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:
🚨 At least five Palestinian journalists were among 20 people killed in a “double tap” Israeli strike on Nasser Medical Complex — the largest and only functioning hospital in southern Gaza.
Those killed include:
▪️Hussam al-Masri (Reuters)
▪️Mohammad Salama (Al Jazeera)
▪️Mariam Abu Daqqa (freelance/AP), ▪️Ahmed Abu Aziz (Quds Network)
▪️Moaz Abu Taha (NBC)
Journalists, doctors, and civil defense crews who rushed to treat the wounded and document the bombing were then murdered in the follow-up strike. Horrific footage shows bodies torn apart in the hospital’s corridors.
We’re putting together a thread with more footage and details. Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham shared the moment the second strike hit the hospital, posted below. 🧵
Palestinian prisoners’ rights groups released a new report today based on testimonies provided to lawyers visiting Gaza detainees held in Israel’s underground “Rakevet” section of Ramla Prison and the “Sde Teiman” military camp — both notorious sites of torture.
We share the full report —“Enduring Hell: Gaza Detainees Face Severe Israeli Torture and Terror Behind Bars” — below 👇🏼🧵
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Enduring Hell: Gaza Detainees Face Severe Israeli Torture and Terror Behind Bars
August 20, 2025
Briefing by the Commission of Detainees Affairs’ and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society
Ramallah, occupied Palestine – Nearly two years into the Gaza genocide and severe crimes against Palestinian political detainees held in the Israeli occupation’s prisons continue. Those abducted from the occupied Gaza Strip are enduring the worst levels of torture and abuse compared with any other detainees.
The Commission of Detainees Affairs’ and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society release this new briefing based on testimonies obtained – under strict conditions – by lawyers during visits to detainees conducted between late July and mid-August.
The visits were conducted specifically in the underground “Rakevet” section of Ramla Prison, and the “Sde Teiman” military camp, both notorious for systematic torture of Palestinians arrested from occupied Gaza.
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In the underground “Rakevet” section of Ramla Prison, detainees came to their lawyers’ visits weeping, terrorized.
All detainees had been threatened and beaten prior to seeing their lawyers. Prison guards attempted to force detainees to lie to their lawyers and tell them that everything is “excellent.” Lawyers were forbidden from sharing any information about detainees’ families – who remain in Gaza – or the ongoing genocide.
1/ Israeli PM Netanyahu said in Jerusalem last month:
“There is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza. We enable humanitarian aid throughout the duration of the war to enter Gaza – otherwise, there would be no Gazans.”
But Israel’s own government data shows he is not telling the truth. ⬇️🧵
(Report by @MazMHussain and @MeghnadBose93)
2/ Records from COGAT, Israel’s aid-monitoring agency, show that in March and April 2025 Israel let in zero food aid to Gaza. This came right as famine exploded.
From May–July, food resumed at record lows, far below survival needs.
📊 Chart: Tonnes of food aid allowed into Gaza
3/ By halting aid completely in March–April and then resuming only at a trickle, Israel directly created the conditions for famine.
Expert Alex de Waal:
“There is no case since World War II of starvation that has been so minutely designed and controlled. This is preventable starvation, it is entirely man-made.”
🚨 BREAKING: After far-right influencer @lauraloomer raged online about a few severely injured Palestinian children arriving in the U.S. for life-saving medical interventions, the State Department announced it has suspended all visitor visas for individuals from Gaza.
On Twitter, the State Department indicated no more children in urgent need of medical treatment will be allowed into the U.S. “while it conducts a full and thorough review of the process and procedures used to issue a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas in recent days.”
Loomer had tagged Secretary Rubio and the department in a series of frenzied posts yesterday, demanding wounded Palestinian children be barred from receiving medical care in the U.S. The videos she highlighted shared the work of HEAL Palestine, a U.S.-registered nonprofit that arranges specialized, life-saving care for severely injured children from Gaza—children who cannot receive adequate treatment locally—and has brought dozens to U.S. hospitals so far.
✨ Story of one girl among the tens of thousands of children in Gaza who have been severely wounded in the US-Israeli genocide. Through @healpalestine_ , she was able to receive life-saving medical care in the US that she could not get in Gaza.
The director and producer of the All That Remains documentary tells Drop Site the humanitarian visas are granted exclusively to burned and disabled children — and their parents.
Below, the racist agitator Laura Loomer boasts about influencing the State Department’s decision to block them.
BREAKING: Surrounded by guards and cameras, Israel’s extremist minister Itamar Ben Gvir stormed the solitary confinement cell of Marwan Barghouti — the most popular Palestinian political leader and a unifying national figure, imprisoned since 2002 — in “Ganot” prison, to threaten a shackled and visibly distressed Barghouti.
➤ Ben Gvir to Barghouti: “Whoever messes with the people of Israel, whoever murders our children, whoever murders our women, we will obliterate them. You will not defeat us.”
➤ Raed Abu al-Hummus, head of the Palestinian Prisoners’ and Ex-Prisoners’ Affairs Commission, said: “The criminal Ben Gvir’s arrival at leader Marwan Barghouti’s cell is a direct threat to his life.” He described the threat as “public” and “a dangerous indicator of the intentions concealed by this troubled racist.”
➤ Abu al-Hummus added:“Ben Gvir has tortured prisoners in front of cameras, and he has many previous offenses filled with hatred and racism. For him to dare to attack a leader of the stature of Abu al-Qassam is a clear violation of all red lines, and we are concerned for his life."
➤ He called on Palestinians and international bodies to take immediate action to protect Barghouti.
In May 2024, senior Palestinian Authority officials — including Hussein al-Sheikh, the PA’s secretary-general and top liaison with Israel — told mediators they did not want Marwan Barghouti freed.
Imprisoned since 2002 and serving five life sentences, Barghouti is the most popular Palestinian political leader and a unifying national figure. Hamas has kept him, alongside PFLP leader Ahmad Sa’adat, at the top of its prisoner release list since the first negotiations. Israel has consistently vetoed his release, including in the 2011 Shalit deal.
Barghouti’s popularity — and his calls for cooperation between factions — observers believe is viewed as a direct threat by Mahmoud Abbas to his grip on power in Ramallah. Palestinian rights advocates describe him as the figure most capable of uniting a fractured leadership and potentially winning a presidential election if freed.
The photos below show Barghouti in 2004 (age 45), in 2012 (53), and in 2025 (age 66) in images released today.
The family of Barghouti told Al Jazeera: "We fear that Marwan will be executed in his cell by order of Ben-Gvir after he was threatened in prison. We are also shocked by the changes in his facial features and the exhaustion and hunger he is experiencing."
1. Dr. Basem Naim, senior Hamas official told Drop Site News yesterday: “The current leadership in Israel… a fascist and racist government, is converting this conflict from a political conflict about statehood, about borders, about people, into a religious conflict. And if this happens and we reach an irreversible point—if it becomes a religious conflict—there will be no chance for negotiations because then you are negotiating about beliefs and I think no one will compromise.”
That danger was on full display in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent i24NEWS interview, where he openly embraced the vision of a “Greater Israel” — a concept rooted in biblical claims to land from the Nile to the Euphrates encompassing all of occupied Palestine, parts of Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt. Netanyahu called himself on a “historic and spiritual mission” spanning generations, beaming when former MK Sharon Gal presented him with an amulet depicting the “Promised Land.” Netanyahu was discussing borders or policy in the language of prophecy and religious destiny.
In a conflict where Hamas is cast as the religious zealot, Netanyahu and U.S. allies are increasingly invoking prophecy to justify genocide and a land grab, driving the conflict toward an irreconcilable point. 🧵⬇️
2. Speaking to Al Arabiya, Naim said this messianic framing was being encouraged and reinforced by top U.S. officials. He pointed to House Speaker Mike Johnson’s recent visit to an illegal West Bank settlement, where Johnson — championing “red heifer” prophecy rituals tied to evangelical visions of the apocalypse — met with settler leaders, and declared the “mountains of Judea and Samaria…the rightful property of the Jewish people,”
Naim said “backing up such ideological psychopathic ministers” in Israel fuels the transformation of a solvable political dispute into a zero-sum holy war.
3. Mike Huckabee, the Baptist minister-turned-U.S. ambassador to Israel, struck the same biblical chord. In July, The Guardian quoted him dismissing Palestinian statehood by asking, “Does it have to be in Judea and Samaria?” In an interview with The Times of Israel published today, he refused to use the term “West Bank,” instead calling it “the heartland of Jewish biblical history” and declaring, “Eighty percent of the Bible is Judea and Samaria.”
Huckabee added: “You could only describe this country as a country that God’s hand is upon. There’s no other explanation.”