Was Joe Biden a Liasion Between Israel and Egypt During the Six-Day War?

A viral tweet accuses President Joe Biden of lying about having served as a liaison between Israel and Egypt during the Six-Day War in June 1967. 

Biden’s comment came during a menorah lighting in celebration of Hanukkah last Wednesday, where the president  said: “I have known every—every prime minister well since Golda Meir, including Golda Meir. And during the Six-Day War, I had an opportunity to—she invited me to come over because I was going to be the liaison between she and the Egyptians about the Suez, and so on and so forth.”

The Six-Day War was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab states, including Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, and took place from June 5 to June 10, 1967. At that time, Biden was still a student at Syracuse University College of Law, from which he graduated in 1968. While a member of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, during the conflict, Golda Meir would not become prime minister until 1969, serving in that role until 1974.

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Comments (10)
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  • Stupidest thing Biden’s said all week…

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  • Joe Biden is a congenital liar. Period.

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  • I understand that a novice could confuse the 6 Day War in 1967 with the Yom Kippur 1973 war. I do not expect that a self-described foreign policy expert would do so, and I don't expect him to confuse them while claiming extensive foreign policy experience as a qualification during a presidential campaign. Knowing the difference between these wars constitutes a basic understanding of the history of a key U.S. ally in such a volatile area of the world. Inexcusable.
    Additionally, why in God's name does this man insist on inflating his accomplishments and importance? He's been elected a dozen? times to an important political body in the United States. He's been the Vice President, he's now the President. Why all the polish?
    He was a snot-nosed 31 year old know-nothing-about-foreign-policy-or-power 1st year Senator during that trip to Egypt and Israel in 1973. He had no background in anything, it was probably supposed to be a listening tour for him on a Congressional trip. There's no way in hell the Nixon administration gave him an important side-role. Why the hell does he have to put decorations on everything he has ever done?

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    1. Well, at least he was right that Egypt wouldn't attack Israel because Sadat recognized Israel's military superiority. Oh, wait...

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  • So it’s just an old man with a bad memory who likes to inflate his record because he doesn’t have enough accomplishments after sixty years in Congress to just tell the truth. Got it. Thank you.

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  • On its own this isn't a big deal. But it's not an isolated event. It's not uncommon for President Biden to be... exaggerating his own importance and fudging a bit on the details. (Generally doing the kind of thing that would make kids shout "Liar, liar, pants on fire!") He's done that his entire political career. His history of mendacity makes it hard to know if this is just Biden being Biden or if he's genuinely confused about when this happened. The latter possibility is rather concerning given his current job. I suspect that it's a little bit of both.

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    1. The Atlantic had an interesting article last year describing Biden's struggles with a stutter, and how that seems to roll into some of his problems with public speaking. Still, you're right - Biden has a history of self-aggrandizement, seems to be kind of insecure and thin-skinned, and he's just really old. It's weird that he'd still be feeling insecure at this point. He's been elected President of the United States of America. There are only 46 people who've done that over a couple of centuries, and he's one of only 5 living Americans today out of 330 million who've done it. If he can't feel that's an accomplishment, what is?

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  • I thought the 6 day war was the Yom Kippur war. Now I know the difference. The 6 day war a little before my time. He should know the difference, though.

    "Liaison - communication or cooperation which facilitates a working relationship.
    between people."

    Like Biden talking to the Egyptian leader and telling Mier what was said. Of course no one knows if he was unofficially asked to do that. I suppose it could just been a whim on his part.

    Thanks for clearing all this up fir me.

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