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For his twenty third guide, “Battle” (to be printed Tuesday by Simon & Schuster), legendary Watergate journalist Bob Woodward delves into the inside circles of the Biden White Home to look at American affect within the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and Israel’s battle towards Hamas and Hezbollah.
Learn the excerpt under, and do not miss David Martin’s interview with Bob Woodward on “CBS Sunday Morning” October 13!
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Secrets and techniques at all times exist. And sometimes the secrets and techniques have immense weight particularly in human relations. What do the primary characters actually consider one another? What’s going on behind the scenes that others may not discover nor think about? What is likely to be the driving forces that aren’t articulated or seen?
President Biden’s frustrations and mistrust of Israeli prime minister Netanyahu had been constructing for years and within the spring of 2024 lastly erupted.
“That son of a bitch, Bibi Netanyahu, he is a foul man. He is a foul f***ing man!” President Biden declared privately to certainly one of his closest associates. “A nasty f***ing man!
“He does not give a s**t about Hamas. He provides a s**t solely about himself.”
The president was preoccupied with bitterness and mistrust of Netanyahu, who he mentioned had been mendacity to him frequently.
Netanyahu was destroying your complete area of Gaza, pounding some of the densely populated locations on earth with an estimated 45,000 bombs. Virtually half, 47 %, of Gaza’s inhabitants of two.2 million have been youngsters underneath the age of 18. Lots of of the bombs dropped on Gaza had been the large 2,000-pounders. The carnage resembled a number of the worst bombing throughout World Battle II.
Netanyahu was persevering with to say he was going to kill each final member of Hamas.
Biden had informed him that was inconceivable, threatening each privately and publicly to withhold offensive U.S. weapons shipments to Israel.
Netanyahu promised Biden that Israel would change technique and pursue Hamas with extra fastidiously focused and complicated operations. They’d replicate the extra systematic and affected person year-long hunt to eradicate the Black September Palestinian militants who killed 11 Israeli Olympic crew members in Munich 1972.
No extra battalions getting into firing rockets and artillery with out technique, no extra dropping enormous bombs on city areas. However Netanyahu continued to situation exactly these orders.
Earlier than October 7, Netanyahu’s political management was in tatters. He confronted prison fees of fraud and bribery that had been delayed a number of occasions, and he was broadly criticized for pushing authorized and judicial reforms that weakened the independence of Israel’s judiciary. Netanyahu was near being ousted as prime minister.
However after the large-scale October 7 Hamas assault on his watch, Netanyahu pushed apart questions of Israel’s catastrophic intelligence and safety failures and resurrected himself as a robust wartime chief. Israel had rallied round their prime minister. Ongoing conflict shielded Netanyahu.
President Biden informed a buddy that Netanyahu was now working arduous to save lots of himself politically and keep out of jail.
Biden was amazed that Bibi’s management had lasted.
“Why hasn’t there been an inside revolt?” Biden mentioned. “A robust inside revolt about simply voting Bibi out of workplace by some means, someway! Simply get him out of there!”
President Biden complained bitterly that Netanyahu had spent no time on a plan for Gaza and the area after the conflict ends. He knew this due to a number of safe calls with Netanyahu and several other conferences Blinken had reported again on during the last six months.
The White Home would situation temporary readouts of the Biden-Netanyahu cellphone calls to the media suggesting they have been fruitful, cordial and productive.
Excerpted from “Battle” by Bob Woodward. Copyright © 2024 by Bob Woodward. Reprinted by permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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For more information:
- “Battle” by Bob Woodward (Simon & Schuster), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio codecs, obtainable October 15
