Joe Biden privately slammed Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, called him bad guy, says report

US President Joe Biden has privately slammed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling him a “bad f***ing guy” as the Israel-Hamas war rages and international support for the Jewish nation dwindles.

Politico reported that Biden’s private ripping of Netanyahu was because the US President had grown suspicious of the Israeli Prime Minister. Biden’s deep-seated fear is that Netanyahu is eager to drag the US into a wider war with the Middle East, something that would ensure American weapons continue flowing into Israel, and troops follow soon, and the global pressure to call a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip become a thing of the past.

Joe Biden’s spokesperson Andrew Bates, however, has dismissed the usage of offensive words by the US President, saying he “did not say that, nor would he”. Bates added that Biden and Netanyahu have a “decade-long relationship that is respectful in public and in private”, the Politico report added.

Despite the damage repair, the ties between the two leaders have been on the edge, reaching an all-time worse in December last year when Biden allegedly hung up of Netanyahu during a heated call.

The Politico reported that Biden’s support of the Israeli Prime Minister, who has so far been hell-bent against a Gaza truce, could cost the US President a million liberal votes ahead of the November presidential polls.

Many young democrats look at Israel in a negative light, even as the country pushes on in its counteroffensive against Gaza. A recent YouGov poll, the Politico report added, found that 50 per cent of self-described Joe Biden voters called Israel’s attacks on Gaza “a genocide”.

In fact, a House democrat, quoted in the Politico report, and who called Netanyahu “Bibi” said it was time that Joe Biden stood up to the Israeli Prime Minister.

“It was unanimous that this Israel-Gaza war needed to end now, and that Biden needed to stand up to Bibi,” the Democrat was quoted as saying.

Israel and its closest ally, the US, have been in a disagreement lately over the latter’s push for Palestinian statehood after the Gaza war. In January, Netanyahu declined the prospect of the same and clarified during a press briefing that “Israel must have security control over the entire territory west of the Jordan River”.

Last week, the US said that the country is actively pursuing the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with security guarantees for Israel and exploring options with partners in the region. US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the effort has been an objective of Joe Biden’s administration.

Even so, the two leaders have been majorly vocal about their support for each other.

This has impacted Biden’s path to the US presidential polls in a way. According to the latest New York Times-Siena Poll, Joe Biden is falling short of Republican candidate Donald Trump among young voters. It showed that 49 per cent of registered voters aged 18 to 29 are choosing the Republican over 43 per cent opting for the incumbent US President before their November match-up.

Cumulatively, the poll showed 46 per cent of voters choosing Donald Trump and 44 per cent going for Joe Biden if they were to elect a candidate today.

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