In the days after Hamas launched an unprecedented assault on Israel from Gaza, killing 1,400 people and taking more than 240 hostages, nearly every elected Democratic official vowed unwavering support for Israel and its right to self-defense. Those who did not were condemned swiftly and unequivocally by their fellow Democrats, Republicans and the White House.
Now one month into the war, as Israeli troops intensify their ground invasion of Gaza and the Palestinian death toll surpasses 10,000, of which more than 4,100 are children, according to the health ministry in Gaza, Democrats are in turmoil, divided over the American response to the conflict. As calls for a ceasefire gain traction among their supporters, Democrats are split between those increasingly more critical of Israel’s response to the terrorist attacks and those who are doubling down on unrestricted support for Israel.
Those fissures tore open on the House floor on Tuesday, where 22 Democrats joined nearly all Republicans to formally rebuke the chamber’s lone Palestinian American, the Michigan congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, for her rhetoric about Israel’s war in Gaza.
The shift in tone and substance is notable in Washington, where support for Israel is one of the few sentiments shared deeply by both parties. Even as left-leaning voters, especially young progressives, have grown increasingly critical of Israel, the vast majority of elected Democrats count themselves as staunch allies of the Jewish state. In the wake of 7 October, sympathy for Israel spiked among Democrats.
While still pledging unambiguous support for Israel, Biden administration officials and leading Democrats in Congress have started to deliver increasingly urgent warnings about Israel’s military operations and the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
“The current rate of civilian death inside Gaza is unacceptable and unsustainable,” Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator from Connecticut and an influential member of the foreign affairs committee, said in a statement last week. “I urge Israel to immediately reconsider its approach and shift to a more deliberate and proportionate counter-terrorism campaign.”
Murphy was one of 13 Senate Democrats to sign a letter to the Biden administration calling for “a short-term cessation of hostilities” in the Gaza Strip, with the aim to allow aid to reach the territory’s besieged civilians and to release the hostages taken by Hamas. Intense diplomatic efforts, led by Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, have so far failed to persuade Israel to allow “humanitarian pauses” in its unyielding bombardment of Gaza.
On Capitol Hill, support for a ceasefire resolution in the House now has 18 Democratic co-sponsors, up from 13 when it was first introduced. And last week, Dick Durbin, the second-ranking Senate Democrat, became the first lawmaker in the upper chamber to endorse the idea of a ceasefire, if it is tied to the release of all the hostages taken by Hamas.
Growing angst among Democrats in Washington has highlighted a smoldering debate within the party over the the month-old conflict. Over the past several weeks, Democrats have watched their Muslim and Jewish colleagues level accusations of intolerance against one another as hundreds of their staffers press their bosses to support a ceasefire resolution and their voters begin to turn away from a president they helped elect.
Meanwhile, members of the “Squad” are facing Democratic primary challenges next year, fueled in part by their criticism of Israel.
On Tuesday, the House passed a censure resolution accusing Tlaib of “promoting false narratives” about the Hamas attack on Israel and “calling for the destruction of the state of Israel” late on Tuesday night after an emotional debate.
Her voice shaking, Tlaib defended her stance in a floor speech on Tuesday, declaring that she would “not be silenced and I will not let you distort my words”.
“I can’t believe I have to say this but Palestinian people are not disposable,” she said, holding up a photograph of her grandmother, who lives in the West Bank. “We are human beings just like anybody else.”
The censure came after Democrats united last week to help block an initial attempt to reproach Tlaib, whose views and rhetoric on the decades-old conflict have long attracted controversy. But in the days since, several colleagues said they felt her rhetoric went too far.
A video featuring Tlaib and shared by the congresswoman on social media includes a clip of pro-Palestinian protesters chanting “From the river to the sea,” a slogan widely condemned by Jewish leaders and her fellow Democrats as antisemitic. Tlaib said on X, formerly Twitter, that the phrase was “an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate”.
Tlaib also said in the video aimed at pressuring Biden to support a ceasefire: “We will remember in 2024.” Text then appears accusing the president of abetting the “genocide of the Palestinian people”.
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As debate began on the censure, a group of House Democrats co-signed a statement denouncing the phrase as a “rallying cry for the destruction of the State of Israel and genocide of the Jewish people”.
The censure amounted to a stunning rebuke of their Democratic colleague, a sign of the strong emotions stirred by the Israel-Gaza war.
But the divisions are not unique to the American left. In the UK, the conflict is forcing a similar reckoning within the Labour party, where the leader, Keir Starmer, is facing calls to stand down from within his own party over his refusal to advocate for a ceasefire.
Starmer’s position has spurred a growing rebellion among Labour councillors, several of whom have resigned in protest over Starmer’s position. Though Labour appears on track to easily defeat the ruling Tory party in the next general election, polls show the party’s voters are deeply dissatisfied with Starmer’s handling of the conflict.
In the US, Bernie Sanders, the senior Vermont senator who is both Jewish and progressive, denounced the use of incendiary rhetoric by members of both parties, arguing that the comments were unhelpful.
Sanders has drawn sharp criticism from some of his most ardent supporters angry that the senator has resisted calls for a ceasefire, which he said he doesn’t believe would be possible with an organization like Hamas.
In a CNN interview on Sunday, Sanders was strident in calling for an immediate stop to Israeli bombing and an end to the killing of thousands of “innocent men, women and children” in the enclave. He said the US should consider using its military aid to Israel as leverage to pressure Tel Aviv to change course.
As Congress rushes to approve emergency aid to Israel, Sanders said: “It’s terribly important that, as we debate that, to say to Israel, ‘You want this money, you got to change your military strategy.’”
In dealing with such a “horrendously complex issue”, Sanders said he agreed with Barack Obama, who recently offered his analysis of the conflict. “If you want to solve the problem, then you have to take in the whole truth,” Obama said in an interview with his former staffers for their podcast, Pod Save America.
“And you then have to admit nobody’s hands are clean, that all of us are complicit to some degree.”
Robert Tait contributed to the reporting
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