Biden insults Netanyahu, calls him an 'a**hole,' per NBC
The president was reportedly privately expressing his increasing discontent with the Israeli prime minister's stance on the war.
Biden is, as is known, at odds with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's military operations in Gaza. According to anonymous sources close to the president, his frustration reached the point that he began to insult his Israeli counterpart.
After early support for Israel's military response to the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7, the president has expressed his disagreement with Netanyahu several times in public over issues such as the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza and the feasibility of creating a Palestinian state after the war.
Some experts believe that Biden is looking ahead to the elections. The far-left and Muslim bases of the Democratic Party repeatedly condemned his support for Israel, even threatening to deny him the vote in this year's presidential elections. The Democrat, in accordance with this position, is trying to be more combative with Netanyahu and force the war to end as soon as possible. The imminent offensive in Rafah is another point of disagreement.
In a meeting with members of his team and donors, Biden identified the prime minister as the main culprit for his inability to convince Israel to change its war strategy, according to NBC News.
According to the same report, people close to the president heard him refer to the Israeli president with derogatory words such as "this guy" or, on at least three occasions, "a**hole."
"He did say Bibi started off great, but ‘he’s been a pain in my ass lately’ or ‘he’s been killing me lately’ — one of those things," one person recalled of Biden at a fundraiser, according to NBC News.