While he was in office, the media often described former President Joe Biden's approach to Israel as a "bear hug." Yedioth Ahronoth, the Israeli newspaper of record, defined it as "holding someone close in order to restrain him, not just to show love." By providing military aid and moral support to Israel's war effort, Biden's supporters argued, the president would be able to tell Israeli leaders hard truths behind closed doors and convince them to de-escalate the war.
The Trump administration has publicly rejected this approach. "My understanding of the bear hug from what I've been reading is a hovering kind of control over Israel's decisions," said Elbridge Colby, whom Trump has nominated as undersecretary of defense for policy, at his confirmation hearing this week. "We should be looking for allies who are able but also willing to do things more autonomously and take action."
But President Donald Trump may be succeeding using the exact same strategy that Biden failed at. Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir vowed on Wednesday that 2025 would be "a year of war" with a focus on Gaza and Iran. Trump is simply not letting it happen. The same day as Zamir's declaration, the White House confirmed that the U.S. government was in direct talks with Hamas for the first time in decades. Behind the scenes, the Israeli government reportedly told the Trump administration that it felt blindsided and annoyed by the U.S. going behind its back.
