Could the Israel-Gaza war cost Biden the election?
Americast
BBC
4.3 • 3.1K Ratings
🗓️ 4 April 2024
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Joe Biden and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Thursday for the first time since the killing of seven aid workers in Gaza this week. Netanyahu has called the incident an “unintended strike”, but the White House has said it’s ‘outraged’.
Back home, US policy toward the Gaza war is causing problems for the president. A growing campaign of voters are using their ballot to protest Biden’s handling of the crisis.
Jeremy Bowen joins us from Jerusalem to assess whether the US/Israel relationship has ever been this strained and we assess how Joe Biden can deal with the domestic ramifications of the war ahead of the 2024 election.
HOSTS: • Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenter • Anthony Zurcher, North America correspondent • Katty Kay US Special Correspondent
GUEST: • Jeremy Bowen, International Editor
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This episode was made by Chris Flynn with Rufus Gray, Catherine Fusillo, Claire Betzer and Natasha Mayo. The technical producer was Philip Bull. The series producer is George Dabby. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
| 0:05.0 | It's 25 to 3 in the afternoon here in London, and I mentioned that because by the time you |
| 0:11.0 | listen to this, there probably will have been details |
| 0:14.0 | issued of a phone call that's taking place between President Biden and Prime Minister |
| 0:17.9 | Netanyahu of Israel that's going to be released to the public the first conversation that the two of them have had since that |
| 0:24.5 | airstrike in Gaza that killed an American citizen along with six other world |
| 0:29.0 | Central Kitchen humanitarian aid workers so this was the initial response, the Biden White House response. |
| 0:37.3 | It came from the National Security Council coordinator John Kirby and the and the press secretary, Karen Jean-Pierre. |
| 0:44.0 | We were outraged to learn of an IDF strike |
| 0:47.0 | that killed a number of civilian humanitarian workers yesterday |
| 0:49.0 | from the World Central Kitchen, |
| 0:51.0 | which has been relentless in working to get food to those who are hungry in |
| 0:54.5 | Gaza and quite frankly around the world. |
| 0:57.2 | I want to read out the president, the president who, the president's call, he called |
| 1:02.3 | Chef Jose Andres to express that he's heartbroken by this news. |
| 1:07.8 | The president conveyed he will make clear to Israel that humanitarian aid workers must be protected. |
| 1:15.4 | That word outrage, very strong and diplomatic language between allies, and very different |
| 1:19.8 | of course from what Joe Biden was saying just a few days after the attacks of |
| 1:25.2 | October the 7th. In this moment we must be crystal clear we stand with Israel we stand with Israel. |
| 1:33.0 | We stand with Israel. |
| 1:36.0 | The question now whether that crystal clarity is still there |
| 1:40.0 | and whether American domestic politics are getting in the way, and also the impact of all of this and the war in the Middle East on American domestic politics in this most hugely important of election years. |
... |
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