Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday he has no clue what President Biden was talking about when a hot mic caught him telling a senator that he needed to have a “come to Jesus” meeting with the leader of the Jewish state.
“I don’t know. I’m not familiar with the term even though Jesus wasn’t born that far away from here,” Netanyahu said during an appearance on “Fox & Friends,” when asked about Biden’s post-State of the Union exchange with Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.).
During their conversation, Bennet was heard urging the 81-year-old president to keep pushing Netanyahu to address humanitarian concerns in Gaza. To which, Biden responded, “I told him, Bibi, don’t repeat this, but we are going to have a come to Jesus meeting.”
“I can tell you that if it means having a heart to heart conversation, we’ve had that plenty of times over the 40 years that I’ve known Joe Biden and over the 12 or 13 conversations that we’ve had since the beginning of the war,” Netanyahu said Monday.
The Israeli prime minister acknowledged “disagreements” between him and the Biden administration on how to achieve the country’s goal of eradicating Hamas terrorists in Gaza, but stressed the importance of at least keeping up appearances that the two nations are united.
“To the extent that the world thinks that America and Israel are united, that helps the war effort, and it helps our effort to achieve victory and obviously the release of the hostages. To the extent that Hamas believes that there’s daylight between us, that doesn’t help,” Netanyahyu said.
How to handle Hamas terrorists hiding in Rafah, a city in southern Gaza where more than 1.3 millions are sheltering, is among the disagreements between Netanyahu and Biden.
Biden has warned that an Israeli invasion of Rafah would cross a “red line,” but noted that it wouldn’t lead to the US totally cutting off Israel from access to weapons.
Netanyau argues that in order to completely eradicate Hamas, Rafah must be invaded.
“We can’t leave a quarter of the Hamas terror army in place. They’re there in Rafah,” the prime minister said. “This would be equivalent to saying, you know, after the Allies fought back, gone through Normandy, went through Germany, and you’d say, ‘Well, we’ll leave a quarter of the Nazi army in place and we won’t go into Berlin,’ the last stronghold.”
Netanyahu, arguing that “victory is close,” added that the Israel Defense Force won’t be “getting off the gas” and eliminating Hamas in Rafah is a “prerequisite for victory.”
“That victory is important not only for us, it’s important for the civilized world as we’re fighting these barbarians,” he said.