President Joe Biden has taken to privately disparaging his Israeli counterpart, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after months of not listening to his pleas for a cease-fire halting the country’s brutal assault on the Gaza Strip. Several sources told NBC News Biden has called Netanyahu an “asshole”—and says the Israeli leader is “giving him hell.” The strong language is a change from Biden’s public position, with a spokesperson for the National Security Council saying in a statement: “The president has been clear where he disagrees with Prime Minister Netanyahu, but this is a decades-long relationship that is respectful in public and in private.”
