[EvoFire]

Originally Posted by pastarocket

-interesting details from Bob Woodward's Book about behind the scenes conversations between Biden, Israeli PM Nentanyahu, and between Trump and Putin.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/08/polit...ump/index.html

Conversation between Biden and Benjamin Nentanyahu:

Bibi, you’ve got no strategy’

In the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, Woodward describes the roller-coaster relationship between Biden and Netanyahu. While Biden supported Israel publicly, he fought with Netanyahu behind the scenes over how Israel was conducting the war in Gaza.

“What’s your strategy, man?” Biden asked Netanyahu during an April phone call, Woodward reports.

“We have to go into Rafah,” Netanyahu said.

“Bibi, you’ve got no strategy.” Biden responded.

That same month, Israel launched a strike in Syria that killed a top general in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, prompting Iran to launch more than 100 ballistic missiles in response, the first time that Iran had fired missiles from its territory directly at Israel.

The US, along with Saudi Arabia, Jordan and other US allies, came to IsraelÂ’s defense. While nearly all of the Iranian missiles were intercepted, Netanyahu wanted to retaliate.

Biden told Netanyahu on a call to “take the win,” though the Israeli prime minister pushed back. “You don’t need to make another move. Do nothing,” Biden said.

In the end, Israel launched a limited, calibrated strike against Iran, which Biden considered a win.

“I know he’s going to do something but the way I limit it is tell him to ‘Do nothing,” Biden told his advisers, according to Woodward.

But Bidens frustration with Netanyahu boiled over as the war continued to escalate.

“He’s a fucking liar,” Biden said privately of Netanyahu, after Israel went into Rafah, Woodward writes.

“Bibi, what the fuck?” Biden yelled at Netanyahu in July after an Israeli airstrike killed a top Hezbollah military commander and three civilians in Beirut, according to Woodward.

“You know the perception of Israel around the world increasingly is that you’re a rogue state, a rogue actor,” Biden said to Netanyahu.

Netanyahu responded that the target 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.”

Some of that stuff seems so out of this world I question if it was all dreamt up. But at the same time it seems like a super interesting read.