged comment highlights the growing frustrations he has with the Israeli Premier over his handling of the war, both due to Netanyahu’s snubbing of American advice to lower the war’s intensity and due to the risks that Israel’s genocide in Gaza pose to the Biden administration’s reputation and electoral points.

READ: Biden puts pressure on Netanyahu to accept long truce in exchange for Saudi normalisation

Despite the White House having fast-tracked the sale of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of munitions and arms to Israel – even bypassing congressional review – and the significant military and diplomatic backing it has given to Tel Aviv throughout the war, Israel has also blamed the US government for a lack in support and for expressing criticism at the scale of Israeli atrocities against Palestinians.

The deepening unpopularity of President Biden amongst his voter base has also turned many White House officials and Democrat political figures against his leniency toward Israel, with a House Democrat telling Politico of a dinner conversation between a diverse group of Democrats last month, in which they agreed that it was “unanimous that this war needed to end now and that Biden needed to stand up to Bibi [Netanyahu]”.

The congressman lamented that the current situation “is a disaster politically”, and that the Party’s “base is really pissed — and it’s not just the leftists. I have never seen such a depth of anguish as I’ve seen over this Gaza issue. Bibi is toxic among many Democratic voters and Biden must distance himself from him — yesterday”.

READ: US federal judge acknowledges Biden administration support for Israel genocide in Gaza, but dismisses case over lack of jurisdiction