Biden: Bibi is a pain in my a**
President’s fury exposed as world warns Israel against striking Rafah
JOE Biden has privately called Benjamin Netanyahu an ‘a ***** e’ over his handling of the war in Gaza, it was claimed last night.
The US president said the Israeli prime minister has been ‘giving him hell’ by refusing to agree to a ceasefire and for ordering air strikes on Rafah in southern Gaza.
Mr Biden even believes that Mr Netanyahu, nicknamed Bibi, wants to drag the war out so he can stay in power, US TV network
NBC News claimed.
The forthright comments came as UK foreign secretary David Cameron warned Israel to ‘stop and think seriously before it takes any further action’ in Gaza.
Mr Cameron said the one million-plus Palestinians sheltering in Rafah have ‘nowhere to go’ after airstrikes flattened the northern part of the Gaza Strip, forcing them to flee south.
Mr Biden’s fury comes as the war enters its fifth month with Israel vowing to press on into Rafah despite Gaza’s population already suffering ‘near famine-like conditions’, according to the UN.
Israel’s military said it conducted a ‘wave of attacks’ on Rafah to give cover to soldiers who freed two hostages held by Hamas. At least 67 people were killed with dozens injured in the bombings, the health ministry in Gaza said.
NBC reported that Mr Biden has referred to Mr Netanyahu as an ‘a ***** e’ at least three times during private meetings in recent weeks.
The president said the Israeli leader has ‘been killing me lately’ and has been ‘giving him hell’ over the refusal to end the conflict.
Mr Biden is said to be finding Mr Netanyahu impossible to deal with, and feels he keeps coming up with good proposals to end the conflict, only for Israel to reject them.
They include the latest plan, brokered by Saudi Arabia, involving exchanges of hostages and prisoners plus a
three-stage, pause in fighting.
One person present during a rant by Mr Biden said that the president dismissively referred to Mr Netanyahu as ‘this guy’.
The source added: ‘He did say Bibi started off great but “he’s been a pain in my a** lately” or “he’s been killing me lately” – one of those things.’
In what NBC called some of Mr Biden’s ‘rawest private moments’, he claimed Mr Netanyahu was using the war to cling on to his position amid ongoing anger at his 45-day attempt to water down the power of the judiciary as a check on his government.
Mr Biden has called himself a ‘Zionist’ and has long supported Israel, even giving Mr Netanyahu a bear hug after the Hamas attacks on October 7. But his patience has worn thin as the civilian death toll – now 28,000 – has mounted. Last week the US president called the assault on Rafah ‘over the top’.
The US National Security Council said in a statement: ‘The president has been clear where he disagrees with Prime Minister Netanyahu, but this is a decades-long relationship that is respectful in public and in private.’
Reports from Rafah have painted an apocalyptic picture with one young girl, Daiana Albukhari, telling Sky News she fears the Israeli advance will be a ‘massacre’.
Mr Cameron, speaking on a visit to East Kilbride, Scotland, said he was ‘very concerned about what is happening’ in Gaza.
He added: ‘It really, we think, is impossible to see how you can fight a war among these people, there is nowhere for them to go.
‘They can’t go south into Egypt, they can’t go north and back to their homes because many have been destroyed. So we are very concerned about the situation and we want Israel to stop and think seriously before it takes any further action.’ In another sign of the mood shifting, Britain imposed sanctions on four Israeli settlers accused of committing human rights abuses against Palestinians in the West Bank. The UK Foreign Office said the sanctions were in response to ‘unprecedented levels’ of violence by settlers in the West Bank over the past year.