President Joe Biden has reportedly been taking shots at former President Barack Obama’s approach to Israel amid backlash from many within his party and his administration, five people familiar with Biden’s comments told NBC News.
The president has recently recounted a story from his vice presidency in which Obama and some of his staffers reportedly denounced Biden’s belief that the best way to treat Israel was to “hug them close but not criticize them,” the five unnamed sources told NBC. Biden shared the story in order to argue that he was right to back Israel in 2014 and continues to be right as the current Israel-Hamas war rages on, the people familiar with Biden’s remarks told the outlet.
While sharing his 2014 story, Biden noted that Obama reprimanded Israel throughout its 2014 conflict with Hamas while showing concern for Palestinian civilian deaths, the people familiar told NBC News. Doing so, Biden reportedly claimed, hurt the United States’ ability to exercise influence over Israel’s offensive operations in Gaza at the time, NBC reported.
That conflict lasted from early July until late August of 2014 and left over 2,000 Palestinians and 71 Israelis dead.
“If this was the Obama years, we would’ve been a lot more publicly critical than we have been by now,” a senior administration official told the outlet. “And that wouldn’t work. We wouldn’t have the influence.”
Since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, Biden has played an influential role in pushing the parties to agree to a humanitarian pause so hostages could be released. The also president worked behind the scenes to influence Israel’s ground invasion, encouraging the nation’s leaders to scale back the operation.
Vice President Kamala Harris, U.S. President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama participate an event to mark the 2010 passage of the Affordable Care Act in the East Room of the White House on April 05, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Since pledging his unwavering commitment to Israel after Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack, the president has faced backlash from within his own party and even his own administration over his stance. A coalition of State Department staffers accused the president of “spreading misinformation” with his remarks on the Israel-Hamas war.
Allies of the president worry that Biden’s close relationship with Israel could cost him to the votes of young Democrats and Muslim Americans. (RELATED: Former Kamala Aides Revolt Against Her For Being Too Pro-Israel)
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said during the Monday press briefing that the president “believes right down to his core that the approach he’s been taking is getting results.”
“The approach we’re taking now is working,” Kirby added.