Any source other than a random twitter account?
The report is legit but of course Hamazians and tankies are twisting it to suit their propaganda purposes
Biden officials vent frustrations in dealing with Netanyahu, decry missed chance of Saudi deal
In interviews with Israeli TV, 9 senior officials from previous US administration speak with unprecedented candor; ex-envoy Shapiro: Saudi deal would have required Israeli election or coalition shuffle
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government missed an opportunity to reach a normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia last year, a top aide to former US president Joe Biden said in an interview that aired Sunday.
The deal would have required a ceasefire and hostage release deal and a willingness on the part of Israel to establish a political horizon for an eventual Palestinian state — something Netanyahu has long rejected and, since Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, has stated would amount to a prize for terrorism.
For their part, Biden officials repeatedly argued that progress toward Palestinian self-determination need not be considered an Israeli concession, as the US and its Arab allies were looking to advance the goal in a way that would isolate Hamas in favor of a reformed Palestinian Authority.
“I don’t understand the decision not to grab that opportunity as the most important strategic move Israel can make,” Amos Hochstein told Channel 13’s “Hamakor” investigative program.
“I think it was missed before. I hope Israel doesn’t miss that opportunity moving forward — even if it means doing things that politically are uncomfortable.”
Hochstein was one of nine senior Biden administration officials interviewed for the Sunday program who took viewers through their frustrations in dealing with Netanyahu’s government throughout the Gaza war.
The former US officials shared their belief that Netanyahu’s refusal to plan for the postwar management of Gaza was a stalling tactic to avoid decisions that risked toppling his government.
They detailed brief deliberations in Washington about having Biden deliver a
speech aimed at potentially spurring an election in Israel, given Netanyahu’s intransigence.
And they revealed that a video posted by Netanyahu accusing the US administration of withholding various weapons transfers for months scuttled a nearly final agreement to release the lone shipment of 2,000-lb bombs that had actually been frozen.
Killing and destroying for the sake of killing and destroying’
Already in those early days, the US tried to guide a shocked Israel in its response to Hamas.
Biden “did raise his concerns that a ground operation in Gaza that was disconnected from any kind of strategic endpoint [and] could end up creating huge problems for Israel,” Sullivan said.
Ilan Goldenberg, a senior national security aide for the administration, said the US envisioned a military campaign that was similar to the one it led against ISIS, where territory was captured and then handed over to the Kurds. The US held talks with Arab allies who expressed willingness to temporarily manage security in Gaza, but they all conditioned this assistance on being able to pass the baton to the PA — a nonstarter for Netanyahu and his far-right coalition partners.
While then-war cabinet ministers Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot backed the US plan, they were overruled by the premier, Goldenberg said.
they’re never going to do this, it doesn’t matter what the outcome is, Hamas is still going to control Gaza,” Goldenberg lamented. “You’re just killing and destroying for the sake of killing and destroying. But you’re not building an alternative.”
Amid the intransigence, Goldenberg said there were discussions held in Washington about having Biden give a speech that would force a reckoning in Israel about how to move forward.
The idea of the speech was for Biden to present Israelis with two paths — one that saw the government aim for a hostage deal that ends the war followed by a normalization deal with Saudi Arabia, and one that continued the current trajectory of endless war and increasing international isolation — and ask the public to decide which they prefer.
The Times of Israel first
revealed this ultimately shelved plan last year.
The goal was to “scramble Israeli politics and see if you can trigger elections,”
Goldenbergsaid.
“There was a real debate about that, but at the end of the day [Biden] was uncomfortable with the idea of going out that directly against Netanyahu,” he said.
Pulling a fast one
Instead, a different primetime speech was given by Biden on May 31, 2024.
Four days earlier, Netanyahu had agreed to a phased framework for a hostage deal that Washington believed was enough to get Hamas on board.
Fearing that the Israeli premier might walk away from the initiative, Biden used
the address to disclose the ceasefire plan that Jerusalem had accepted and call on Hamas to do the same.
www.timesofisrael.com
If you read the rest of the article it’s clear Biden was working towards peace and a long peace with a recognized Palestinian state and Gaza controlled by the Palestinian Authority. Nothing indicates that Biden was attempting to drag the war out.
Blatant misreporting and propagandist hysteria by a bunch of traitors likely being funded by Iran and Russia.
