Biden's former Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk revealed on CBS's Face the Nation that in December 2024, during a trip to Israel focused on the hostage deal, Benjamin Netanyahu told him and Jake Sullivan that Israel should take out Fordow and Iran's nuclear sites — "clearly contemplating" a strike in the middle of the hostage crisis.
The Biden team's position, as McGurk states it: no strike unless they saw Iran actually moving to a bomb. Sullivan had already told Netanyahu the bombing pitch was of questionable legality and risky. McGurk says a Fordow strike had been war-gamed multiple times, and a Principals Committee meeting was unanimous — if Iran dashed for a bomb, the U.S. would hit Fordow. They never saw the dash. The message to Tehran: "Don't even think about it."
One caveat: this is McGurk's account, tied to his new book. The clip includes no response from Netanyahu, no Israeli confirmation, and none of the underlying intelligence. When Margaret Brennan pressed him on floating a bombing campaign mid-hostage-negotiations, McGurk pointed to the book.