Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week set off a firestorm on the American and Israeli left when he accurately claimed that some Israeli soldiers died in battle due to the policies of the Biden administration. 

Former Biden senior officials like Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk rushed to condemn Netanyahu, claiming his statements were untrue. According to their version of history, Biden saved Israel from destruction and Netanyahu should just say thanks.

Well here are three truth bombs to set the record straight.

First, while President Donald Trump’s first-term maximum pressure campaign had brought the regime in Tehran to the verge of economic collapse, President Joe Biden and his team freed up billions of dollars for Iran in pursuit of a worse nuclear deal than the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), allowing Iran’s budget for terror proxies to explode in the months leading up to October 7. Horrifyingly, that appeasement program continued for the rest of Biden’s term, putting America and Israel in danger the entire time.

Second, after President Trump had cut off U.S. funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) – a Hamas sponsor and enabler in Gaza – and tightened anti-terror restrictions for other groups operating in Gaza, Team Biden pumped a billion dollars into UNRWA before October 7 and made it easier for money to flow into Hamas’ hands. Shockingly, after Congress intervened to ban further funding after the massacre, Team Biden pushed U.S. allies to increase their contributions – undermining Israel and empowering Hamas the entire time.

Third, BDS was the Biden policy toward Israel in 2024 – imposing the first-ever sanctions regime targeting Israel, launching investigations into the Israeli military and – yes – imposing a military embargo on key munitions and equipment Israel needed to fight. That embargo stayed in effect until January 20, 2025 at Noon when Donald J. Trump became president.

One would think that October 7 would have changed the Biden Team’s worldview on the Middle East – making them understand that pressuring Israel while coddling Iran was a sure way to embolden the ayatollah to escalate on all fronts. But they didn’t. 

Biden and his team let the UN missile embargo expire just a few days after the massacre rather than trigger the snapback of UN sanctions (which Trump pushed European allies to complete in late 2025). Biden’s weakness invited Iran to kill U.S. soldiers through proxies, and to cross the Rubicon by launching direct missile and drone attacks against Israel.

After Iran’s first missile attack, the Biden administration restrained Israel from retaliating, so emboldening Khamenei that Tehran did it again a few months later. Hochstein and McGurk want to give Biden credit for coordinating with Israel to defend against those missiles and drones while ignoring their role in both subsidizing their production and encouraging their use. But in truth, the Biden administration was a Middle East arsonist playing firefighter.

As if this all wasn’t problematic enough, the Biden team also withheld weapons, imposed sanctions on Israelis, and tried to force Israel into a surrender on the battlefields of Gaza and northern Israel.

Making matters worse, the Biden team completely messed up the Israeli-Saudi normalization track by pushing the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia away and tying normalization into a Gordian Knot by being more pro-Palestinian than Riyadh was, all because Senate Democrats were so anti-Saudi and anti-Israel that they demanded normalization come with Palestinian statehood concessions.

In fairness to the Biden team, they did fund both sides of the war. In the days following October 7, the administration spearheaded a historic airlift of munitions to help Israel prepare for war – all while subsidizing Iran’s seven fronts. And President Biden in those early days took to the airwaves to urge Congress to pass a historic emergency funding bill to help Israel win.

But let’s also remember the political framing of Biden’s support for Israel in his address to the nation. At the time, he was fighting with the Republican House over a large supplemental for Ukraine. And he tied emergency support for Israel into that fight to get the Ukraine funding across the finish line. In his speech, he compared Hamas to Vladimir Putin – language that quickly disappeared from any Biden official’s lexicon within a few weeks.

After Hamas violated the first ceasefire and halted the release of hostages, the political winds in Washington shifted on Biden. The left-wing radical protesters started getting to the president’s team. Ballot initiatives, primary threats, and delegate stress started weighing on them.

This is when the pressure campaign on Israel was green-lighted at senior levels. We’re now in early 2024. Sanctions are imposed – on Israel – while Biden continues waiving sanctions on Iran to give the mullahs access to billions. Much-needed bombs, ammunition and bomb-clearing bulldozers are being held up. Vice President Kamala Harris tells us she’s studied the map of Rafah!

At this point, Hochstein pushed a plan to get an immediate ceasefire on the Israel-Lebanon border while Hezbollah remained at full strength and northern Israel was evacuated. It would be the worst move possible for Israel’s security. Watching it all play out was Khamenei who internalized America holding Israel back from victory.

It is within this context — America imposing sanctions on Israel, withholding weapons, trying to force premature ceasefires, waiving sanctions on Iran, still appeasing the mullahs — that Khamenei believed he had the flexibility to launch missiles directly at Israel without paying a heavy price.

He bet that the U.S. would scramble to defend Israel and then restrain Israel from retaliating. Khamenei was proven correct, leading him to do it again months later.

The truth is that the history of Israel’s victory over the Iran Axis turns on three key moments. First, Israel rejecting the Hochstein plan and instead launching a surprise attack on Hezbollah leadership in Beirut – severely degrading Iran’s flagship terror proxy on Israel’s border. Second, Israel defying Team Biden’s pressure and responding more forcefully to Iran’s second wave of missile attacks in 2024 – degrading Iran’s air defenses and exposing the reality that the Ayatollah had no clothes. And third, Donald J. Trump winning the 2024 election, lifting the embargo on Israel, withdrawing Biden’s sanctions on Israel, cutting off UNRWA, and working with Israel to set back Iran’s nuclear threat for years.

Hochstein and McGurk say Netanyahu should just say “thank you” to Team Biden. But no amount of Trump Derangement Syndrome in America or Netanyahu Derangement Syndrome in Israel can change the facts of what transpired.

Richard Goldberg is a senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD).