Biden thinks Netanyahu is FINISHED - and will be replaced as Israeli PM in ... trends now
Joe Biden's aides believes that Benjamin Netanyahu's days as Israel's prime minister are numbered, according to a report on Wednesday, and are watching his potential successors closely.
Biden has told Netanyahu he needs to think about the lessons he would pass on to his successors, Politico reported.
One current U.S. official told the site that the shocking intelligence failures that allowed Hamas to attack, and the unrest in some quarters at the massive loss of life in Gaza, left Netanyahu severely weakened.
The official said some believed Netanyahu could be out of office within several months, once the initial Gaza response is over.
'There's going to have to be a reckoning within Israeli society about what happened,' said the official. 'Ultimately, the buck stops on the prime minister's desk.'
Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu are seen meeting in Tel Aviv on October 18
Biden and Netanyahu, seen in Washington DC in 2010, have known each other for decades
Netanyahu seemed to acknowledge that on Saturday, when he tweeted late at night that his intelligence services let him down by failing to detect the long-planned terror attack.
Hours later, he deleted the tweet and issued an apology - a rare move for Netanyahu, and a sign that he is on shaky ground.
An assessment of the intelligence failures will likely cause more headaches for Netanyahu, and a U.S. report could be even more damning, Politico reported.
The U.S. president has known Netanyahu - Israel's longest-serving prime minister - for decades.
The relationship between the two is not particularly close: Netanyahu was strongly supportive of Donald Trump and a family friend of Jared Kushner, and has been critical of Barack Obama and Biden's overtures towards Iran.
Netanyahu appeared to blame security and intelligence officials for failing to detect signs of Hamas 's devastating invasion
The Biden administration, in turn, believes that more effort should be made to work on a two-state solution, and has been dismayed by Netanyahu's autocratic tendencies and highly controversial attempts to remake the judiciary.
'They know that this is who they have to work with right now, and no one has suddenly had a revelation about who they are dealing with,' said a person familiar with the administration's thinking on Israel.
But Biden has been solid in his support of Netanyahu after the October 7 terror attack, visiting Netanyahu in Tel Aviv on October 18 in a powerful demonstration of the U.S. position.
After that visit, however, the issue of Netanyahu's
