Former US President Joe Biden has accused Israeli caretaker Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of repeatedly promising to reduce civilian casualties in Gaza but failing to act on those assurances. In his upcoming memoir, ‘Promise Me, America,’ Biden writes that he repeatedly raised concerns with Netanyahu to mitigate civilian harm during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, following Hamas’ 7th October 2023 attack on Israel. However, Biden says his requests to protect civilians were ignored by Netanyahu.
Biden accuses Netanyahu in a new memoir of repeatedly breaking promises to reduce civilian casualties in Gaza, saying the Israeli PM put political survival ahead of Israel’s long-term interests. Biden also defends his mental sharpness and decision to seek reelection. https://t.co/QkH2492dkZ
— KolHaolam (@KolHaolam) November 15, 2026
The 83-year-old former US president recalls having several private conversations with Netanyahu, in which he urged the Israeli leader to take steps to reduce civilian suffering during the military campaign in Gaza. According to Biden, Netanyahu acknowledged that the rising death toll was damaging Israel’s international image and affecting American support for the war, but continued with aggressive military operations. “I had been calling on Israel to take precautions to reduce civilian suffering since the beginning of the conflict,” Biden writes in the memoir.
He further says, “I had expressed these concerns privately in many conversations with Bibi, who acknowledged the damage that these rising casualties were doing to Israel’s image, and to US support for the war.”
Biden then describes what he calls a repeated pattern of promises followed by more military action. “But a familiar pattern established itself: He would promise to do more, and then another aggressive action would follow, killing more civilians. When we called them on it, the Israelis always had an explanation or excuse, but the result was the same. Bibi had no qualms about making promises he had no power — or intention — to keep,” he writes.
The memoir, titled ‘Promise Me, America,’ is scheduled to be released on 17th November. Excerpts from the book were published by CNN on Friday, 13th November.
Hamas’ October 7 attack and Israel’s military campaign in Gaza
Hamas launched a major attack on Israel on 7th October, 2023, in one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in the country’s history. Hamas terrorists crossed into Israeli territory and attacked civilians, security personnel and residential communities. Around 1,221 people were killed in the attack.
Israel responded by launching a large-scale military operation in Gaza, with the stated aim of destroying Hamas’ terror infrastructure. The fighting led to a prolonged conflict involving Israel, Hamas and other terror groups in the region, including Hezbollah.
Biden’s memoir also looks back at his long political relationship with Netanyahu and the growing differences between the two leaders over the conduct of the war. The former US president says he became increasingly frustrated with what he saw as Netanyahu’s failure to consider Israel’s long-term interests. “While I understood that he was working under severe pressures, I was frustrated by his failure to think like a statesman and safeguard Israel’s long-term interests, not just his own short-term political needs,” Biden writes.
Biden defends his handling of the Gaza war
During his presidency, Biden faced criticism from sections of his own Democratic Party over Washington’s continued military and political support for Israel despite the rising civilian death toll in Gaza.
In his memoir, Biden pushes back against the suggestion that he was misled by the Israeli prime minister. He maintains that he repeatedly raised concerns about civilian suffering and made his position clear during private conversations.
‘Go ask the Israeli leadership if they thought they were dealing with a diminished president’
Apart from discussing the Gaza war, Biden also uses the book to defend his decision to seek a second term in the 2024 US presidential election.
Several Democrats have blamed his decision to remain in the race, his poor debate performance against Donald Trump in June 2024 and the late decision to replace him with Kamala Harris for the party’s defeat. Biden, however, maintains that he was the strongest candidate to challenge Trump.
“The press and pundits kept talking about how weak I was. But every purportedly serious candidate decided not to run against me because I was too strong. The primaries sent no warning signs that I was in trouble. But that couldn’t derail the narrative setting in on my candidacy. That I was too old. That I was declining mentally,” Biden writes, according to CNN.
He also challenges questions about his mental fitness, particularly those raised after former special counsel Robert Hur released a report in February 2024 on Biden’s handling of classified documents.
Biden argues that the circumstances in which he was questioned by Hur were not properly considered. He says the interview took place on 8th and 9th October, 2023, just after Hamas attacked Israel, when he had been dealing with the international crisis.
“Being president requires a remarkable amount of gear shifting every day — from negotiating with foreign leaders to pursuing domestic policy, from visiting a disaster site to rubbing elbows with fundraisers. Hur’s commentary was especially outrageous when you think about the context of the interview that he based it on. I sat down for over five hours with Hur and his people across October 8 and 9 of 2023,” he writes.
