Democrats need to face a hard truth. While Republicans’ approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has failed, so has ours. The Democratic Party has provided reflexive and unconditional support to Israeli governments, even as their actions have increasingly undermined American interests and values.
For decades, we have called for a two-state solution, but we’ve failed to use our leverage to make it real. It’s past time that we use that leverage to end the occupation and achieve two states with full political and legal rights for all. That means withdrawing taxpayer support from Israel and conditioning arms sales.
More of my colleagues are realizing that the status quo is unacceptable. Forty Democrats recently voted to block the transfer of certain military equipment to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, compared to only 15 of us in April of last year.
To be clear, I support Israel’s need for security. But for too long most Democrats have unquestioningly accepted Israel’s argument that American weapons are needed and used solely for its defense. We have not yet fully confronted the fact that Israel has used its strength not only as a shield, but also as a sword to bury the two-state solution and advance the far right’s vision of a “Greater Israel.”
The evidence on the ground is overwhelming: Violent settlers in the West Bank have attacked Palestinians with impunity, and Israeli security forces are increasingly complicit. Israel’s de facto annexation of the West Bank has pushed Palestinians into shrinking enclaves. Mr. Netanyahu’s government has sabotaged the Palestinian Authority, which, unlike Hamas, has accepted Israel’s right to statehood. Anyone who visits the West Bank under Israeli occupation can see an apartheid system at work. Meanwhile, Gaza remains in ruins, the humanitarian situation there remains catastrophic and Hamas remains armed.
I’ve seen these developments with my own eyes. I’ve visited Israel and the West Bank seven times and witnessed the rapid expansion of illegal settlements across land that was supposed to be part of a Palestinian state. I’ve spoken to Palestinian families pushed out of their homes and off their land. I’ve sat down with families, both Israelis and Palestinians, who have lost loved ones to violence. In Ramallah, I spoke with Palestinian American parents who can’t get justice for their children killed by violent settlers or Israeli security forces. I’ve seen aid trucks turned back from Israeli checkpoints while children in Gaza were starving on the other side. And I’ve seen how the once bustling city of Rafah was reduced to rubble by the Israel Defense Forces with American bombs and bulldozers.
It is these experiences — and watching this dangerous trajectory accelerate — that have shaped my growing alarm, which the American people increasingly share. They do not want to be complicit in ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, or what human rights organizations and scholars have determined to be genocide in Gaza.
Both Republican and Democratic administrations are responsible for where we are today. In his first term, President Trump moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, implicitly condoned settlements and closed the Palestinian mission in Washington and our consulate in East Jerusalem.
President Joe Biden failed to reverse most of these actions, even as Israel elected the most extremist government in its history. Moreover, Mr. Biden de-prioritized the Israeli-Palestinian peace process upon taking office. And while he was right to affirm Israel’s right to defend itself after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks, he repeatedly failed to use U.S. leverage as Israel imposed devastating collective punishment on the people of Gaza.
These failures worked against U.S. interests. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has ensnared us in violence and caused instability throughout the Middle East. It has cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars. It undermines our credibility, as countries see our unconditional backing of the Israeli government as inconsistent with the principles we profess to represent.
At home, the brutality of Mr. Netanyahu’s government has eroded Americans’ support for a historically close partner. At the same time, we’re seeing a dangerous and reprehensible rise in antisemitism. Attempts to conflate criticism of the Israeli government with antisemitism do not combat that hate. They only undermine the fight against antisemitism by equating the Israeli government with all Jews, and they empower the enemies of free speech.
For all these reasons, we cannot accept the status quo. Democrats can — and should — be both “pro-Israeli” and “pro-Palestinian.” To support both, Democrats must put forward a plan that moves beyond the failures of the past toward a durable peace.
Democrats should pursue a last-gasp effort to salvage a two-state solution. If that effort fails, the United States will have to consider other options to secure equal political and legal rights for all. The alternatives — either a permanent apartheid state or the expulsion of Palestinians — should be abhorrent and unacceptable to everyone. They would result in the unending oppression or displacement of Palestinians, chronic unrest throughout the region and Israel becoming a pariah state.
Many cynics will rightly roll their eyes when Democrats talk about pursuing a two-state solution: Presidents have paid lip service to that goal even as Israeli settlements stretched into the West Bank. This time must be different. The United States must draw a red line against Palestinian displacement, and we must enforce it.
The next Democratic president should recognize a State of Palestine that is subject to clear benchmarks, including free and fair elections. Unless and until a different agreement is reached, the United States should treat Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as part of Palestine — a policy some of our European and Asian partners have already begun to carry out.
In addition to ending taxpayer-funded support, that president should enforce the same terms and conditions for Israel that we apply to other countries when they purchase arms. Israel must also comply with international law and U.S. policy. That means no offensive weapons should be sold unless Israel agrees to a time-bound plan to end the occupation and enact a two-state solution. At the same time, the United States should reinstate and expand Mr. Biden’s sanctions on people and organizations that threaten the stability and security of the West Bank.
That next president should also work with Saudi Arabia and others in the region to commit to normalizing relations with Israel similar to the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative. Together, these steps create a pathway to lasting regional stability.
Moving forward will not be easy. It will place the United States on a collision course with any Israeli government opposed to a Palestinian state. It will face strong resistance from many here at home, including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which has opposed any efforts to condition support for Israel. AIPAC’s influence in Congress remains formidable even as Americans increasingly reject its positions and its use of super PACs to pour money into elections.
Democrats must stand firm against these headwinds. Primary voters won’t trust any Democratic presidential candidate who does not have a record of moral and strategic clarity on these issues, especially if, as a legislator, he or she voted to send Mr. Netanyahu bombs even as his government imposed a total blockade on Gaza. Nor will they support a candidate who plans to re-enlist the senior Democratic decision makers who whitewashed the truth during the Biden administration and refuse to acknowledge their complicity.
Democrats failed to meet the moment in 2024. Americans were rightly fed up with Democratic hypocrisy and complicity in the gross violation of the values we profess to hold dear. That in turn, hurt our credibility with voters. We cannot let that happen again.
Chris Van Hollen has served as a Democratic senator from Maryland since 2017.
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