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:
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Human Rights Watch shelved a report concluding that Israel’s decades-long denial of Palestinians’ right of return constitutes a “crime against humanity,” prompting the resignation of its entire Israel-Palestine team: Israel-Palestine director Omar Shakir and assistant researcher Milena Ansari.
Drop Site News spoke directly with Shakir and reviewed internal HRW emails and other documents. The story: 🧵🔽
2/ The 43-page report had completed Human Rights Watch’s full internal review process over seven months, including sign-off from HRW’s legal team and divisions covering refugees, international justice, women’s rights, and children’s rights.
It was halted roughly two weeks before its scheduled publication on December 4.
3/ Shakir said the report traced Israel’s policies from the 1948 expulsions through the present-day emptying of refugee camps in Gaza and the West Bank.
It was based on interviews with 53 Palestinian refugees and fieldwork across Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.
Shakir said he hoped it would open “a path to justice for Palestinian refugees.”
⭕️ Only 12 of 50 Palestinians approved to return to Gaza were allowed through the Rafah crossing on Monday, as returnees described being transferred by the armed Abu Shabab militia to Israeli checkpoints and subjected to hours-long interrogations, threats, and confiscation of personal belongings.
Israel blocked 38 of the 50 Palestinians attempting to enter Gaza and sent them back to Egypt, various outlets report today. On the outbound side, just five patients were allowed to leave for medical treatment. Reuters reported that ten companions accompanied them, while Gaza’s Ministry of Health said the total number of people who exited was just eight. An Israeli security source confirmed to Haaretz that members of the Israel-backed Abu Shabab militia, operating as the so-called “Popular Forces” now under Ghassan Duhine, escorted civilians from Rafah and handed them over to Israeli authorities at a newly installed inspection point.
Palestinian National Initiative Secretary General Mustafa Barghouti said returnees faced “horrific inspection procedures.” One woman, Sabah al-Raqab, said Abu Shabab gunmen beat, humiliated, strip-searched, handcuffed, and threatened women with arrest and death. Of six buses waiting to enter Gaza, she said, only one was allowed through.
The 12 who entered, nine women and three children, told Arab media they were questioned at multiple locations along the crossing. Several said masked Abu Shabab gunmen handed them over for Israeli interrogation. One woman said Israeli officials seized all their belongings, “even the children’s toys,” and denied them food and water. Another said she was questioned for more than two hours and told: “We won’t let you in. We’ll take you as prisoners until you tell us who entered on October 7.”
Middle East Eye shared footage of a Palestinian woman who said Israeli forces blindfolded and restrained returnees. “They don’t want large numbers to return; they want large numbers to leave,” she said.
Read Mustafa Barghouti’s full comments below documenting the ordeal for the 12 Palestinian returnees:
In February 2024, the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem suppressed an internal report meant for wider circulation among senior Biden administration officials, saying it “lacked balance.” Reuters recently reported that the internal cable included photos from northern Gaza warning the area had become an “apocalyptic wasteland,” but U.S. ambassador to Israel Jack Lew and his deputy, Stephanie Hallett, blocked the images from distribution.
Jonathan Whittall @_jwhittall, who was on the UN fact-finding trip and is the former head of UN OCHA in the OPT, now shares a selection of those photos with Drop Site for the first time.
The images were taken during the January 2024 visit, which followed a three-month total siege on northern Gaza. Whittall says the mission’s purpose was to reflect reality, not political balance. “Many of these scenes had already been captured by Palestinian journalists, but they too had been dismissed as biased,” he writes. 🧵
📸 Photo 1: A partially destroyed school with piles of garbage and rubble lining the streets in Jabaliya. The school had no clean water or sanitation available and was being used as an emergency shelter by displaced Palestinians. January 31, 2024. (Photo by Jonathan Whittall.)
📸 Photo 2: The same partially destroyed school in Jabaliya. January 31, 2024.
📸 Photo 3: The inside of the school in Jabaliya with burnt out vehicles and rubble in the courtyard.
🚨 Jared Kushner presented a “master plan” for redeveloping Gaza into a high-tech metropolis during a speech at the Board of Peace charter signing ceremony in Davos, Switzerland, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum.
Watch his full remarks here. We break down some key points in the thread below: 🧵
1/ Senior White House adviser and Trump’s son in law Jared Kushner said the administration has moved from securing a ceasefire to what he described as the far harder task of implementing peace, framing the effort as a shift in mindset after years of war in Israel and decades of despair in Gaza.
He credited President Donald Trump’s “first principles” approach for pushing the team to aim for outcomes others considered impossible, arguing that peace required changing behavior, habits, and expectations on both sides.
2/ Kushner said the next phase centers on security and demilitarization, arguing that no reconstruction or investment is possible without it. He said the United States is working with Israel and a new technocratic Palestinian governing committee to “work with Hamas on demilitarization,” describing security as the foundation for rebuilding Gaza’s economy and ending what he called long-term dependence on aid.
🇻🇪 How popular was Trump’s move to intervene militarily to depose Maduro among Venezuelans?
Two pre-intervention surveys suggested a sharp split between Venezuelans inside the country and those abroad, with deep opposition at home and high support in the diaspora.
1. Datanálisis poll, Dec 2025
(Caracas-based firm)
▪️ Foreign military intervention (inside Venezuela)
➤ 55% opposed
➤ 23% supported
➤ 22% unsure / other
▪️Political alignment of those polled
➤ 60% politically unaffiliated
➤ 13% support the government
➤ 19% support the opposition
Page 1/5.
Thread continues below ⬇️
2. AtlasIntel Intel Poll, October 22-28, 2025, published by Bloomberg
(Brazil-based polling firm)
▪️ Support for U.S. military intervention
➤ 64% support among Venezuelans abroad
➤ 34% support among Venezuelans living in the country
3. AtlasIntel Intel Poll, October 22-28, 2025
▪️ Is US intervention the “most viable pathway for topping the Maduro regime and re-establishing democracy?”
➤ 55% of migrants say yes
➤ Only 25% of those in Venezuela say yes
🚨 BREAKING: New footage shows explosions around Caracas, Venezuela, as parts of the city’s south near a major military base lost electricity. Low-flying aircraft were seen and heard from across the capital, according to Reuters.
Agence France-Presse and Associated Press said the blasts were heard around 2 a.m. local time, with an AP reporter counting at least seven explosions over several neighborhoods. Residents rushed into the streets, some watching the sky as aircraft flew at low altitude. The site of the explosions remains unclear, and Venezuelan authorities have not issued an official explanation or confirmed any casualties.