REPORT: Biden Officials Admit They Never Pressured Israel for Ceasefire, as Israeli Leaders Boast of Playing Washington
“God did the State of Israel a favor that Biden was the president during this period… We fought [in Gaza] for over a year and the administration never came to us and said, ‘ceasefire now.’ It never did. And that’s not to be taken for granted.”
—Former Israeli ambassador Michael Herzog:
A sweeping Israeli Channel 13 investigation has exposed the Biden administration’s complicity in Israel’s 19-month war on Gaza. Nine top Biden officials acknowledged avoiding real pressure on Israel—even as the death toll surpassed 30,000. Israeli leaders openly bragged they dragged out the war, playing for time until Donald Trump’s return.
Former National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Ambassador Tom Nides, and others defended their unwavering support for Israel—even as they admitted enabling a campaign one U.S. aide described as “killing and destroying for the sake of killing and destroying.”
Here’s what the investigation revealed: 🧵⬇️
1. “Killing and Destroying for the Sake of Killing and Destroying”
➤ Ilan Goldenberg, a senior national security aide, described the war’s aimlessness: “If they’re never going to do this, it doesn’t matter what the outcome is, Hamas is still going to control Gaza. You’re just killing and destroying for the sake of killing and destroying. But you’re not building an alternative.”
➤ U.S. officials pushed a post-war plan modeled on the anti-ISIS campaign, proposing that Arab states temporarily secure Gaza—but Netanyahu blocked it, refusing any role for the Palestinian Authority.
➤ Far-right Israeli ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich openly pushed for reoccupying Gaza and rebuilding settlements. Netanyahu refused to advance alternatives, keeping the door open to their demands.
2. “We Fought for Over a Year and the Administration Never Said ‘Ceasefire Now’”
➤ Israeli officials were blunt about the benefits of Biden’s passivity. Former ambassador Michael Herzog declared:
“God did the State of Israel a favor that Biden was the president during this period, because it could have been much worse. We fought [in Gaza] for over a year and the administration never came to us and said, ‘ceasefire now.’ It never did. And that’s not to be taken for granted.”
➤ Biden aides privately admitted Netanyahu was dragging out the war. “He’s undercutting it every step of the way,” said Goldenberg. “All the security people are coming out and saying it.”
➤ He also revealed there were internal discussions in Washington about Biden giving a speech to pressure Israel politically, possibly triggering new elections there—but Biden backed off.
3. U.S. Covered for Israeli War Crimes and Blocked Aid Report
➤ State Department adviser Stacy Gilbert resigned after being cut out of the process of drafting a legally required arms compliance report.
➤ The final version cleared Israel of violating U.S. law—despite overwhelming evidence of aid obstruction. Gilbert called it “shocking in its mendacity,” adding: “Everyone knows that is not true.”
➤ Even as settlers looted Gaza-bound trucks and Israel blocked humanitarian aid, Biden certified compliance—and kept weapons flowing.
4. Netanyahu Sabotaged Captives Release Talks to Prolong the War
➤ Biden officials revealed that Netanyahu deliberately tanked negotiations, fearing a deal would force him to end the war.
➤ American-Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin was scheduled for release the day he was executed. Amos Hochstein confirmed: “There’s no doubt… those hostages would be alive.”
➤ Netanyahu’s public campaign to retain control over Gaza’s Philadelphi Corridor was viewed by Biden officials as a smokescreen to kill the deal.
5. Biden Backed Israel Even After Netanyahu Publicly Undermined & Insulted Him
➤ Biden once told Netanyahu he was “full of shit,” and hung up the phone mid-call. But as Ambassador Tom Nides put it: “Biden saw [Netanyahu] as a manipulator, a magician… But he stood by him through the end.”
➤ In May 2024, Biden announced he was pausing a shipment of 2,000-lb bombs over concerns about their use in Gaza. Days later, Netanyahu accused the U.S. of freezing broader arms deliveries—reportedly pausing Biden’s plans to restore the paused shipment.
6. Saudi Deal Collapsed Because Israel Refused to Make Any Concessions
➤ Biden officials described how a U.S.-Saudi normalization deal—coupled with defense and economic pacts—was nearly complete. But it required Israel to accept a “political horizon” for Palestinians.
➤ Dan Shapiro, former deputy assistant secretary of defense, explained: “We always understood that the Israeli government depended on far-right ministers who would try to block that commitment… that might require an election or a coalition shuffle.”
➤ Former U.S. ambassador Jack Lew called Israel’s refusal to engage “kind of shocking.”
➤ Amos Hochstein said: “I don’t understand the decision not to grab that opportunity as the most important strategic move Israel can make.”
➤ Herzog claimed Netanyahu deliberately stalled, hoping Trump would return to office and take credit: “It was my understanding that Trump preferred for the deal to wait until he got into office so that he’d be the one to do it.”
Clarification: Negotiators were discussing adding American-Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin to the release list on the same day he was executed. He was not yet formally “scheduled” for release. Amos Hochstein said: “There’s no doubt… those hostages would be alive.”
The full investigation in Hebrew is available here:
🧵THREAD: Drop Site journalists @JeremyScahill and Jawa Ahmad warn that Trump’s Gaza plan contains a “Disarmament Trap.”
The U.S. and Israel – now backed by a stamp of approval from the UN and the widely unpopular Palestinian Authority – are attempting to use the new resolution to secure a surrender of the Palestinian cause and the right to resist occupation. It’s an outcome Israel has failed to achieve through two years of genocide, and across 77 years of occupation and ethnic cleansing.
While Palestinian resistance groups deny ever pledging disarmament to U.S. officials, Hamas and other factions have repeatedly said they are open to a long-term, internationally enforced truce and a form of monitored decommissioning — but not the surrender of the Palestinian people’s right to armed resistance or self-defense under occupation. (Continues below👇)
1/ At a Nov. 6 Miami business conference, Trump adviser Steve Witkoff told investors the U.S. is “in the middle of standing up a decommissioning process” for Gaza’s weapons – a “demilitarization and amnesty program.”
He claimed Hamas already committed to disarmament and told Jared Kushner and him that they would “give the weapons” to an international security force. Witkoff framed disarmament not as a demand, but as a settled fact.
2/ Hamas leaders tell Drop Site Witkoff is inventing history. “No. What he’s saying, I don’t know, but we didn’t say that,” senior leader Osama Hamdan told Jeremy Scahill. “The whole delegation was there and no one said that.”
Any real discussion, he added, “will take time… We have to talk with our brothers and other factions… and when we have a national understanding… we will start to talk to the mediators and the Americans.” The State Department declined comment.
🇸🇩 THREAD: Why Trump Won’t Confront the UAE Over Its Support for Sudan’s Genocidal RSF
Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have spent the past month carrying out a genocidal massacre in al-Fasher, where satellite analysis suggests as many as 200,000 people are now unaccounted for. The RSF’s mass executions, village burnings, ethnic cleansing, and systematic starvation rank among some of the worst atrocities of the 21st century.
Yet the United States, under Donald Trump, has shown no sign of pressuring RSF’s chief external backer: the United Arab Emirates (UAE). A recent report by Forbes details why - The UAE is Trump’s biggest foreign revenue source.
Trump’s current financial entanglements with the Emirates create powerful personal incentives for the President to look away as a genocide unfolds rather than pressure Abu Dhabi.
📸🎥 “A lot of cash. Unlimited cash.” — President Trump could hardly help himself from saying out loud as he stood next to UAE Vice-President Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan at the Sharm el-Sheikh summit in Egypt on October 13. A New York Times investigation, citing U.S. intelligence, identified Sheikh Mansour as the senior Emirati official overseeing the UAE’s outreach to Sudan’s RSF — including communications with RSF commander Hemedti and the networks moving money, supplies, and political support to the militia. The Times also published a photo of Sheikh Mansour meeting with Hemedti, as he stands accused of mass killings, mass rapes, and ethnic cleansing across Darfur and beyond. 🧵⬇️
⭕️ *The UAE is Trump’s biggest foreign revenue source*
Since 2022, Trump businesses have entered at least nine UAE-linked deals. Five are Trump Organization licensing agreements that pay ongoing fees for the use of the Trump name on golf courses, hotels, and residential projects. Licensing contracts require no construction or ownership from Trump. They are pure cash streams. New filings estimate these UAE-connected deals will bring in about 500 million dollars in 2025 alone, with at least 50 million in recurring annual income. No other foreign country provides comparable revenue to the Trump family.
⭕️ Key Emirati businessmen directly fund Trump enterprises
Chief example is Hussain Sajwani - the Emirati billionaire founder of Damac Properties who built Trump International Golf Club Dubai and Trump-branded communities in Damac Hills. His companies reportedly pay Trump about 6 million dollars per year in licensing and management fees. He celebrated Trump’s 2016 victory at Trump’s DC hotel and met Trump at Mar-a-Lago again in January, promising 20 billion dollars in US investment. Damac remains positioned to benefit from new Trump-branded developments across the Gulf.
The latest Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) national poll, conducted October 22-252025 with a representative sample of 1,200 Palestinians (760 in the West Bank, 440 in Gaza) — shows a political landscape completely out of sync with Mahmoud Abbas’ planned succession.
In this most recent survey:
▪️ Marwan Barghouti leads with 49%, the most popular Palestinian political figure by a wide margin.
▪️ Khaled Meshal, a senior Hamas leader follows with 36%.
▪️ Mahmoud Abbas draws only 13% support.
▪️ Hussein al-Sheikh, Abbas’ designated heir, registers under 2% — and usually doesn’t appear at all in open-ended responses.
PCPSR director Dr. Khalil Shikaki says al-Sheikh “doesn’t exist in the public consciousness.”
The poll was conducted face-to-face from October 22–25, 2025, with a representative sample of 1,200 Palestinians: 760 in the West Bank and 440 in the Gaza Strip.
For safety, PCPSR researchers operated only in areas west, north, and south of the “yellow line,” which were free of Israeli military presence. Fieldwork covered 76 sites in the West Bank and 44 in Gaza. Margin of error: ±3.5%.
70% oppose disarming Hamas
•85% in the West Bank
•55% in Gaza
This remains the single strongest point of national consensus.
🚨 BREAKING: Russia and China are pushing to remove the proposed “Board of Peace” from the U.S. draft resolution at the UN Security Council for a Gaza stabilization force, Associated Press reports, citing four U.N. diplomats briefed on the negotiations.
Russia and China are two of the five states with veto power over any resolution.
The news comes as the U.S. circulated a second revised draft to the 15-member Council today. The plan would give a UN mandate to an international force through 2027, working with a yet-to-be established colonial-style governing board chaired by Donald Trump alongside figures such as Tony Blair, which would temporarily run Gaza until the “Board of Peace” and Israel deem the Palestinian Authority has “satisfactorily completed its reform” and can govern Gaza.
Moscow, Beijing and several Arab states have raised concerns over the board, the absence of any transitional role for the Palestinian Authority, the weak language on a future Palestinian state, and the equally weak language on Israeli withdrawal, which would in practice leave the timing and conditions largely to Israel’s discretion.
One diplomat told AP that Russia and China want the draft cut down substantially — limiting it to authorizing a stabilization force that reports directly to the Security Council, without the U.S.-designed governing structure.
Here’s the document circulated today. Additional reporting is included in the thread below 🧵👇
Senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk said last week that Security Council members he had spoken with indicated they would not support the U.S. draft in its current form. Abu Marzouk said he was confident the resolution would not pass as written.
The revised U.S. draft tries to answer criticism that it previously offered no credible path to a Palestinian state. It now says that after the Palestinian Authority carries out “reforms” and after Gaza reconstruction has “advanced,” “conditions may finally be in place” for a pathway to Palestinian self-determination and eventual statehood. The language is conditional and non-binding, with no specific deadlines, benchmarks or guarantees.
The draft also says the United States will launch a political dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians to define a “political horizon” for coexistence. But it does not require Israel to accept a two-state outcome, and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu continues to publicly oppose both Palestinian statehood and any return of the PA to Gaza.
Defense for Children International – Palestine has documented the ordeal of three boys from Gaza— ages 16 and 17 — who were abducted by Israeli forces while trying to reach food and then tortured inside Israel’s Sde Teiman military camp.
All three were seized at aid points, bound, blindfolded, stripped naked, and taken out of Gaza. In custody, they describe nonstop beatings, electric shocks, starvation, and exposure to extreme cold. Soldiers forced them into stress positions for hours, unleashed dogs on them, and blasted deafening music in the “disco room,” where interrogators slammed their heads into walls and tightened handcuffs until bones cracked.
The boys also recount staged psychological torture: threats against their families, edited photos meant to break them, and attempts to recruit them as collaborators in exchange for money and housing. Cells were filthy, overcrowded, crawling with insects, with rotten food and no medical care. Stun grenades were thrown into rooms at night, leaving children terrified to sleep.
All three were released in the October prisoner exchange, returning to Gaza with severe injuries, trauma, suffering involuntary urination, panic attacks, and crippling nightmares. DCIP says their testimony shows a detention system that targets children with brutality and humiliation, not for “security” but to break their bodies, terrify their families, and crush the next generation’s sense of safety. TRT spoke to the boys about the “disco room” torture below ⬇️
Here is the testimony of one child: 16-year-old Faris Abu Jabal. He was abducted by Israeli forces while searching for aid with his father and roughly 25 other Palestinians near the Morag corridor on the morning of September 11, according to Defense for Children International – Palestine. Soldiers bound his hands, forced him to his knees, and an Israeli interrogator assaulted him repeatedly during questioning.
📌 Here’s what DCIP wrote:
“He struck my forehead so hard that it split open and required stitches,” Faris told DCIP. After the interrogation, the soldier blindfolded Faris and threw him into a hole, where soldiers kicked him and other detainees. The next morning, Israeli forces transported them out of Gaza to Sde Teiman in southern Israel, with a stop at the Karem Abu Salem crossing, where detainees were ordered to disembark and strip naked. Israeli soldiers dressed them in white coveralls and forced them to lie on their stomachs on the ground for an hour, during which soldiers kicked and abused them.
Faris was placed in a cell with Palestinian adults for four days before being transferred to a cell for children which held about seven of them. After this, Faris was subjected to another brutal interrogation, during which he was handcuffed to a chair with his hands bound behind his back and his legs bound to the legs of the chair. Each time Faris answered, “I don’t know,” to an interrogator’s question, another interrogator beat his head and legs.
“In those moments, I felt nothing but pain, and my sole focus was on finding a way to escape the relentless beating and suffering,” Faris told DCIP. “I endured those hours without food, water, or even a chance to use the bathroom. Fear gripped me, preventing me from asking for anything, and I often lost control of my bladder during the interrogation. Each time I did, he would strike me harder and curse at me in Hebrew, words I could not comprehend.”
Faris was then transported to the “disco room,” a concrete room with speakers that blare music in Hebrew.
“They positioned my head right next to the speakers,” he said. “The soldier present, distracted by the sound, was evidently playing a game on his mobile phone. I could tell from his tone that he had just lost. In his frustration, he would open the door and unleash a brutal beating on me, striking randomly. I remained in that room until the day's end, enduring numerous assaults, including having my head slammed against the wall, being kicked, and having my hair pulled.”
“I managed to sneak a glance for a few seconds and spotted my father in the disco room,” said Faris. “I tried to call out to him repeatedly, but he couldn't hear me at all due to the overwhelming noise from the loudspeakers.”
Faris was returned to his cell, where rotten food and frequent beatings awaited him. He declined a haircut, which was required for all detainees, and Israeli soldiers placed him in handcuffs for a full week.
“One of the most challenging moments happened roughly a week prior to my release when a jailer approached me and displayed a photo of my mother in a compromising position through my cell window,” Faris told DCIP. “They had edited a picture of her alongside a soldier. ‘Look at what our soldiers did to your mother,’ the jailer taunted. In the image, my mother was lying next to a soldier. I could see her hair. ‘Do you want to go and see your mother? Our soldiers raped and killed your mother and sisters.’ In that instant, I felt an overwhelming urge to extend my hand through the cell window, kill the jailer, and drag him inside. I unleashed a torrent of curses fueled by my rage. As a consequence, I was suspended in the air for an entire week.”
🚨The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights says it has collected new testimonies from recently released captives and documented systematic sexual torture of Palestinian detainees, including rape, forced stripping, and filming, describing it as part of Israel’s broader campaign to destroy human dignity in Gaza.
Among the cases is N.A., a 42-year-old mother from northern Gaza, who told PCHR she was raped four times by Israeli soldiers and subjected to repeated torture and humiliation in detention after she was detained while passing through an Israeli checkpoint set up in northern Gaza in November 2024.
📌 Her testimony in full:
“At dawn I heard the soldiers shouting, saying that morning prayers were forbidden, and I think it was the fourth day after my arrest from Gaza. The soldiers moved me to a place I didn’t know because my eyes were blindfolded, and they ordered me to take off my clothes. I did so. They put me on a metal table, pressed my chest and head against it, cuffed my hands to the end of the bed, and pulled my legs apart forcefully. I felt a penis penetrating my anus and a man raping me. I started screaming, and they beat me on my back and head while I was blindfolded. I felt the man who was raping me ejaculate inside my anus. I kept screaming and being beaten, and I could hear a camera—so I believe they were filming me. The rape lasted about 10 minutes. After that, they left me for an hour in the same position, with my hands cuffed to the bed with metal handcuffs, my face on the bed, my feet on the floor, and I was completely naked.
Again, after an hour, I was raped fully in the same position, with penetration into my vagina, and I was beaten while I screamed. There were several soldiers; I heard them laughing and the camera clicking as it took pictures. This rape was very quick and there was no ejaculation. During the rape they beat me with their hands on my head and back.
I cannot describe what I felt; I wished for death every moment. After they raped me, I was left alone in the same room, hands still cuffed to the bed and without clothes for many hours. I could hear the soldiers outside speaking Hebrew and laughing. Later, I was raped again vaginally. I screamed, but they beat me whenever I tried to resist. After more than an hour, I’m not sure about the time, a masked soldier entered, removed my blindfold, lifted his face covering; he had white skin and was tall. He asked if I spoke English; I said no. He said he was Russian and ordered me to masturbate his penis. I refused, and he hit me in the face after raping me.
That day I was raped twice. I was left naked the whole day in the room where I spent three days. On the first day I was raped twice; on the second day I was raped twice; on the third day I remained without clothes while they looked at me through the door slit and filmed me. One soldier said they would post my photos on social media. While I was in the room, my period started; then they told me to put on clothes and transferred me to another room.”
PCHR also documented the case of A.A., a 35-year-old father from Gaza City, who was arrested while at Al-Shifa Hospital in March 2024. He told investigators he was subjected to severe torture over 19 months in Israeli custody — including forced stripping, threats of rape against him and his family, and ultimately rape by a trained dog at the Sde Teiman military camp. He stated:
“I was moved to a section I didn’t know inside Sde Teiman. During the first weeks there, amid repeated suppression operations, I was taken with a group of detainees in a degrading manner to a place far from the cameras—a passage between sections. We were stripped completely. Soldiers brought dogs that climbed on us and urinated on me. Then one of the dogs raped me—the dog did it deliberately, knowing exactly what it was doing, and inserted its penis into my anus, while the soldiers kept beating and torturing us and spraying pepper spray in our faces. The dog’s assault lasted about three minutes; the overall suppression lasted about three hours. Because of the severe beating, all of us sustained injuries across our bodies. I suffered a severe psychological breakdown and deep humiliation; I lost control because I could never have imagined experiencing such a thing. Afterward, a doctor stitched a wound in my head caused by the torture—seven stitches without anesthesia. I also suffered bruises, fractures in my limbs, and a rib fracture.”
Another testimony documented by PCHR comes from T.Q., a 41-year-old father displaced at Kamal Adwan Hospital, who was arrested in December 2023 and endured nearly two years of detention marked by sexual torture and humiliation. He described being threatened with the rape of his wife and ultimately raped with a wooden object. In his testimony to a PCHR researcher, he said:
“One of the soldiers raped me by violently inserting a wooden stick into my anus. After about a minute he removed it and then inserted it again more forcefully while I screamed loudly. After another minute he removed it and forced me to open my mouth and put the stick in my mouth to lick it. From sheer anguish I lost consciousness for minutes, until a female officer came and forced them to stop beating me. She untied my hands, gave me a white overall to wear, and brought me a cup of water which I drank. I felt blood flowing from my anus and asked to go to the bathroom. She gave me tissues and I went to a plastic toilet there. They removed the blindfold; when I wiped my anus there was blood. After I finished and the bleeding stopped, I put the white overall back on. As soon as I came out, they blindfolded me again and tied my hands behind my back with plastic ties. I was then moved to a room where I was held with several detainees for about eight hours, during which soldiers periodically returned to beat and insult us brutally.”