WASHINGTON — President Biden said Tuesday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should “change” his approach to the Palestinian issue, warning that Israel was losing support for its military response to the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack.
Biden made the dramatic demand at a fundraiser hours after making a similar comment during a Monday night Hanukkah celebration at the White House.
“Bibi has got a tough decision to make,” Biden said Tuesday, using the popular nickname for Netanyahu. “This is the most conservative government in Israel’s history.”
The president added that some members of Israel’s national unity government, which includes hardline nationalist and Orthodox parties, “don’t want a two-state solution” to the long-running conflict.
Biden specifically blasted Knesset member Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s national security minister and leader of the Jewish Power party, who has advocated for settlements in Palestinian territories and even defended spitting on Christians as “an ancient Jewish custom.”
“I’ve known every, every, every single head of state in Israel since Golda Meir. And I’ve known them because I’ve spent time with them many times,” Biden said. “And this is a different group. Ben-Gvir and company and the new folks, they don’t want anything remotely approaching a two-state solution.”
“I think he has to change,” Biden said of Netanyahu, “and with this government, this government in Israel is making it very difficult for him to move.”
At an evening press conference in Washington with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Biden was asked about Israel’s military beginning to flood Hamas-dug tunnels in Gaza — despite dozens of hostages, including up to eight Americans, remaining in the region.
“With regard to the flooding of the tunnels… the assertion is being made [by Israel] that they are quite sure there are no hostages in any of these tunnels. I don’t know that for a fact,” Biden said.
Biden said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should “change” his approach to the Palestinian issue POOL/AFP via Getty ImagesNetanyahu, 74, began his third stint as Israel’s prime minister last December. He formed a national unity government shortly after the Oct. 7 attacks, in which Hamas terrorists killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel and abducted to Gaza about 250 others.
The new coalition includes one of Netanyahu’s leading center-left rivals, Benny Gantz, but another, Yair Lapid, declined to join, citing the continued inclusion of certain parties.
The remarks of some Netanyahu coalition members have stoked internal criticism of his government.
The remarks of some Netanyahu allies have stoked internal criticism of his government.
A picture taken in southern Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip on December 11, 2023. AFP via Getty ImagesFor example, Knesset member Galit Distal Atbaryan, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, called after Oct. 7 for Israel to “Erase Gaza from the face of the earth.”
Meanwhile, Netanyahu has acknowledged that he objects to the Biden administration’s goal of having the Palestinian Authority control the Gaza Strip after Hamas is defeated there.
Biden made the remark hours after making a similar comment during a Hanukkah celebration. AP“There is a disagreement when it comes to ‘the day after Hamas,’ and I hope we will come to an agreement here, too,” the prime minister said in a statement Monday night. “I want to clarify my position: I will not allow Israel to repeat the mistake of Oslo.”
“It can’t be that, after the enormous sacrifice of our citizens and fighters, we will let into Gaza those who teach terror, support terror, finance terror,” Netanyahu added. “Gaza will not be Hamas-stan nor Fatah-stan.”
The Israeli leader previously suggested that its forces maintain a security presence in the Palestinian enclave for an “indefinite period” after Hamas is defeated.



