Opinion: 'Hug Bibi' strategy: Ben Rhodes shows how Democrats lost the plot on Gaza

In a recent New York Times column, one of former President Barack Obama’s closest advisers, Ben Rhodes, offered a long-overdue and merciless analysis of how badly the US Democratic Party has mismanaged the Gaza tragedy - and more broadly, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over the past decade.

He summarised the Biden administration’s policy after 7 October 2023 as the “hug Bibi” strategy, referencing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The assumption was that “smothering Mr. Netanyahu with unconditional support would give the U.S. leverage to influence his actions”. 

Never has an assumption been more wrong.

Netanyahu, a true master in deceiving the Washington establishment, bamboozled a US administration once again. He took everything from President Joe Biden without conceding anything; the notorious US leverage was thus absent in Gaza.

Read more: 'Hug Bibi' strategy: Ben Rhodes shows how Democrats lost the plot on Gaza Opinion by Marco Carnelos