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‘Bibi, What the F—k?’ New Book Reveals Details of Biden and Netanyahu’s Strained Relationship
US President Joe Biden, left, pauses during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, to discuss the war between Israel and Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Oct. 18, 2023. Photo: Miriam Alster/Pool via REUTERS
Veteran journalist Bob Woodward reveals new details about the strained relationship between US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s over the past year in a new book.
Woodward, a prominent investigative journalist, is coming out with a new book titled War on Oct. 15. In it, he reveals just how deep the fracture has become in the relationship between the current leaders of the US and Israel, according to CNN, which obtained an advanced copy of the work.
A striking moment came after Israel killed Fuad Shakr, a top Hezbollah terrorist who was also instrumental in killing hundreds of Americans in the Beirut bombing in 1983, in Lebanon in July. There was a bounty for millions of dollars put on him by the US.
“Bibi, what the f—k?” Biden yelled at Netanyahu after the strike, according to CNN’s reporting of Woodward’s book. “You know the perception of Israel around the world increasingly is that you’re a rogue state, a rogue actor.”
Netanyahu responded that the target of the strike was “one of the leading terrorists.”
“We saw an opportunity and took it,” Netanyahu said. “The harder you hit, the more successful you’re going to be in the negotiation.”
But the problems started well before July. After Biden pushed hard for Israel not to enter the southern Gaza city of Rafah to fight Hamas terrorists — and Israel conducted major ground operations there anyway — Biden reportedly exclaimed, “He’s a f—king liar,” speaking about Netanyahu.
When discussing the decision about whether to go into Rafah, Biden said to Netanyahu, “What’s your strategy, man?”
Netanyahu reportedly evaded giving specifics, opting instead to say, “We have to go into Rafah” — which prompted Biden to retort, “Bibi, you’ve got no strategy.”
Biden reportedly saw his job as reigning in Israeli responses to attacks from foreign terrorists and countries such as Iran. After Iran launched a large barrage of ballistic and cruise missiles — along with drones — at Israel in April, CNN reported that Biden told Israel: “You don’t need to make another move. Do nothing,” in response to the major attack.
Reflecting on his strategy, he told his advisers, according to Woodward, “I know he’s going to do something, but the way I limit it is tell him to ‘Do nothing.’”
A similar situation is arising again now, in the aftermath of Iran’s major ballistic missile attack on Israel last week, which featured 181 missiles and came in response to Israel assassinating major Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist leaders in Lebanon and Iran.
The United States is worried that Israel’s response could trigger a wider war — particularly if Israel targets Iran’s nuclear facilities. Consequently, Netanyahu and Biden spoke on the phone on Wednesday.
White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre called the call “direct and productive,” but did not give additional details.
This was the first time the two leaders spoke since August, underscoring the worsening relationship between them.
Netanyahu also spoke with former US President Donald Trump. Netanyahu’s team said Trump “congratulated him on the intense and determined operations that Israel carried out against Hezbollah.”
The post ‘Bibi, What the F—k?’ New Book Reveals Details of Biden and Netanyahu’s Strained Relationship first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels
View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90.
i24 News – Sweden will no longer fund the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) and will instead provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via other channels, the Scandinavian country said on Friday.
The decision comes on the heels of multiple revelations regarding the agency’s employees’ involvement in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Sweden’s decision was in response to the Israeli ban, as it will make channeling aid via the agency more difficult, the country’s aid minister, Benjamin Dousa, said.
“Large parts of UNRWA’s operations in Gaza are either going to be severely weakened or completely impossible,” Dousa said. “For the government, the most important thing is that support gets through.”
The Palestinian embassy in Stockholm said in a statement: “We reject the idea of finding alternatives to UNRWA, which has a special mandate to provide services to Palestinian refugees.”
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel thanked Dousa for a meeting they had this week and for Sweden’s decision to drop its support for UNRWA.
“There are worthy and viable alternatives for humanitarian aid, and I appreciate the willingness to listen and adopt a different approach,” she said.
The post Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Pope Calls Gaza Airstrikes ‘Cruelty’ After Israeli Minister’s Criticism
Pope Francis waves after delivering his traditional Christmas Day Urbi et Orbi speech to the city and the world from the main balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, December 25, 2021. Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi
Pope Francis on Saturday again condemned Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, a day after an Israeli government minister publicly denounced the pontiff for suggesting the global community should study whether the military offensive there constitutes a genocide of the Palestinian people.
Francis opened his annual Christmas address to the Catholic cardinals who lead the Vatican’s various departments with what appeared to be a reference to Israeli airstrikes on Friday that killed at least 25 Palestinians in Gaza.
“Yesterday, children were bombed,” said the pope. “This is cruelty. This is not war. I wanted to say this because it touches the heart.”
The pope, as leader of the 1.4-billion-member Roman Catholic Church, is usually careful about taking sides in conflicts, but he has recently been more outspoken about Israel’s military campaign against Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
In book excerpts published last month, the pontiff said some international experts said that “what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide.”
Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli sharply criticized those comments in an unusual open letter published by Italian newspaper Il Foglio on Friday. Chikli said the pope’s remarks amounted to a “trivialization” of the term genocide.
Francis also said on Saturday that the Catholic bishop of Jerusalem, known as a patriarch, had tried to enter the Gaza Strip on Friday to visit Catholics there, but was denied entry.
The patriarch’s office told Reuters it was not able to comment on the pope’s remarks about the patriarch being denied entry.
Israeli officials were not immediately reachable for comment on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, and the Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The post Pope Calls Gaza Airstrikes ‘Cruelty’ After Israeli Minister’s Criticism first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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IDF Pledges to Implement Lessons from Failure to Intercept Houthi Missile
Iranian-backed Yemeni terrorist leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi. Photo: Screenshot
i24 News – The Israeli military said on Saturday that while the investigation into the failure to intercept the missile that hit Tel Aviv early in the morning was still ongoing, some lessons were already being implemented. The ballistic missile, fired by Yemen’s Houthi jihadists, landed at a playground in a residential area, leading to 16 people sustaining injuries from glass shards.
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson said that “some of the conclusions have already been implemented, in regards of both interception and early warning.”
The spokesperson added that “no further details regarding aerial defense activities and the alert system can be disclosed due to operational security considerations.”
The Houthis have repeatedly fired drones and missiles towards Israel in what they describe as “acts of solidarity” with Palestinians in Gaza.
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