Nervous Democrats press Biden on Gaza ahead of State of the Union address
Mainstream Democrats, seeing the politics of Israel’s war in Gaza shifting against them, are urging President Biden to become much more outspoken in his criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government and to be much more outspoken in his demands for a long-term solution to the conflict. the conflict that includes a Palestinian state.
At the start of the war, with memories fresh of Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel that claimed some 1,200 lives, Jewish Democrats, who had grown restless over Netanyahu’s rule more than a year ago, largely rallied behind Biden, while firmly siding with Israel. .
But as the death toll in Gaza rises inexorably, many are urging the president not so much to change policy but to become the voice of his administration’s own demands for a Ramadan ceasefire, more humanitarian aid, greater reductions in Jewish settler violence, and long-term peace that includes a Palestinian state.
“We hope that a strategy for peace and an end to this nightmare will be laid out in the State of the Union,” Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, a prominent Jewish Democrat, said Wednesday. “No one can question Biden’s commitment to Israel’s security, and no one can question his career-long commitment to human rights and international law. This is the moment when the world needs American leadership for peace.”
Mr. Raskin returned to earlier criticism of Mr. Netanyahu’s governing coalition, the most right-wing in Israel’s history, adding: “Democrats believe that we do not take orders from right-wing politicians in America, and neither should we should do.” orders from right-wing politicians in another country.”
Well over a dozen Jewish Democrats in the House of Representatives were in charge a critical letter at the end of last month He demands that Mr Biden will “redouble” his efforts to reach a ceasefire that will allow more humanitarian aid to Gaza’s starving residents. Many of the same lawmakers warned Wednesday of an Israeli attack on the town of Rafah, along the Gaza-Egypt border, where hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians have taken shelter.
Senators Cory Booker of New Jersey and Michael Bennet of Colorado returned from the region on Wednesday and spoke out in opposition “extremist settler violence against Palestinian civilians” in the West Bank and the “urgent need for much more robust and consistent” humanitarian assistance to Gaza.
Senator Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, took to the Senate to name far-right Israeli cabinet members Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich for blocking food aid. Mr Van Hollen invoked federal law that says military aid must be withheld from a government that blocks US humanitarian aid. On Wednesday, he emphasized that such a blockade would exclude air and missile defense systems, and he reiterated his demand for an answer from the State Department on why the law has not yet been invoked.
The leaders of these efforts come not from the party’s far left, which has been critical of the Gaza war almost from the start, but from the Democratic mainstream.
“I want the president to use his power to broker a ceasefire and bring in much-needed humanitarian aid,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, a veteran lawmaker from Massachusetts. “Some of us are frustrated. We have more influence here than we use.”
Patrick Gaspard, former Obama administration ambassador to South Africa and now head of the Center for American Progress, the Democratic establishment think tank, used social media this week to say that the federal government should “drop aid to Gaza because Netanyahu’s government is not allowing food to its starving population while shooting hundreds of civilians.”
Mr Gaspard added: “This is the surreal, powerless and cruel reality.”
That’s partly because the political risks for Democrats are clear. Tuesday night’s celebration for Rep. Adam Schiff, a Jewish Democrat who finished first in the race to capture an open Senate seat in California, was marred by noisy demonstrators who shouted ‘Liberate Palestine’ and ‘Let Gaza live’.
Even critics of Israel, like Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, are battle with squatters They demand that they take stronger positions against Israel. Biden endured another embarrassment Tuesday night when “uncommitted” won nearly 46,000 votes — 19 percent of the total — in the Minnesota primary, amid a campaign by Democrats protesting his policies in Gaza.
Democrats say they are not looking for large-scale shifts in U.S. policy. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken has made clear that the administration only sees long-term peace through the creation of an autonomous Palestinian state. The State Department is seeking new entry points for much more humanitarian aid to starving Gazans, and ministry officials have singled out “Israeli government ministers” for blocking the release of flour and supporting protests that threaten the stopped the flow of food aid.
And Vice President Kamala Harris was more forceful last weekend in her demand for an “immediate ceasefire” during Ramadan this month, placing responsibility on both Hamas and Israel.
“It is imperative that the United States fulfill our commitment to end this conflict,” Mr. Booker said on Wednesday after returning from consultations in Jordan, Israel and the West Bank. “We must remember that the path to a just and lasting peace depends on our renewed commitment to a comprehensive two-state solution.”
But Democrats say Mr. Biden should be the face of such policies.
“Most Democrats would like to see President Biden, whose emotional intelligence is soaring, recognize and acknowledge the humanity of everyone caught up in this nightmare in Israel and Gaza,” Mr. Raskin said.
Mr. McGovern was more blunt with his State of the Union demands: “I want him to say that the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza is unacceptable and that I am going to do something about it,” he said, “and I intend to do something about it.” I’m going to do more than just issue a statement.”
The tension will almost certainly be reflected during the State of the Union address on Thursday evening. Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana has made a show of inviting Mia Schem, a released Jewish hostage captured by Hamas on October 7. The families of no fewer than seventeen hostages will be present Thursday evening to remind Biden of their continued captivity, as guests of Republicans and Democrats.
“As Hamas’s propagandists and unwitting proxies attempt to turn the world against Israel, it is critical that we stand firm, remember who started this war, and not forget the hostages and their loved ones,” Representative Mike Lawler said, Republican of New York, to The New York Times. Jewish insider.
On the other hand, Representative Cori Bush, Democrat of Missouri and an outspoken critic of Israel and the Biden administration, will bring Intimaa Salama, a Palestinian dentist and graduate student from St. Louis University.
“Thirty-five family members of Dr. Salama have been murdered in the last 150 days,” Mrs. Bush said in announcing her guest. “This is an incalculable loss.”
Most Democrats are careful to say their demands are in line with the administration, not in opposition to it. More than thirty Democrats from the House of Representatives on Wednesday released a letter “to express our deep sense of urgency and concern about the potentially devastating consequences for innocent civilians of an Israeli military ground invasion of Rafah.”
The letter also denounced “calls by members of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government for illegal policies such as the expulsion and transfer of civilians.”
But Democrats insisted they were merely “supporting the warnings of Biden administration officials.”