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Biden claims Netanyahu ‘hurting’ Israel, wants to address Knesset

Biden wants to pitch plans for post-war Gaza to Knesset, slams potential invasion of Rafah.

By World Israel News Staff

President Joe Biden claimed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the ongoing war in Gaza is damaging Israel in an interview with MSNBC on Saturday evening, adding that he wished to speak to members of the Knesset to push for a change in the conflict’s management and plans for the post-war Strip.

Biden said that Netanyahu is “hurting Israel more than helping Israel,” due to the number of civilian lives lost during the current war.

Notably, Biden uncritically accepted the claim from the Hamas-controlled Gazan Health Ministry that some 30,000 civilians had been killed – a number which cannot be confirmed by neutral sources, and likely includes a significant number of Hamas terrorists.

The number of civilian deaths is “contrary to what Israel stands for, and I think it’s a big mistake,” Biden said.

He expressed his willingness to speak to the Knesset in order to convince Israeli lawmakers to reconsider the strategy towards the war, as well as discourage a post-conflict scenario in which Israel has administrative control of the Strip.

Netanyahu has repeatedly expressed that Israel will retain security control over the coastal enclave after major hostilities have ended, which would presumably mean leaving Israeli troops on the ground indefinitely — a concept which has been unpalatable to the Biden administration.

Additionally, Netanyahu and members of his wartime cabinet have said that the Israeli army will launch an offensive in Rafah, a city in the southern Strip which is widely believed to be the last major stronghold of Hamas.

In the interview, Biden referred to an incursion into Rafah as a “red line” and said that the U.S. would not support the move. However, he also added that he is “never going to leave Israel. The defense of Israel is still critical.”

He said that there was no line in the sand after which his administration was “going to cut off our weapons so that they don’t have the Iron Dome [missile defense system] to protect them.”