Former Biden Officials Claim Netanyahu Sabotaged Ceasefire Negotiations

August 30, 2025 News
Former US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller. (Photo: video grab)

By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

“There were times that we very much wanted to go public and make clear that we thought the prime minister was being completely intransigent and making it tougher to get a deal.” Matthew Miller

Top US officials in the administration of former President Joe Biden are claiming that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sabotaged ceasefire negotiations last year and was the “ultimate obstacle” to a deal, The Jerusalem Post reported.

The paper on Friday cited high-profile interviews in Israeli and US media in which the former officials admitted that the Biden administration considered publicly announcing Netanyahu’s hindrance of a ceasefire deal, “but decided against it for fear of emboldening Hamas.”

In an interview with Israel’s Channel 13 last week, the State Department spokesperson under Biden, Matthew Miller, said there were times that “we very much wanted to go public and make clear that we thought the prime minister was being completely intransigent and making it tougher to get a deal.”

He added that the issue was “discussed amongst ourselves, and we made the decision that it wouldn’t accomplish anything, (because) we had seen it in a number of cases,” he added.

‘Fighting for Decades’

Miller claimed “(Yahya) Sinwar pulled back from negotiations when he thought there was division between the United States and Israel.“

He said, “We wanted to speak very toughly to the government of Israel behind closed doors, but ultimately not do anything that we thought would make it harder to get to a deal.”

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According to the paper, it was ”the first on-camera admission of what other reports have indicated, that Netanyahu was the ultimate obstacle to ceasefires during the war.”

Miller also reportedly said Antony Blinken, the former Secretary of State, warned Netanyahu that Israel would be “bogged down here fighting this war for years and decades to come.”

The paper added that Netanyahu allegedly replied: “You’re right. We are going to be fighting this war for decades to come. That’s the way it’s been. That’s the way it’s going to be.”

‘Case for Withholding Weapons’

The report also cited an interview with former US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who was a top advisor to Biden, in which he defended the call by Democratic members of Congress to withhold arms from Israel.

“The case for withholding weapons from Israel today is much stronger than it was one year ago,” Sullivan was quoted as saying in an intervew with The Bulwark host Tim Miller.

The Israelis “don’t face the same regional threats,” he noted, adding that there was “a ceasefire hostage deal in place and the ability to have negotiations, and it was Israel who just walked away from it without negotiating seriously.” In addition, he said, “there is a full-blown famine in Gaza.” Furthermore, “there are no more serious military objectives to achieve. It’s just bombing the rubble into rubble.”

The Question of Casualties

The newspaper also cited Jacob Lew, who served as Washington’s ambassador to Israel from 2023 to 2025, as saying in an interview with the American magazine The New Yorker last Tuesday, “Biden’s commitment to supporting Israel in a legitimate, just fight was clear, and that had to coexist with pressing them on these humanitarian issues.”

He also said the administration had “engaged with Israel on military tactics in a very direct way.” Adding, “I’m not saying that everything went the way we would’ve advised, and I’m not saying we didn’t call them in the middle of the night many times saying, What on earth happened just now?”

Asked what was usually the answer during those calls, Lew said that the administration could “almost never get answers that explained what happened before the story was fully framed in international media.”

Lew claimed that “When the facts were fully developed, it turned out that the casualties were much lower … and in many cases, the children were children of Hamas fighters, not children taking cover in places.”His comment has been criticized as excusing the killing of children in Gaza, the report noted.  Pressed on his statement,  Lew said, “If you’re in a command-and-control center, that’s different than if it’s a school that’s emptied out and innocent civilians are taking shelter there. If you’re the commander of a Hamas unit and you bring your family to a military site, that’s different.”

Ongoing Genocide

Since reneging on the ceasefire on March 18, Israel has continued its bloody aerial bombardment across the Gaza Strip, killing and wounding thousands of Palestinians.

Starting on October 7, 2023, the Israeli military, with American support, launched a genocidal war against the people of Gaza. This campaign has so far resulted in the deaths of more than 63,000 Palestinians, with more than 159,000 wounded. The vast majority of the population has been displaced, and the destruction of infrastructure is unprecedented since World War II. Thousands of people are still missing.

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In addition to the military assault, the Israeli blockade has caused a man-made famine, leading to the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians—mostly children—with hundreds of thousands more at risk.

Despite widespread international condemnation, little has been done to hold Israel accountable. The nation is currently under investigation for genocide by the International Court of Justice, while accused war criminals, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, are officially wanted by the International Criminal Court.

(AJA, PC)

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