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Biden slams Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority in CNN interview
WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Joe Biden blamed increasing tension in the West Bank on the “lost credibility” of the Palestinian Authority as well as on “extremists” in Israel’s government.
In a televised interview on foreign policy with CNN host Fareed Zakaria on Sunday, Biden also again declined to say when he would invite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House. Biden has pushed off scheduling that meeting due to friction between the two men regarding Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners and his government’s plans to weaken the judiciary.
“Bibi, I think, is trying to work through how he can work through his existing problems in terms of his coalition,” Biden said, using Netanyahu’s nickname, after Zakaria asked him what it would take to invite Netanyahu to the White House. “This is one of the most extreme members of cabinets that I have— that I have seen. And I go all the way back to Golda Meir.” (Biden famously met with Meir, then Israel’s prime minister, just prior to the 1973 Yom Kippur War, when he was a freshman senator.)
Netanyahu’s cabinet includes Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister who holds a measure of authority in the West Bank, and Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister. Both stand at the head of far-right parties, and Ben-Gvir has been convicted of terrorism-related offenses. Both evinced some sympathy for settlers who have carried out retaliatory riots in Palestinian villages in recent months, and have called for accelerated Jewish settlement.
In the interview, Biden also discussed the judicial overhaul, which he has criticized. He said it was another factor in considering when Netanyahu would visit. “Hopefully, Bibi will continue to move toward moderation in changing the court,” Biden said. (After months of negotiation between Israeli political factions, Netanyahu’s government appears poised to advance one segment of the reform this week.)
Biden said his government is in constant contact with Israel and noted that Israeli President Isaac Herzog — who has notably criticized Netanyahu’s court initiatives — is visiting later this month.
Biden had criticism for Palestinian leaders as well: He lamented the collapse of authority in parts of the West Bank ostensibly controlled by the Palestinian Authority.
“I think that the fact that the Palestinian Authority has lost its credibility, not necessarily because of what Israel’s done, just because it’s just lost its credibility, number one, and, number two, created a vacuum for extremism in the — among the Palestinians … there are some very extreme elements,” he said.
Biden appeared to echo Israel’s defense of its military raids in Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Bank. Last week, Israeli forces mounted a deadly two-day raid on the city of Jenin in which 12 Palestinians and one Israeli were killed. Israel has said that the Palestinian Authority has all but ceded some areas to armed militants, who are carrying out deadly attacks against Israeli civilians. Since the beginning of the year, more than 150 West Bank Palestinians and more than two dozen Israelis have been killed in the violence.
“So it’s not all [on] Israel now on the West Bank, all Israel’s problem, but they are a part of the problem, and particularly those individuals in the cabinet who say, ‘They have no right to— we— we can settle anywhere we want. They have no right to be here’, et cetera,” Biden said.
“We’re talking with them regularly,” he said, referring to the Netanyahu government, “trying to tamp down what’s going on.”
Biden sounded unusually pessimistic, essentially conceding that the Israeli government does not have the desire, and the Palestinian Authority does not have the means, to return to peace talks, a goal of his Israeli-Palestinian policy. The last serious talks between the sides collapsed in 2014. But Biden said he was still committed to the two-state outcome. “I’m one of those who believes that Israel’s ultimate security rests in a two-state solution.,” he said.
He appeared to be more optimistic about a prize that Netanyahu has sought: Saudi recognition of Israel. Biden suggested that a Saudi condition of establishing relations with Israel was the United States agreeing to help Saudi Arabia acquire nuclear know-how. The country seeks nuclear protection because it, like Israel, fears that Iran may obtain nuclear weapons — though it restored relations with Iran this year.
“I don’t think they have much of a problem with Israel, quite frankly,” Biden said of Saudi Arabia. “And whether or not we would provide a means by which they could have civilian nuclear power and/or be a guarantor of their security, that’s — I think that’s a little way off.”
The interview covered a range of foreign policy topics, including U.S. support for Ukraine and relations with China.
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The post Biden slams Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority in CNN interview appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.