Israel war shines a light on cracks in the Biden coalition

Israel‘s war against Hamas terrorists in Gaza could undermine support for President Joe Biden in the 2024 general election.

Biden will be the Democratic nominee following Monday’s announcement from Robert Kennedy Jr. to run as an independent in 2024. Kennedy peaked his polling at just over 20% before the move but now will present the president with two independent challengers who could pull progressive votes in a tight rematch with former President Donald Trump.

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The president’s allies had previously launched a multimillion-dollar strategy aimed at countering outside candidates, including those running on Biden’s left and a potential so-called unity candidate stood up by the No Labels party. The Biden campaign and Democratic National Committee have signed off on the operation, per a report from the New York Times, a sign that the president is seriously concerned about losing votes heading into a likely rematch with Trump in the 2024 general election.

However, the recent terror attacks have resurfaced cracks that have bubbled within the party for years: How will Democrats handle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?

Susan Walsh/AP

Following the horrific attacks, Biden spoke multiple times with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and delivered national remarks condemning Hamas’s “pure, unadulterated evil” and vowed to “have Israel’s back” in securing hostages and rooting out any terrorists still in the country.

Yet not all Democratic lawmakers have denounced the perpetrators of the attack as forcefully as the president.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), the sole Palestinian American member of Congress, put out an initial statement grieving the life lost among Israelis and Palestinians but also described the Israeli government as practicing “apartheid,” which drew pushback from Democrats and Republicans alike.

“I am determined as ever to fight for a just future where everyone can live in peace, without fear and with true freedom, equal rights, and human dignity. The path to that future must include lifting the blockade, ending the occupation, and dismantling the apartheid system that creates the suffocating, dehumanizing conditions that can lead to resistance,” her statement read. “The failure to recognize the violent reality of living under siege, occupation, and apartheid makes no one safer. No person, no child anywhere should have to suffer or live in fear of violence. We cannot ignore the humanity in each other. As long as our country provides billions in unconditional funding to support the apartheid government, this heartbreaking cycle of violence will continue.”

Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) echoed Tlaib’s support for ending the Palestinian “apartheid” shortly after the attacks.

Tlaib, under threats of censure by other lawmakers, later put out a statement condemning the “war crimes” perpetrated by Hamas.

Perhaps more troubling for Biden than a few lawmakers speaking out was the response to the attacks from the Democratic Socialists of America, a labor-focused group often touted by progressive lawmakers Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).

A pro-Palestinian rally organized by DSA in the wake of the Hamas attacks, and initially promoted by Ocasio-Cortez and others, was widely criticized for its antisemitic nature. Photos circulated online of protesters carrying signs with swastikas, and video showed chants calling for the end of Israel.

The DSA later apologized for the behavior of some protesters, but not before Ocasio-Cortez publicly castigated the protesters.

Several other DSA-stamped lawmakers also distanced themselves from the group. Rep. Shri Thanedar (R-MI) renounced his membership in the group, and officials in Rep. Jamaal Bowman’s (D-NY) office announced that he had let his membership lapse earlier this year.

Biden himself has sought to voice empathy for the Palestinian people while vowing steadfast support for Israel. He has specifically said that Hamas is using Palestinians as human shields and that they do not speak for nor represent the best interests of people in Gaza.

Top White House officials have all said that the president urged Netanyahu to operate within the international laws of war while carrying out the country’s retribution against Hamas as a means of limiting casualties among the Palestinian people.

Still, Biden’s statements following the attacks overwhelmingly favor Israel defending its citizens, and he expanded on those comments again Wednesday during a roundtable meeting at the White House with Jewish community leaders.

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“This attack was a campaign of pure cruelty — not just hate but pure cruelty — against the Jewish people, and I would argue it’s the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust,” the president stated. “One of the worst chapters in human history that reminded us all of that expression I learned from my dad early on: ‘Silence is complicity.'”

“Silence is complicity. It really is. And I want you to know — I think you’ve already figured it out — I refuse to be silent,” Biden reiterated. “And I know you refuse to be silent as well.”