“After meeting with Bibi for three minutes … I stopped Bibi in the middle of a sentence. I said, ‘Bibi, you don’t want to make a deal. Do you?’ And he said, ‘Well, uh, uh uh’— and the fact is, I don’t think Bibi ever wanted to make a deal.”
– Donald Trump, 2021
If Israel wanted to achieve a two-state solution, it could do so today. The fact of the matter is that Israel’s government, composed of pro-settler politicians and backed by the most conservative Jews, doesn’t want a Palestinian state. Even Donald Trump, a staunch supporter of Israel’s right to do as it pleases, quickly recognized that Benjamin Netanyahu was not interested in the prospect of giving up any land. Statehood is a carrot on a stick that has been dangled for decades, but Israel’s prime minister has never been willing to make the ultimate concession of land necessary to actually bring it to life. Instead, settlement building has continued and apartheid conditions worsened. In 2023, before the Oct. 7 attack, over 200 Palestinians in the West Bank had already been killed and countless more injured. In June, Israel used fighter jets to bomb cities in the West Bank. The list goes on; Israel has not acted in a way that promotes peace. It has not worked to build a future that includes the Palestinian people.
Today, Chuck Schumer got up on a podium and declared, “[Netanyahu] has been too willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza, which is pushing support for Israel worldwide to historic lows. Israel cannot survive if it becomes a pariah.” He criticized the Prime Minister further, noting that Bibi “won’t commit to a military operation in Rafah that prioritizes protecting civilian life. […] He won’t engage responsibly in discussions about a ‘day after’ plan for Gaza, and a longer-term pathway to peace.” To any outside observer, it is clear that Netanyahu’s government has no plan whatsoever beyond war. War with Hamas is more important than protecting civilian life, ending settlements, or finding a solution to the Palestinian problem that Israel has continuously declined to resolve since its founding in 1948. Is the relentless killing of thine enemies a core tenet of the Jewish faith? I don’t think so, but Israelis have adopted it nonetheless. Schumer called for new elections in Israel to bring some fresh blood into this Israeli political dilemma.
Chuck Schumer’s acknowledgement of the reality of Netanyahu’s intentions is a major breakthrough in American politics, but it remains to be seen if the words can be backed by policy. Schumer threatened that if Israel does not change course “then the United States will have no choice but to play a more active role in shaping Israeli policy by using our leverage to change the present course.” If America began to limit its funding of the Israeli War Machine in response to Israel’s anti-Palestinian policies, then there is a real chance that Israel could change course. Of course, money doesn’t change minds. For Israel to truly change, the people living inside of it need to change. As it stands, it seems like a majority of Israelis are either apathetic or openly hostile to the idea of extending rights to the Palestinian people. They just don’t care.
Republicans argue that Pro-Palestinian Ideas = Anti-Israel Ideas
Senate Republicans of course balked at Schumer’s statements. Mitch McConnell retorted by claiming that “the Democratic Party doesn’t have an anti-Bibi problem, it has an anti-Israel problem.” McConnel is arguing in very bad faith here, since the human rights of Palestinian children under bombardment have absolutely nothing to do with Israel’s right to exist as a state. Mitch went further to call Americans “who hyperventilate about foreign interference in our own democracy to call for the removal of the democratically elected leader of Israel” “grotesque and hypocritical”. As if America has not been assassinating the leaders of other countries for decades. Republicans have this flawed image in their mind of Israel as a bastion of Democracy in a dark and theocratic middle east… yet Israel routinely denies a large portion of the people living within its borders the right to vote, justifies the seizure of their land, and bombs them. If the American Military bombed Boston claiming that they were targeting political dissidents or terrorists, there would be a massive uproar. It would be an act of totalitarianism worthy of a civil war. Israel is, according to Republicans, well within its right to do this. I suppose it makes sense that the same party that opposed the Civil Rights Bill of 1964 would be a proponent of Israel’s own segregationist tendencies.
If the democrats are able to continuously challenge their own beliefs and eventually apply real pressure to Israel, then they may have a chance of winning in 2024. If they cannot differentiate themselves from Republicans on Israeli policy, then the democrats will hemorrhage votes and likely lose. If the worst happens and the Republicans do manage to win in November, I wonder if Biden and Schumer will be able to connect the dots? Regardless, the developments seen today are promising. More must be done.
