President Joe Biden spoke at a campaign fundraiser hosted by former AIPAC president Less Rosenberg on Tuesday and warned that Israel is losing international support for the war on Hamas due to the "indiscriminate bombing" of Gaza.
The president urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to change his governing coalition, specifically taking aim at Israel's National Security Minister Ben-Gvir.
"They’re starting to lose that support," Biden said, according to a report from Reuters. "He [Netanyahu] has to change this government. This government in Israel is making it very difficult."
Biden also stated that Israel "can't say no" to a Palestinian state, something that is opposed by many Israel hardliners.
The president stated, "we have an opportunity to begin to unite the region ... and they still want to do it. But we have to make sure that Bibi understands that he's got to make some moves to strengthen... You cannot say no Palestinian state... That's going to be the hard part."
"One of the things that Bibi understands," Biden continued, "is that Israel’s security can rest on the United States. But, right now, it has more than the United States. It has the European Union, it has Europe, it has most of the world supporting them. But they’re starting to lose that support by indiscriminate bombing that takes place."
“Israel has a tough decision to make. Bibi has a tough decision to make,” the president added, according to a report from the Times of Israel.
Biden also stated that Netanyahu is a friend, but warned of shifting public opinion during a Hanukkah reception at the White House on Monday evening.
“We continue to provide military assistance until they get rid of Hamas, but we have to be careful,” Biden said. “The whole world, public opinion can shift overnight. We can’t let that happen.”
Prior to the event, elderly Jewish protesters chained themselves to the fence outside the White House chanting "Biden, Biden, pick a side! Cease-fire not genocide!" The group read the names of people who have been killed in Gaza and wore black shirts that read, "Not in Our Name."
"We, as elder Jews, we know what genocide looks like. We know what genocide feels like. It’s in our bodies, in our bones," Esther Farmer of Jewish Voice for Peace, an anti-Zionist group which organized the demonstration, told the Times of Israel. "It’s horrifying, it’s devastating. Sometimes, it’s hard to get up in the morning to see this, and it’s being done in the name of Jews. So we are here — as elderly Jews — to say, not in our name."
