HALIFAX, Canada — One year ago, former senior Pentagon official Michèle Flournoy signed onto a letter standing by President Joe Biden’s support for Israel after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.

Now, Flournoy, who served as under secretary of defense for policy in the Obama administration, fears that Israel’s conduct in Gaza during its more than yearlong war against Hamas has weakened its standing in the world. It’s a problem she blames chiefly on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“You may win the battle but lose the war. Israel is losing political support and its moral standing around the world, and I worry about it. Support for Israel has always been strongly bipartisan, and that’s starting to crumble,” Flournoy told Jewish Insider on Sunday in an interview at the Halifax International Security Forum. “I really worry about that for long-term security.”

Flournoy, who is a well-known figure in Democratic foreign policy circles in Washington, stood by Biden’s approach to the war in Gaza. The problem, she argued, is Netanyahu. Her thinking — as someone close to the Biden administration and as a Democrat known for relatively moderate views on foreign policy — is an important signal of how Democrats more broadly may be looking at the Middle East.

“I think the administration has tried from the beginning to walk the line of being staunchly supportive of Israel’s right to defend itself and retaliate for Oct. 7 against Hamas, while also counseling Israel on, ‘Are there ways to prosecute this war that are more discriminate and reduce civilian harm, tend to the civilian suffering that’s a byproduct?’ And I think they [the Biden administration] should get credit for trying,” said Flournoy, who is managing partner of the consulting firm WestExec Advisors, which she co-founded in 2017 with now-Secretary of State Tony Blinken. 

“The fact is that Bibi Netanyahu has chosen not to listen most of the time,” added Flournoy, who was a top contender to serve as secretary of defense in the Biden administration. “He has resisted good advice from every quarter, even his most experienced national security professionals inside Israel, and certainly from a friendly administration that’s been trying to be supportive of Israel and help it not lose the war because of the way it’s prosecuting the battle.”

Nineteen Democratic senators voted last week to block certain weapons shipments to Israel, and Flournoy said she wasn’t surprised by the number, which alarmed pro-Israel Democrats who hoped the measures would receive fewer votes.

“Even among people who historically have been very strong supporters of Israel, there’s a lot of frustration. The war has gone on at such a high strategic cost to Israel in terms of its growing political isolation,” she explained. 

When asked whether Biden should have considered restricting U.S. weapons shipments to Israel, Flournoy drew a distinction between defensive and offensive weapons — a line that Biden himself has mostly avoided, save for one shipment of large offensive weapons that he withheld to pressure Israel not to mount a major military offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

“I don’t think it would be correct or wise for the United States to restrict defensive weapons supply to Israel, the weapons that Israel is using to defend Israelis,” said Flournoy. “When you look at the offensive weapons supply, I think maybe there were moments earlier on where a cut-off could have been more impactful, but I think at that point it wasn’t appropriate.”

Regarding Lebanon, Flournoy said, there is a chance the Biden administration could still reach a cease-fire deal with Hezbollah, but she doubts that progress will be made on a hostage-for-cease-fire deal in Gaza. Because Netanyahu is so eager for President-elect Donald Trump’s return, Flournoy said Trump may be able to pressure Netanyahu to make concessions to end the war that Biden did not achieve.

“I think Bibi has been waiting for Trump,” Flournoy noted. “I still don’t know if it’s likely, but I think he is more willing to consider some negotiated package with Trump than he was with Biden.”