President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “stop bullshitting me” during their phone conversation, according to a report said Saturday evening.
Biden reportedly said, “Stop bullshitting me” after Netanyahu claimed that negotiations in Israel were “progressing” and that “a delegation will depart.”
Israel’s Channel 12 news reported, without citing sources, that the outburst had come after Netanyahu told Biden that Israel was moving forward with negotiations on a hostages-for-ceasefire deal with Hamas and would soon send a delegation to resume talks.
Those talks have been ongoing for many months without results, and Biden has previously opined that Netanyahu has been intentionally stalling for internal political reasons.
The war has disrupted a trial in Israel’s court system, where Netanyahu has been charged with fraud, bribery and breach of trust in three cases filed in 2019. He can be sentenced to up to 10 years in jail and/or a fine if convicted in a bribery case.
Netanyahu, who faced months of protests against his controversial judicial overhaul plan, was accused of using the legislation to circumvent his legal troubles.
Since Hamas retaliated against Israel over outrageous human rights violations in connection with a Jerusalem mosque during the 2022 holy month of Ramadan, with a daring terrorist attack that killed more than 1000 Israeli citizens and kidnapped hundreds more, Netanyahu ordered a brutal military assault that has killed about 40,000 Palestinians.
Three quarters of the victims in Gaza were women and children.
Netanyahu has been accused of prolonging the conflict to delay his removal from power and possibly a prison sentence that looms in his future.
The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor has requested arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, on suspicion of war crimes.
Biden has suffered domestic political costs over his policies that have supplied weapons used in the bloody Gaza genocide.
Two recent conversations between Netanyahu and Biden have been described as “difficult and tense” by sources that are close to the proceedings.
A senior Biden administration official told Haaretz on Saturday that Netanyahu is ungrateful toward the United States and disregards the significant amount of aid it has provided to Israel throughout the past 10 months of war.
The complex relationship between Israel and Palestinian people has been a matter of great conflict since the United Nations settled on a plan championed by the great powers after World War II that established the Jewish state.
The Biblical homeland of the Jews had been occupied by Great Britain in the years following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I.
The official also said that the last two conversations between President Joe Biden and Netanyahu – one during a meeting at the White House some 10 days ago, the other over the phone last week – were difficult and tense.
“Biden realized that Netanyahu was lying to him about the hostages,” the official told Haaretz. “He’s not saying it publicly yet, but in the meeting between them, he specifically told him, ‘Stop bullshitting me.'”
One official said that the U.S. is preparing to help Israel in the face of Iran and Hezbollah’s response to the assassinations that Israel carried out last week in Beirut and Tehran – despite the tension between the two leaders – but made it clear that there would be no American backing for moves that would further expand the scope of the conflict.
Israeli defense chiefs revealed that Netanyahu is not interested in a hostage deal/cease-fire with Hamas.
A senior member of the Israeli negotiating team told Haaretz on Friday the Prime Minister had a tense exchange with the defense chiefs, in which Shin Bet head Ronen Bar said, “It feels like the prime minister doesn’t want the framework that’s on the table.”
Turning to Netanyahu, Bar added that if that is the case, “you should tell us.”
The head of the Missing and Captive Soldiers Division in the IDF, Maj. Gen. (res.) Nitzan Alon, was quoted telling Netanyahu: “You know that all the parameters you’ve added [to the framework] will not be accepted and there will be no deal.”
Mossad chief David Barnea stressed to Netanyahu, “There is a deal on the table. If we delay, we could miss the opportunity. We have to take it.”
“Netanyahu is trying to prolong the war instead of focusing on how to get to a hostage deal,” the American senior official said. “It’s making it harder for us to continue supporting Israel over time.”
According to published reports, Biden ended the conversation by stating, “Don’t take the president for granted,” the Israeli paper Haaretz reported.
Netanyahu responded by telling Biden ‘not to interfere in Israeli politics’