President Biden on Saturday said that the U.S. doesn’t have a “red line” with Israel over its actions in the war with Hamas that would leave the Middle Eastern country unprotected.
“I am never going to leave Israel,” the president told MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart in a wide-ranging interview. “The defense of Israel is still critical. There’s no red line [where] I’m going to cut off all weapons, so they don’t have the Iron Dome to protect them.”
Biden was clarifying a hot mic comment from Thursday night after delivering the State of the Union address in which he was caught saying he planned a “come-to-Jesus” talk with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his handling of the war.
President Biden said he thinks Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “hurting Israel more than he’s helping,” in the Gaza war but vowed the U.S. would never stop supporting the country. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP)
“He has a right to defend Israel, a right to continue to pursue Hamas, but he must, he must, he must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken,” Biden told Capehart.
He said in “his view” that Netanyahu is “hurting Israel more than he’s helping Israel … It’s contrary to what he stands for. I think it’s a big mistake so I want to see a ceasefire.”
The president added that he was aiming for a “major, major” exchange of hostages over a six-week period heading into the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which starts Monday.
That appears increasingly unlikely as Hamas has balked at a deal pushed by the U.S. and its allies that would have seen fighting paused along with the release of additional hostages held by Hamas and Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, and a surge in humanitarian aid into Gaza.
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The president added, however, there would be “red lines…
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