Biden memoir says Netanyahu broke repeated promises on civilian harm in Gaza

Former United States president Joe Biden writes in a forthcoming memoir that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly told him Israel would do more to protect civilians in Gaza and then failed to follow through. The Times of Israel reported the passages, which come from an advance copy of the book, titled 'Promise me, America', that was obtained by CNN. According to those excerpts, Biden says he urged Israel to take precautions to limit civilian suffering from the start of the war, and raised the matter privately with Netanyahu on many occasions.

Biden writes that Netanyahu, whom he calls by his nickname Bibi, accepted that mounting casualties were hurting Israel's image and eroding American support for the war. But in the account quoted by The Times of Israel, a recurring cycle followed: a pledge to do more, then another aggressive military action in which more civilians were killed. Biden adds that when Washington challenged the Israelis, they always offered an explanation or an excuse, and he concludes that Netanyahu had no hesitation in making promises he lacked either the power or the intention to honour.

What Ynet adds

The Israeli news site Ynet, reporting in Hebrew, characterised the memoir as revealing the depth of Biden's disappointment in Netanyahu over the course of the war. Ynet's summary goes further than the excerpts published by The Times of Israel. It says Biden accuses Netanyahu of breaking promises again and again and of putting his own political survival ahead of Israel's future, and it attributes to Biden the line that Netanyahu looked after himself rather than Israel. The Times of Israel excerpt, which is cut off before its end, does not include that specific charge, so on the current material it rests on Ynet's account alone.

Ynet also reports that the book is not only about Israel. According to Ynet, Biden settles scores with senior figures in his own Democratic Party, writing that they forced him to drop out of the presidential race. Neither report quotes further from those passages or names the people involved.

Who the two men are, and why this matters

Biden was the US president during the Gaza war, and Netanyahu was Israel's prime minister at the time. The United States is Israel's most important ally, supplying military aid and diplomatic backing, and the relationship between the two leaders was closely watched throughout the war. The Times of Israel illustrated its report with a photograph of the pair together at the White House, taken while Biden was still in office.

Public friction between the Biden administration and the Netanyahu government over the conduct of the war, and particularly over the toll on Palestinian civilians in Gaza, was a recurring theme while Biden was president. What the memoir adds, on the basis of these excerpts, is Biden's own first-person description of private conversations, and his verdict that Netanyahu's assurances were not reliable. It is an account written by one participant, after leaving office, about exchanges the other side has not described in the same terms.

How the material reached the public

The quoted passages did not come from a published book. According to The Times of Israel, they are drawn from an advance copy obtained by CNN, the American broadcaster. Ynet and The Times of Israel both published their reports on the same evening. Neither report gives a release date for the book or states who its publisher is.

What the reports do not say

• Neither report includes any response from Netanyahu, his office or the Israeli government to Biden's account.
• The reports do not identify which specific Israeli military actions Biden had in mind when he describes promises being followed by further strikes that killed civilians.
• Ynet's statement that Biden accuses Netanyahu of putting his political survival ahead of Israel's future is not reflected in the excerpt quoted by The Times of Israel, and the full passage has not been published in either report.
• Ynet does not name the Democratic Party figures Biden says pushed him out of the race, nor quote his reasoning at length.