Washington
“Bear hug” is a phrase often used to describe the United States’ relationship with Israel, its biggest ally in the Middle East. There are two main ideas behind this: protection and coercion.
Various American presidents have moved this pendulum more to one side or more to the other, but perhaps never as quickly or as intensely as Joe Biden did during the current confrontation with Gaza. For analysts, the likely consequence of the postwar period will be the emergence of a new dynamic in this relationship.
Biden's response to the attacks by the terrorist group Hamas was initially full support for Tel Aviv, militarily, diplomatically and politically. The American president distanced himself from the mild tone for which he is known and gave the most emphatic speeches of his presidency, visibly moved by the violence suffered by his ally. “I am a Zionist,” he said.
Biden described the attacks almost graphically, reproducing Israeli reports of beheadings of babies and raping women, and reiterated that the U.S. was “100%” on Tel Aviv's side. Just over a week after the attacks, the American personally traveled to Israel and, in a symbolic image, hugged Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu as he exited Air Force One.
But shortly afterwards he warned with regard to the Iraq war: “Don’t make the same mistakes we made.”
The US has maintained a constant presence on Israeli territory with the aim of supporting and moderating military operations. Speaking on condition of anonymity, White House officials said Israel's plans for the offensive were initially “very problematic” and were changed under Washington's leadership.
But publicly, criticism from the international community and human rights organizations of the deaths of civilians in Gaza was countered by members of the government with the mantra that Israel had the right and duty to defend itself, coupled with questions about the reliability of the numbers. counted by Hamasaffiliated Palestinian authorities.
Two months later, it's hard to imagine the hugging scene repeating itself. Last week, in a gesture of break, Biden publicly criticized Netanyahu, labeled the Gaza bombings “indiscriminate,” recommended “more care” for civilians and said the Israeli government does not want a twostate solution.
The statements underlined a new approach by aid groups, which in recent days have increased the tone of their warnings about the impact of the operations on civilians and called for more humanitarian aid.
The recalculation of the route suggests the loss of strength of the “bear hug” diplomacy championed by Biden, which brought him into conflict with Barack Obama at various times when he was vice president.
Reports on the relationship between the two point to Tel Aviv as one of the main points of friction. Although both agreed on the need to resume negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, Obama believed that Netanyahu would only return to the negotiating table if public pressure was applied, while Biden defended a behindthescenes approach for fear of alienating his ally to upset.
“Biden believes he can control the events of the IsraelHamas war by embracing himself, with this bear hug, by being very close to the Israelis,” said Ilai Saltzman, director of the Gildenhorn Institute for Israel Studies at the University of Israel Maryland.
“The approach of the Obama administration was that by creating this gap, this kind of separation, you can be more objective about the Palestinians and the Arab world and also make your own decisions,” Saltzman adds.
However, in his view, Obama's approach failed ultimately Israel did not accept a complete halt to new settlements in the West Bank and around Jerusalem, as demanded by the former American president and Palestinian leaders, which led to the failure of the intention.
Biden has already won some victories, such as preventing Israel from escalating the confrontation in Lebanon, accessing humanitarian aid and pausing attacks to allow hostages to leave the region. But Israel's breach of that ceasefire and resumption of ground operations marked a turning point for the US, which has since made public the behindthescenes pressure that culminated in Biden's remarks last week.
Added to this is the disagreement about what should happen to Gaza after the war. While Israel signals its intention to retain some control over the area, the Americans defend a solution under the command of the Palestinian Authority. The dispute, which was fought in secret, also became public in the past few days.
The realignment of US diplomacy is also a response to internal pressure. The left wing of his own party criticized the president's full support for Tel Aviv from the start. Originally isolated, this group grew to include more moderate names over time as the humanitarian crisis escalated.
In addition to partisan politics, public opinion in the United States has also become more critical of Israel, reflected in local press coverage of the confrontation and in opinion polls.
“The war highlighted changing trends in the special relationship between the United States and Israel,” Saltzman says. “Polls show that Republicans are more inclined to support the state of Israel. As a Democrat, less so. This means that Israel has become a partisan issue, which was not the case before.”
For the expert, there is also the generational aspect with longterm consequences for the relationship between countries. “These young people who are most critical of Israel today will be the face of American society in the future, which will become less and less tied to the State of Israel.”