Ex-Obama aides become Biden critics on Gaza

Correction: Story was updated to reflect Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.)’s stance on military aid to Israel.

Some of former President Obama’s most prominent aides have increased their criticism of President Biden — this time over his handling of the Israel-Hamas war.

Jon Favreau, Ben Rhodes and David Axelrod are among the former Obama administration officials who have dinged Biden in recent weeks for not speaking up about his misgivings with Israel’s handling of the war.

The frustrations from fellow Democrats underscore the growing rift in the party as the war drags into its seventh month. The disapproval from Obama World came after a report suggested Biden was privately “angry” but not willing to change U.S. policy on Israel after the killing of seven World Central Kitchen by Israeli airstrike.

“The President doesn’t get credit for being ‘privately enraged’ when he still refuses to use leverage to stop the IDF from killing and starving innocent people. These stories only make him look weak,” Favreau, a former assistant to Obama and director of speechwriting, wrote on the social platform X. 

The White House has since sharpened its tone toward Israel. The day after Favreau’s post,  Biden told Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that U.S. policy will now be “determined” on concrete steps Israel must take to protect civilians and allow additional badly needed humanitarian aid to enter Gaza.

But unlike some contingents of Democrats who say Biden has lost their vote in November, Favreau noted in a follow-up post that he would still back the president. 

“I’m voting for Joe Biden, campaigning for Joe Biden, love most of what Joe Biden has done, but hate his Israel policy and want it to change. Not sure why that’s hard to get,” Favreau said.

Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser and speechwriter, echoed a similar sentiment.

“The U.S. government is still supplying 2 thousand pound bombs and ammunition to support Israel’s policy. Until there are substantive consequences, this outrage does nothing. Bibi obviously doesn’t care what the U.S. says, its about what the U.S. does,” Rhodes wrote on X. 

Rhodes’s Israel stance during the Obama administration earned him the nickname “Hamas,” coined by then-chief of staff Rahm Emanuel because of how critical he was of Israel, Rhodes revealed in his memoir “The World As It Is.”

Meanwhile, top Obama adviser David Axelrod, who’s been vocally critical of Biden at times, did not name the president in his tweet regarding the deaths of the aid workers, but the direction of his frustration was clear. 

“The murder of seven heroic World Central Kitchen workers in Gaza should be a bright red line.  Israel has the right to defend itself against barbaric acts of terrorism, not to indiscriminately kill innocents or valiant men and women who are working to save them from starvation,” Axelrod wrote on X.

A source familiar with the White House noted the significance of the former Obama aides being outspoken about Biden’s Israel policy in the middle of a reelection campaign.

“It’s like, jarring,” the source said. “When you’re still part of the team, so to speak — the D team or the blue team — people are often scared to be critical.”

Other Democrats point to a broader discourse within the party over how to handle the key ally.

“I think we’re having a big debate in the Democratic Party about what to do in the Middle East, and there isn’t unanimity on this,” Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg said. “But I think it’s a debate. I don’t think it’s become something deeply divisive and corrosive to Biden, as we’ve seen, because his poll numbers are coming up.”

Obama and Biden’s strong personal relationship was visible on stage at a recent New York City fundraiser, when Obama praised the president alongside former President Clinton.

“The reason why I originally selected Joe Biden to be my vice president … and the reason why I think he has been an outstanding president is because he has moral conviction and clarity,” Obama said.

“But he also is willing to acknowledge that the world is complicated, and that he’s willing to listen to all sides in this debate and every other debate and try to see if we can find common ground,” he continued. “That’s the kind of president I want.”

Sources who spoke to The Hill pointed to the differences between Obama and Biden’s approach to Netanyahu.

Biden, a former Senate Foreign Relations chair, is a product of Washington’s traditional foreign policy view, while Obama was viewed as confronting the criticisms of America’s interventionist past.

There are lingering tensions between the two teams, which broke out into the open when Axelrod in November said Biden should reconsider running for reelection.

Tensions between the two teams dates back to 2015. Biden wrote in his 2017 book, “Promise Me, Dad,” that Obama “had been subtly weighing in against” a Biden White House run, and he believed at the time that Obama concluded then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would be the nominee.

“The Biden people are very sensitive about the ‘Pod Save America’ guy,” the source familiar with the White House said, referring to Favreau, who hosts the podcast.

“It’s part of this never-ending chip on their shoulder about the way that progressive establishment Democrats and Obama White House vets have always treated Biden and the Biden campaign,” the source said. “It’s rooted in all this stuff.”

Some members of the party argued there were more effective ways to communicate the misgivings with the Biden administration than through social media.

“I feel like those folks who are weighing in on social media have the ability to pick up the phone and express their viewpoints to folks who are at the decisionmaking table,” Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright said.

Increasing the pressure on the administration to soften its pro-Israel stance, some Democrats have been casting protest votes against Biden in primaries in states including Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Mark Burton, a former chief strategist for Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), said the strike against the humanitarian workers was a “pivot point” for Biden, but suggested the pivot could have come sooner.

“I think that’s a part of the frustration that people are feeling in terms of the issue as a whole and in terms of the president’s and the White House posture towards it, is that that was an egregious act,” Burton said. “It was felt around the world. But there have been other instances that … probably should have become pivot points long ago.”

Biden has faced criticism for his handling of the war in the Middle East from allies in Congress, too.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said Sunday that while he was glad to see Biden threaten Netanyahu with consequences for not focusing on humanitarian needs, he wants the White House to outline what the repercussions would be.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has also pushed Biden to cut off military aid to Israel over civilian casualties, telling “Pod Save America” on Thursday, “The idea that we’re sending bombs, the idea that we’re sending money to Netanyahu is, to me, reprehensible.”

Sanders added, though, that his argument for Democrats is to still back Biden.

“All that I ask is, let’s not make a horrible situation even worse. Trump will be worse on that issue, let alone every other issue,” Sanders said.

Favreau, promoting the interview with Sanders, highlighted the difference between policy disagreements and withholding support from Biden.

“Bernie makes one of the best cases for re-electing Biden I’ve heard from a surrogate, even while being critical of his Gaza policy (yes, both things are quite possible!)” the Obama speechwriter wrote on X.

Story updated at 10:48 p.m.