Former Obama administration official Ben Rhodes said he is disappointed in the Biden administration’s early support for pro-Israel policies but suggested that he does not think Biden officials are supportive of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In a podcast conversation with anti-Zionist writer Peter Beinart posted Wednesday, Rhodes said the Biden administration is approaching Israel “in a defensive crouch,” too beholden to pro-Israel forces in the United States.
“It feels like we’re in the defensive crouch,” Rhodes said of the Biden administration, adding that “these issues are shaped and framed and defined from the right” and that “if you’re a mainstream Democrat not only are you expected to take a set of positions, but you are expected to apologize for the people to your left.”
