As President Joe Biden grapples with how to approach America’s relationship with Israel amid the Israel-Hamas war, former President Barack Obama dealt with another crisis in the Middle East in a much different way than Biden has. 

When Biden was Obama’s vice president, Obama had a much different relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu than Biden, which may explain how the two presidents have handled the Israeli-Palestinian crisis in different ways. 

Obama’s cautious approach 

In 2014, Obama dealt with an intense Israeli-Palestinian fight. In 2014, Israel launched a military operation into Gaza after Hamas kidnapped and tortured three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank. What resulted was a battle between Palestinian rockets and Israeli airstrikes that lasted a month and a half, the deadliest fighting the two sides had in decades. 

The Obama administration defended Israel’s right to carry airstrikes to counter Hamas’s rockets. Officials were, however, cautious in the very early days of the conflict about escalating the fighting. 

“No country should be expected to stand by while rocket attacks from a terrorist organization are launching into their country,” Jen Psaki, the State Department’s spokeswoman at the time, said.

“At the same time, in the secretary’s conversation, in the conversations of all of our senior administration officials, they’ve been encouraging all sides to deescalate the situation, and certainly, we don’t want to see any civilian casualties,” Psaki said. 

Early on in the conflict, Obama warned Netanyahu about civilian casualties related to the war, saying he was “deeply concerned.” At the time, the death toll included 300 Palestinians. 

Obama and Netanyahu’s relationship may have been strained, however, from the beginning of Obama’s presidency. In 2009, Obama urged Netanyahu to freeze housing construction on the West Bank in hopes of a peace agreement. Biden was sent to Israel in an attempt to intervene.

“Whenever things were getting out of hand with Israel, Biden was the bridge,” Dennis Ross, a Middle East adviser during Obama’s first term, said. “His commitment to Israel was that strong.”

When Biden visited Israel as vice president in 2010, Netanyahu announced 1,600 new housing units for Jews in East Jerusalem. 

Biden said the move “runs counter to the constructive discussions that I’ve had here in Israel” as he visited the Jewish state to confirm the Obama administration’s “absolute, total, unvarnished commitment to Israel’s security.” 

According to Vox, the Obama-Netanyahu relationship became further strained as conservative Netanyahu believed Republican leadership would better suit the relationship between the United States and Israel.

Biden’s decadeslong hug

In 2014, Biden at the time spoke privately with Obama administration officials about his decadeslong belief that the best way to have a relationship with Israel was to “hug them very close.” The Obama administration rejected that view, according to NBC News. 

Biden believed that mindset was what made it hard for Obama to influence Israel on the Gaza invasion. 

When Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, marking the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust, Biden and many politicians stood on Israel’s side. In the early days of the Israel-Hamas war, Biden became the first sitting president to visit Israel during wartime. 

There, he hugged Netanyahu and said, “I don’t believe you have to be a Jew to be a Zionist, and I am a Zionist.”

During his 36 years as a senator, Biden was one of the most outspoken allies of Israel in American politics. According to Open Secrets, he took in the most donations, compared to other senators, from pro-Israeli groups at $4.2 million. 

“Biden’s connection to Israel is deeply ingrained in his political DNA,” said Aaron David Miller, a former Middle East negotiator. Biden credits his views on Israel to his father, whom he said had no doubt following the Holocaust and World War II that Jews needed Israel. 

Since the recent war, however, Biden has faced intense backlash from Democrats who are asking for a permanent ceasefire from the growing toll of Palestinian civilian deaths. More than 100,000 Michiganders voted “uncommitted” instead of backing Biden in the state’s primary. 

During his State of the Union address, Biden touched on ceasefire agreements. 

“To the leadership of Israel, I say this: Humanitarian assistance cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining chip,” Biden said. “Protecting and saving innocent lives has to be a priority.” 

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Earlier this month, Biden and Netanyahu had a tough phone call on pressure domestically and abroad on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

A spokesperson for the National Security Council told CNN that the pair continue to have a “good and productive relationship that goes back decades,” which “allows President Biden to be honest and direct when needed.”