Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Official Photo 2023. Photo courtesy of Avi Ohayon / Government Press Office of Israel, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.
By MITCHELL BARD
First printed as Times of Israel blog
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the master of limbo politics. No matter where you set the bar, he can go lower. The latest example is his smear of former President Joe Biden for Israeli battlefield losses, which is not just cynical; it is disgraceful.
Shift In Responsibility?
Without naming Biden, Netanyahu claimed that Israeli “heroes fell” because the IDF “didn’t have enough ammunition,” implying that a supposed American “embargo” left Israel at a disadvantage. The accusation lacks foundation and was disputed by former defense minister Yoav Gallant, who said the deaths were “certainly not because of munitions.”
Netanyahu is not just revising history—he is altering it to shift responsibility for his failures on Oct. 7.
Political Negligence
Moreover, arguing that the United States is responsible for the IDF’s ammunition supply is misguided. That obligation rests with Israel’s government—and ultimately its prime minister. Netanyahu’s prior defense budgets left troops short of necessities, forcing American Jews to raise funds for basic gear. No “embargo” caused that; political negligence did.
Netanyahu may try to deflect blame onto the Defense Ministry, but he owns the budget, the strategy, and the chain of command. He sent soldiers into battle without proper preparation. If I were the parent of one of those fallen heroes, I would consider that negligence.
Unambiguous Help
Israel’s soldiers fought with extraordinary courage despite these failures. And far from abandoning Israel, Joe Biden helped save it from far greater devastation. I criticized Biden at the time for delaying certain weapons deliveries and withholding 2,000-pound bombs—but criticism does not require dishonesty. Biden showed up in Israel, publicly stood with the country, and backed that commitment with unprecedented material support.
The record is unambiguous. During Biden’s presidency, Israel received more than $25 billion in U.S. military aid. In May 2025, Israel’s own Defense Ministry reported that the United States had dispatched 800 transport planes and 140 ships, delivering over 90,000 tons of weapons and military equipment since the war began—most of it before Donald Trump returned to office.
Someone should ask Netanyahu a harder question: how many Israeli lives would have been lost had Biden not sent U.S. naval forces to the region to counter the Houthis and intercept missiles and drones? The threats the Americans did not neutralize were stopped by Israel’s Arrow missile defense system—co-developed with roughly $4 billion in U.S. funding, including $250 million annually during Biden’s last three years. At the time, I said we should have done more to destroy the Houthis, but Trump did less, agreeing to a ceasefire with them without demanding they end attacks on Israel.
The backbone of Israel’s missile defense, Iron Dome, exists because of more than $6 billion in American assistance. When Israel began running low on interceptors two years before Oct. 7, Biden pushed through a $1 billion emergency resupply. His administration also launched and funded anti-drone cooperation totaling more than $180 million.
Without U.S. forces in the region, how much worse would Iran’s missile and drone barrage have been? Netanyahu prefers to pretend Iran fired blindly at civilians. In reality, it targeted military assets with disturbing precision. The Telegraph reported that satellite radar confirmed direct hits on at least five Israeli military facilities, including Nevatim Air Base, an intelligence site, and a logistics hub—alongside 36 civilian strikes that killed 31 Israelis.
It is worth asking whether Netanyahu’s political standing would be the same if the loss of Israeli lives had been significantly higher due to increased tensions with a U.S. administration actively supporting Israel’s defense.
Even now, Israel relies daily on American weapons to fight Hamas and Hezbollah. Much of Hamas’s tunnel network remains, despite the $47.5 million annually that the Biden administration provided for anti-tunnel cooperation.
Netanyahu’s Accountability
To his credit, Biden directly authorized much of the assistance on an emergency basis, circumventing Congress. He also acted while facing fierce opposition from progressive Democrats.
Amos Hochstein, one of Biden’s top aides, put it best in a post on X:
After more than $20 Billion military support, largest in Israel[i] history, two aircraft carriers rushed to the region, deterring a massive regional war, defeating Iran missile and drone attack twice, defending Israel at most vulnerable moments, after SAVING countless lives of Israelis – only acceptable response to US president Biden and American people is THANK YOU.
Netanyahu owes Israelis accountability, not scapegoats. Joe Biden deserves gratitude—not smears—for helping prevent an already unbearable tragedy from becoming vastly worse.
Dr. Mitchell Bard is the executive director of the nonprofit American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE) and a foreign policy analyst who lectures frequently on U.S.-Middle East policy. He is the director of the Jewish Virtual Library and also the author/editor of 22 books, including The Arab Lobby, Death to the Infidels: Radical Islam’s War Against the Jews and the novel After Anatevka: Tevye in Palestine.
