US President Joe Biden revealed the details of a conversation he had with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, without realizing the presence of an “open” microphone. He leaked what he said about the frantic call.
Biden’s comments came during his speech, Thursday, with the Democratic Senator from Colorado, Michael Bennett, in the hall of the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC, after the President’s State of the Union address, without realizing that the existing microphone was not turned off, and he had captured what was going on in this side conversation. .
Immediately after the speech, Biden stood with Senator Bennett, who informed him that he had recently visited Israel, and asked the president to continue pressing for humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
Biden replied: “I told Bibi (a name by which Netanyahu is known)… and do not repeat this (calling on the senator to keep the conversation secret), and I said, ‘You and I will have a (coming to Jesus) meeting,’” referring to an American English term used to refer to To the seriousness of a meeting.
The term “Come to Jesus” has gained increasing popularity in the English language to refer to a meeting, as it emphasizes the seriousness of the meeting, or the existence of consequences that may arise from the actions of one of its participants.
After Biden’s statement, one of his aides, who was standing nearby, spoke quietly into the president’s ear, apparently alerting him that the microphone remained on. Biden said after being alerted: “The microphone is working here… well, that’s good.”
Journalists asked Biden about the incident when he left on Air Force One for Philadelphia. “I didn’t say that,” he initially said, apparently referring to the fact that the comment was not in the Gaza portion of his State of the Union address.
But when asked what he said after the speech, he said: “You guys eavesdropped on me.”
Biden had criticized Netanyahu’s government for not dealing with the humanitarian crisis in Gaza as a priority, stressing that Israel should not use aid as a “political bargaining chip.”
The United Nations says that the humanitarian crisis is expanding in the Gaza Strip, noting that tight Israeli control over aid trucks “has left almost the entire population suffering from severe food shortages.”
Officials have been warning for months that the Israeli blockade and attack are pushing the Palestinian territories into famine.
The United States, Qatar, and Egypt are working to reach an agreement on a truce in Gaza before Ramadan, but the negotiations that took place this week in Cairo did not lead to any tangible results.
Also, the United States has been working to drop relief supplies with parachutes into the Strip for a week.
In his State of the Union address, Biden said that US forces would establish a temporary port in Gaza, to transport humanitarian aid by sea to the besieged Strip.
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