NEWSWEEK
President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have had a complicated and sometimes tense relationship over the years, but Biden has cut the Israeli leader some slack over the Gaza war.
Asked if Netanyahu bears some responsibility for Hamas‘ October 7 attack on Israel, Biden told Time magazine, “I don’t know how any one person has that responsibility.”
“He was the leader of the country, so therefore it happened,” Biden said in the interview, published Tuesday. The president spoke to Time on May 28.
Last October, Hamas militants launched an unexpected attack on Israel, storming into the south of the country and killing 1,200 people and abducting about 250 others. Israel then began airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, and the conflict has escalated over the past eight months, with more than 36,000 Palestinians killed, according to Associated Press reports citing the Gaza Health Ministry.
Biden’s latest remarks about Netanyahu come in stark contrast to what Donald Trump has said. Trump, who is set to take on Biden in a presidential rematch in November, has said that the prime minister “rightfully has been criticized for what took place on October 7.”
