Former Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Herzog said in an interview that aired on Israeli TV this week that President Biden never pressured Israel to reach a ceasefire in Gaza.
“God did the State of Israel a favor that Biden was the president during this period, because it could have been much worse,” Herzog told Israel’s Channel 13.
“We fought [in Gaza] for over a year, and the administration never came to us and said, ‘ceasefire now.’ It never did. And that’s not to be taken for granted,” Herzog added.
Herzog’s comments contradict claims by President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’s allies that they were “tirelessly working” for a Gaza ceasefire. When a truce deal was reached in January, the incoming Trump administration’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, was seen as the factor that led to the deal, although Israel has since completely violated the agreement with President Trump’s support.
Channel 13 interviewed several former Biden administration officials about Biden’s handling of Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza. Former US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides said that Biden backed Israel all the way despite enormous political pressure.
“This was the most significant political peril of Joe Biden’s political career. The easiest thing for Joe Biden… to do if he was worried about the votes in Michigan, is to basically get a little soft. He refused to do it,” Nides said.
Despite Biden’s commitment, Republicans in the US and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were critical, claiming he wasn’t doing enough to support Israel.
“There was an enormous pressure on [Biden] inside the White House to change his position. So, when I hear comments about [how] he wasn’t good enough, or he didn’t have Israel’s back, am I disgusted by it? 100%. Is it true? 100% no,” Nides added.
The Biden officials said they were frustrated with Netanyahu for attacking the administration for withholding a significant number of weapons, which wasn’t the case. A single shipment of 2,000-pound bombs that the administration was withholding was set to be released in June 2024, but it remained frozen due to Netanyahu’s accusations.
“Yes, we had a disagreement over one shipment, [but] to go out and attack us that way was particularly infuriating,” Ilan Goldenberg, a senior national security aide for the administration, told Channel 13.
Biden often identified himself as a Zionist and a staunch supporter of Israel. Because of that, Nides said the accusations that he wasn’t providing enough support for Israel really “aggravates Biden in a way where you don’t want to be around him when that happens.”
