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      Left revolts over Biden’s staunch support of Israel amid Gaza crisis

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      On Wednesday afternoon, hundreds of liberal Jewish American activists staged sit-ins in the Capitol Hill offices of top Democrats, including in the senate office of progressive champion Bernie Sanders, to demand a ceasefire in the escalating war between Israel and Hamas.As they sang in Hebrew and prayed for peace, the House floor resumed legislative activity for the first time in weeks after the election of a new Republican speaker, congressman Mike Johnson.In his first act, Johnson brought to the floor a resolution declaring US solidarity with Israel after Hamas rampaged through Israeli cities, killing 1,400 people and taking more than 200 hostages, Americans among them. Nearly all House Democrats voted to approve the measure, save for a resolute minority who dissented, citing its failure to address the thousands of Palestinians killed in Israel’s retaliatory bombing campaign of Gaza.The discontent on display in Washington was a testament to the rising anger among the party’s left over the response from Biden and Democratic leaders to Israel’s war in Gaza. But as many progressives split from the White House over the US’s staunchly pro-Israel stance, there were also splits within the left itself – a sign of the raw emotions stirred by the conflict.Nor were the scenes in the House the only signs of discontent as US politics – and civil society as a whole – becomes increasingly roiled by Israel’s response to the 7 October Hamas attack.That same afternoon, Joe Biden was asked about the rising Palestinian death toll during a news conference at the White House. Biden replied that he had “no confidence” in the death count provided by the Gaza health ministry, which says nearly 7,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began.“I’m sure innocents have been killed, and it’s the price of waging a war,” Biden said, in comments the Council on American-Islamic Relations described as “shocking and dehumanizing.”Online, many progressives seethed, accusing Biden of further enabling violence against Palestinians and predicting that he would pay an electoral price next year with Muslim and Arab American voters, who have emerged as an important Democratic constituency in recent elections.“The White House and many in the US government are clear as they should be that 1,000 Israelis killed is too many,” said Eva Borgwardt, the political director of IfNotNow, a progressive Jewish group leading many of the demonstrations in Washington, including the one at the Capitol on Wednesday. “Our question for them is: How many Palestinian deaths are too many?”As Israel intensifies its bombardment of Gaza, Biden is facing extraordinary and growing resistance from his party’s left flank, especially from young voters and voters of color, over his steadfast support for Israel. They have staged demonstrations, penned open letters and even tendered resignations in protest of the Biden administration’s handling of a war they say is threatening the president’s standing at home and possibly his chances of winning re-election next year.A Gallup poll released on Thursday found that Biden’s approval rating among Democrats plummeted 11 percentage points in one month, to a record low of 75%. According to the survey, the drop was fueled by dismay among Democratic voters over Biden’s support for Israel.Meanwhile, a poll released last week by the progressive firm Data for Progress found that 66% of likely US voters strongly or somewhat agree that the US should call for a ceasefire.Still, the White House has firmly rejected calls for a ceasefire, which Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, initially described as “repugnant” and “disgraceful” in the immediate aftermath of the Hamas attack. The administration’s rhetoric has since evolved, with White House spokesperson John Kirby arguing this week that a ceasefire at this stage “only benefits Hamas”. Asked earlier this week whether the US would support a ceasefire, Biden said: “We should have those hostages released and then we can talk.”Pressure is building in Congress, where 18 House Democrats – all progressive lawmakers of color – joined a resolution calling for the White House to support “an immediate de-escalation and ceasefire in Israel and occupied Palestine”.On Capitol Hill, a group of Jewish and Muslim staffers wrote an anonymous open letter to their bosses similarly calling for an “immediate ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas. Urging congressional leaders to act swiftly, they cited the rising death toll in Gaza and the rise of antisemitism, anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian sentiments in the United States.Meanwhile, hundreds of former campaign and congressional staffers to progressive senators, including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, have penned open letters urging them to call for a ceasefire.So far no senator has backed a ceasefire. Warren, Sanders and several other Democratic senators have urged a “humanitarian pause” to allow aid, food and medical supplies to flow into Gaza after Israel ordered a “complete siege” of the territory. It echoes the position of the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, who said earlier this week that it “must be considered” to protect civilian life.Sanders’ resistance to back a ceasefire has disappointed some of even his most loyal followers, in a sign of how emotionally fraught the debate over Israel has become on the left.Though the 2024 presidential election is a year away, many progressives, and especially younger activists, have threatened to withhold support for Biden, while Arab and Muslim Americans have expressed deep alarm over the president’s actions and rhetoric.Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, the only Palestinian American in Congress, has accused Biden of abetting the deadly war. “We will remember where you stood,” she wrote in a social media post tagging the president.At his press conference on Wednesday, Biden also cautioned Israel to be “incredibly careful to ensure they’re going after the folks propagating this war”. For many on the left, the warning was buried behind his comments casting doubt on the scale of war deaths in Gaza.“Like many progressive Democrats, I have applauded and been pleasantly surprised by President Biden’s actions on climate and the economy,” Waleed Shahid, a progressive strategist tracking the administration’s response to the war, wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “But he’s crossed a moral line with nearly every Muslim, Arab and anti-war young voter I know.”The White House said on Thursday the Biden administration did not dispute that thousands of Palestinians had been killed and emphasized that the health ministry was run by Hamas.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionEven a slight erosion in support could spell danger for Biden, who was already struggling with low enthusiasm, particularly among young voters.In polling conducted after the Hamas attack, a Quinnipiac survey found that slightly more than half of voters under 35 say they disapprove of the United States sending weapons and military support to Israel in the wake of the Hamas attack. By contrast, nearly six in 10 voters between the ages of 35 and 49 support sending weapons to Israel, with older age groups offering even stronger approval.Biden’s allies have largely downplayed the disagreements among the party’s grassroots. They note that most Democrats, including the party’s congressional leaders, the senator Chuck Schumer and the congressman Hakeem Jeffries, are strong supporters of Israel and fully back the president’s handling of the conflict. In the coming weeks, their caucuses are expected to overwhelmingly support a White House request to send $14.3bn in security aid to Israel.A letter to Biden, signed by ​a majority of House Democrats, including every Jewish​ member ​of their caucus and several liberal members, praises his ​”strong leadership during a tragic and dangerous moment in the Middle East​.​”It further commends Biden for displaying​ “steadfast support for our ally Israel in a moment of need and horror” while ​also making “clear statements regarding the fundamental importance of ensuring that the humanitarian needs of the civilian population of Gaza are met.”Deep, abiding support for Israel among Democrats on Capitol Hill obscures a shift among the party’s voters, and especially among those who came of age in a post-9/11 US. A Gallup poll conducted in March found for the first time that a greater number of Democrats say they sympathize more with Palestinians than Israelis.Republicans have sought to exploit those divisions in an attempt to cast the Democratic party as anti-Israel, a narrative progressives say media coverage has unfairly promoted.Many liberal Democrats, including the congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, have forcefully denounced pro-Hamas or antisemitic sentiments expressed by the party’s activist fringe. At the same time, they contend that there is a double standard in the way elected officials speak about Palestinians.They point to comments from Republicans like the senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who described the conflict as a “religious war” and said Israelis should “do whatever the hell you have to do to defend yourself. Level the place.”Senator Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, made a similar remark, saying in an interview: “As far as I’m concerned, Israel can bounce the rubble in Gaza.”“I have long found the ignoring and sidelining of Palestinians in the US House of Representatives, the humanity of Palestinian populations, in the five years I have been in Congress, quite shocking,” Ocasio-Cortez said recently on MSNBC.With expectations that a large-scale Israeli invasion of the besieged territory is imminent, demands for an immediate ceasefire have grown louder and more urgent.In a statement on Friday, amid intensifying bombing and a communications blackout in Gaza, Alexandra Rojas, the executive director of the progressive group Justice Democrats, implored the president to act now to prevent a ground invasion that would “ensure thousands more civilian casualties, bring us closer to an all-out regional conflict in the Middle East, and thrust the United States into another endless war”.Looking to the future, progressives say the administration must be prepared to dramatically reshape Washington’s decades-long approach to Israel and Palestine.“If we want to take a consistent policy towards human rights, we cannot always be focused on supporting the rights and security of one side here,” said Matt Duss, a former foreign policy adviser to Sanders.“The status quo,” he said, “is clearly unsustainable.” More

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      ‘How can I vote for Biden?’ Arab Americans in Michigan ‘betrayed’ by Israel support

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      Leading up to the 2020 election, Arab American organizers in south-east Michigan like Terry Ahwal worked to convince their community to go to the polls for Joe Biden. The message was simple: Donald Trump’s Islamophobic rhetoric and policies such as the Middle East travel ban were a threat to Arab Americans. Voters mobilized to help push Biden over the top in this critical swing state.Several years on, amid Biden’s full-throated support of Israel in the current war and an unfolding humanitarian crisis that has claimed thousand of lives in Gaza, Ahwal feels deep regret: “I have to say “I’m sorry’ to my friends.’”Ahwal is among hundreds of thousands of Arab Americans in Michigan, many of whom are watching with horror as the US supports Israel as it carries out its bombing campaign. After the community backed Biden by a wide margin in November 2020, the feeling goes “beyond betrayal”, about a dozen Arab Americans in Michigan said.“This is a complete loss of humanity, it is the active support of a genocide, and I don’t think it gets any worse than that,” said Huwaida Arraf, a Palestinian American activist and attorney. “I’ve gotten a few comments, ‘Well, the GOP is going to be worse,’ and my question is: ‘How can you get worse than active support of a genocide?’”Polls show that Americans have generally been supportive of Israel and its response to the 7 October attack, though Morning Consult data released this week also shows the number of people who sympathize equally with Israelis and Palestinians is on the rise. That poll also showed support for Biden’s response is growing.But Arab Americans who spoke with the Guardian said they did not know of anyone in their community who would vote for Biden in 2024. That could have profound consequences in a state in which Trump won by 10,000 votes in 2016, and a tight rematch is taking shape.Still, the Biden administration has remained steadfastly supportive of Israel, proposing $14bn in aid; providing weapons such as missiles and armored personnel carriers; refusing calls for a ceasefire; and deploying US troops to the region. A Data for Progress poll released Thursday found 66% of Americans think the US should call for a ceasefire.The use of Arab American tax dollars to bomb Gaza is generating “widespread horror and fury”, Arraf said.Though Biden has called on Israel to show restraint and touted a deal he struck to allow trucks carrying aid to enter Gaza, Arab Americans who spoke with the Guardian view the gestures as pittances. They see the US’s support as ham-fisted and “shocking” in the context of the last presidential election.“Even our conservative members voted for Biden, only to get a guy who dehumanizes us, who is sending the weapons to Israel, and the only purpose of these weapons is to use Palestinian as target practice,” Ahwal said. “I don’t know anybody who would vote for him.”That sentiment was echoed by Muslim and Arab Americans elsewhere in the country. Zohran Mamdani, a New York assemblymember, called Biden’s response to the crisis “disgusting” and warned that the president is underestimating the Arab American voting bloc.“I have had many constituents of mine, as well as Muslims from beyond my district, reach out to me and ask me: ‘How am I supposed to vote for Joe Biden?’ And I don’t know what I’m supposed to tell them,” he said.A number of people also expressed fears that the Biden administration’s rhetoric and positions are fanning the flames of Islamophobia in the US and putting their communities in danger. People who are publicly critical of Israel or supportive of Palestine have lost jobs and faced harassment in recent weeks. Muslim and Arab American politicians are receiving death threats and the level of vitriol is above what was experienced in the wake of 9/11, said Abraham Aiyash, a Muslim American state representative in Michigan.The president’s comparison of Hamas’s attacks to “15 9/11s”, Aiyash said, “enhances Islamophobia”, referencing the recent murder in Illinois of a six-year-old Palestinian American boy in an alleged hate crime.“If you support [Israel’s war] abroad, you have to be ready for the consequences of it at home,” he said.Multiple Palestinian Americans who do not work in politics declined to speak with the Guardian over safety fears.Any potential for political fallout for Biden is greatest in Michigan, a critical swing state that is home to 300,000 Arab Americans who helped boost Biden after Clinton’s narrow 2016 loss. Biden beat Trump in 2020 by about 150,000 votes.Few – if any – issues are more important to this group than Palestine and Middle East foreign policy, said Amer Zahr, a Palestinian American activist and comedian. He noted that Dearborn, a majority Arab American city just outside Detroit, went for Bernie Sanders by a significant margin during the last two Democratic presidential primaries because Sanders was willing to challenge US policy on Israel.But Biden was viewed as better than Trump, so Arab-Americans turned out in the general election, Zahr said. Next time, many people have said, they will vote third party, or leave the top of the ticket blank.Dearborn went 63% for Clinton in 2016 when she lost the state by 10,000 votes, but nearly 80% for Biden four years later. In the four municipalities with the largest Arab American populations in metro Detroit, about 40,000 more people voted for Biden than Clinton.“They came into our community and asked us to vote for Joe Biden and save America from Donald Trump, and now we feel like we have to save Palestine from Joe Biden,” Zahr added. “The argument that we heard before is we have to save the country from Trump – that’s not going to work.”“If [2024] is going to be a close election then the loss of Arab American support for Biden could have an impact,” said the state pollster Bernie Porn.The White House’s “lazy” language and the skewed portrayal of the crisis in US media dehumanizes Arabs – Palestinians, in particular, said James Zogby, the founder and president of the Arab American Institute, a Washington DC-based civil rights advocacy organization.“This objectification of Palestinians and the humanization of Israelis – which is an old story going back to the beginning of the conflict – fed into the pre-existing narrative that it’s Israeli people versus the Arab or Palestinian problem,” he said.The White House, he added, “sets the tone”, and “it’s important for us to let the administration know, you’re at risk of losing this particular component group of the community.”Those who spoke with the Guardian said they found the situation especially frustrating because they expected this kind of policy and positions from Republicans, but not Democrats.“What makes me incensed with Democrats is that they preach human rights, preach equality and diversity, but when it comes to Palestinians, all the preaching goes away, and there is justification for the killing and slaughter,” Ahwal said.“I know the ramifications and I know the consequences but I cannot justify a vote for a guy who says it’s OK to kill Palestinians.” More

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      New York: more than 100 arrested after Israel-Hamas war protest blocks traffic

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      New York City police arrested more than 130 anti-war protesters after hundreds of people blocked traffic on Fifth Avenue on Friday night.A crowd of about 1,000 demonstrators called for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict and marched in the rain from Bryant Park to the Midtown Manhattan office of the New York US senator Kirsten Gillibrand.“Senator Gillibrand, we will not stop until you call for a ceasefire,” a crowd, led by the New York state assemblymember Zohran Kwame Mamdani, chanted in front of her office.The demonstration was co-organized by the Democratic Socialists of America and other activist groups. Throughout the night, protesters called for a ceasefire and denounced the murder of Israelis and Palestinians.“Unfortunately, our political leaders seem to keep failing to learn that lesson again and again that war is not the answer,” Jeremy Cohan, a co-chair of the New York City Democratic Socialists of America, told local news station WABC.About 8pm local time, a crowd of police officers gathered around the rows of demonstrators blocking traffic and began making arrests. Protesters on the sidewalks shouted “shame on you!” at the officers. Those arrested were handcuffed, transported on white buses and issued summonses to appear in court.In a statement, the New York police department (NYPD) said a total of 137 people were taken into custody by officers on the scene.The arrests are the latest this week after mass protests against the Israel-Hamas war. On Wednesday, more than 300 demonstrators at the US Capitol were arrested by police after gathering inside the building. Participants in an earlier demonstration at the White House also were arrested.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionMeeting with the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, Joe Biden vowed to provide Israel with security needs, at the same time appealing to Netanyahu that Israel not be “consumed” by its rage against Hamas. On Friday, the president submitted a $106bn request for Congress for military and humanitarian aid for Israel and Ukraine, along with humanitarian assistance for Gaza.Congress will not be able to approve the aid request until a new speaker for the US House is chosen. Selecting a speaker is a conflict among House Republicans that has been ongoing for weeks. More

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      Former US congressman says family members killed in Gaza church blast

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      The first Palestinian American to serve as a US Congress member said he was grieving after several of his relatives were killed at a Greek Orthodox church in Gaza that authorities report was hit by an Israeli airstrike.Justin Amash detailed his sorrow over losing family members amid the Israel-Hamas war in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.“I was really worried about this. With great sadness, I have now confirmed that several of my relatives … were killed at Saint Porphyrius Orthodox Church in Gaza, where they had been sheltering, when part of the complex was destroyed as the result of an Israeli airstrike,” Amash wrote in a post that pictured whom he identified as two lost family members, Viola and Yara.The ex-congressman’s post continued: “Give rest, O Lord, to their souls, and may their memories be eternal. The Palestinian Christian community has endured so much. Our family is hurting badly. May God watch over all Christians in Gaza – and all Israelis and Palestinians who are suffering, whatever their religion or creed.”Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Amash has previously said his father was a Palestinian Christian who lived in Ramla until his family was forced out during the Arab-Israeli war in 1948.The 43-year-old Amash served as a US House representative for Michigan from 2011 to 2021. He was elected as a Republican but declared himself an independent in 2019 after supporting the first impeachment of the party’s leader, then president Donald Trump.Amash was the first and only Palestinian American in Congress until Rashida Tlaib joined the US House in 2019. Tlaib, a fellow Michigander and progressive Democrat, became the first Palestinian American woman elected to Congress.On Thursday evening, hundreds of Christians and Muslims were sheltering inside Saint Porphyrius in Gaza City when a missile took down part of the church, killing at least 16 people. The bodies of those killed – including four small children – were wrapped in white sheets and laid out in the church courtyard Friday for a mass funeral.The church authority that runs Saint Porphyrius, the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, said many of those inside at the time of the missile strike were women and children. The patriarchate also accused Israel of targeting churches, which it condemned.Israel’s military said in response it had damaged “a wall of a church” while hitting a Hamas “command and control center” nearby, but it denied deliberately targeting Saint Porphyrius.Saint Porphyrius is less than 300 meters (nearly 1,000ft) from the al-Ahli hospital compound where an explosion on Tuesday killed and injured hundreds of people who had fled there to escape Israeli airstrikes.Israel has blamed the hospital explosion on a failed Palestinian rocket, an assessment that has received US and French backing. Hamas blamed an Israeli missile.The US estimated between 100 and 300 people died in the hospital courtyard. Hamas-controlled local authorities have said the death toll was nearly 500.Amash’s lamentation over his late relatives was one of two statements he made on Friday about the war that Israel launched in retaliation for the 7 October attack by Hamas, in which 1,400 were killed as they overran military posts, murdered civilians in their homes and took nearly 200 hostages.He also commented on Hamas’s release on Friday of two American hostages.“This is fantastic news,” he wrote. But Amash also said Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad “need to unconditionally release all hostages of every nationality”. More

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      US right heats up inflammatory rhetoric on Palestine as Muslim groups worry

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      Senator Lindsey Graham wants to see Gaza flattened. Congressman Max Miller said the laws of war should be swept aside. A former US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, suggested that Palestinians as a whole were responsible for Hamas’s crimes.American politicians have rushed to plant their flags firmly with Israel after Hamas killed more than 1,400 people, and abducted about 200 others, in its unprecedented attack from the Gaza Strip. Some have echoed the demand by the Israel Defence Forces – “You either stand with Israel or you stand with terrorism” – reminiscent of the heated rhetoric in the wake of the 9/11 attacks on the US.The Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted: “Anyone that is pro-Palestinian is pro-Hamas.”Muslim groups in the US have warned the outpouring of extreme language is threatening the safety of Arab Americans following the killing of a six-year-old boy and the wounding of his mother by their landlord in Illinois in an apparent hate crime prompted by the Israel-Hamas conflict.The police said Joseph Czuba stabbed the boy, Wadea Al-Fayoume, to death after entering their apartment and shouting: “You Muslims must die!”.Some politicians have also spoken out against inciting language, including the Democratic senator Chris Van Hollen.“We must call out Hamas for the evil that it is. But those seeking to use this moment to demonize & dehumanize all Palestinians & Muslims are complicit in the deaths of innocents like the brutal hate killing of this six-year-old Palestinian-American boy, stabbed to death in Chicago,” he said on X, formerly known as Twitter.But such sentiments were less heard than bellicose language.Graham described the conflict as a “religious war” and called on the Israelis to “level the place”.“Gaza is going to look like Tokyo and Berlin at the end of world war two when this is over. And if it doesn’t look that way, Israel made a mistake,” he told Fox News.That was a sentiment echoed by another Republican senator, Tom Cotton.“As far as I’m concerned, Israel can bounce the rubble in Gaza. Anything that happens in Gaza is the responsibility of Hamas,” he told Fox News Sunday in reference to a warning by Winston Churchill about the dangers of the nuclear arms race leading to a war that will make the “rubble bounce”.Senator Marco Rubio called for Israel to “respond disproportionately”.The Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, told a campaign rally in Iowa that one way or another Palestinians were all complicit in Hamas’s crimes.“If you look at how they behave, not all of them are Hamas, but they are all antisemitic,” he said.Max Miller called on the Biden administration “to get out of Israel’s way and to let Israel do what it needs to do best”. He said there should be “no rules of engagement”.Another Republican member of Congress, Michael McCaul, chair of the House foreign affairs committee, claimed to have seen film of kidnapped Israeli children being held in metal cages.“I saw a video of toddlers in cages like animals … as Hamas was laughing at them,” he said.But factcheckers at France24 said the footage was circulating online before the attack and the false claim it was of Israeli children was made on TikTok by Ashlea Simon, chair of a far-right group in the UK, Britain First.The heated rhetoric has also been pushed on rightwing television and radio.Joel Pollak, a senior editor at large at Breitbart News, told a conservative webcast that he was “frankly OK” with the ethnic cleansing of Gaza to force out the Palestinian population.“Let me say the unsayable. I’m not endorsing this but it’s a possible solution which is simply to expel them from Gaza. You might call that ethnic cleansing and so forth but the fact is that at the end of the second world war there were a million Germans kicked out of Poland. There were Germans expelled from Czechoslovakia,” he said.“That’s an option, I think, after all this … If it comes down to ethnic cleansing, you want to cleanse my people. I’ll cleanse yours first.”Pollak also tweeted: “There will never be a Palestinian state. It’s over.”But outside of elected Republicans, there is more division on parts of the right where there is opposition to military support for Ukraine and opposition to foreign interventions by the US.The former Fox News host Tucker Carlson said on his show on X that the Hamas attack and assault on Gaza would be used to justify the US engaging in new, broader conflicts that, he warned, could escalate to nuclear war.Carlson attacked the Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley as “ignorant” and “bloodthirsty” for saying the attack on Israel was also an attack on America. He accused Graham of being a “reckless” old man who didn’t care about the future because he doesn’t have children for threatening war with Iran.“Wars beget more war. The bigger the conflict, the uglier and longer-lasting the consequences,” said Carlson.More cautious voices were met with accusations of siding with terrorists.Friedman, the former ambassador, lashed out at the congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez after she said that the US “has a responsibility to ensure accountability to human rights to prevent the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians”.“Ethnic cleansing of Palestinians?!?!?!” You mean the Palestinians who decapitate babies, rape women and dismember children? Or those who hand out candy in celebration? Or those who provide the terrorists aid, comfort, safe passage and a place to hide? Israel doesn’t oppose their ethnicity, it’s their barbarity that is the problem!” he said.But Ocasio-Cortez found support from the leader of the progressive caucus in Congress, Pramila Jayapal, who warned about positions that “that stop us from having peace ever”.Another Democratic representative, the former soldier Jason Crow, warned that “sabre-rattling rhetoric” would do little to end the conflict.“I think one of the lessons we learned during our 20-year war on terror is you have to go to great lengths to minimise civilian harm,” he told the Washington Post. “If you don’t, not only do you lose sight of your goals and humanity, but it’s counterproductive. You create more enemies and adversaries by over responding.” More

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      The Guardian view on Biden’s urgent mission: the US pivots back to the Middle East | Editorial

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      In the wake of the carnage wrought by Hamas in southern Israel, killing at least 1,300 people; with bombs still raining upon Gaza, having killed at least 3,000; and with 199 children and adults still held hostage, the horror is increased by the prospect of this violence begetting more.The US hopes two aircraft carrier groups in the eastern Mediterranean, non-stop shuttle diplomacy by the secretary of state and a presidential visit to Israel will see off the twin spectres of even greater humanitarian disaster in Gaza and regional catastrophe drawing in Hezbollah in Lebanon and perhaps others. Officially, Joe Biden’s visit to Israel on Wednesday will demonstrate that the US stands with Israel. It may offer Benjamin Netanyahu, disgraced in the eyes of his nation, a political lifeline. But if it is a warning to Hezbollah and Iran, it is also being used to rein in Mr Netanyahu. The US reportedly agreed to the trip only after Israel agreed to move on humanitarian aid and safe areas for civilians to avoid the bombing.But the statement that the two countries will “develop a plan” for delivery is noticeably modest. Even if implemented, it might not hold. Though Israel told the US it would restore the water supply to southern Gaza on Monday, those on the ground report only tiny quantities getting through. And while aid is essential, delivering food and medicines is hard to do and of limited use while air strikes continue.More critical may be the fact that the US, with its own disasters in Afghanistan and Iraq in mind, is pressing Israel to think hard about its plan for Gaza. President Biden warned publicly on Sunday that occupying Gaza would be a mistake. At that point, a ground incursion was regarded as imminent. But his visit has pressed pause, and on Tuesday, the IDF spokesperson Richard Hecht remarked: “Everyone’s talking about the ground offensive. It might be something different.”What happens in Gaza is likely to determine what happens in the north. On Monday, Israel gave an unprecedented order for residents close to the Lebanon border to evacuate south. The area has already seen rocket and missile attacks and border skirmishes. Hezbollah and Israel have trodden carefully since the 2006 war, for which Lebanese civilians mostly paid, though the militant group has built up its fire power and tested the boundaries. But Hezbollah has indicated that it has two red lines: the forcible displacement of large numbers of Palestinians outside Gaza – though Egypt has made it clear it does not want them – and a ground invasion aiming to destroy Hamas: Israel’s stated intention. Behind Hezbollah stands Iran; its foreign minister has warned of “multiple fronts” opening against Israel if it continues to kill civilians in Gaza.Iran does not want to lose Hezbollah, its main proxy force. But nor does it want to see Hamas wiped out. If that looks likely, experts suggest that it would probably also ask Iraqi militias to deploy to Syria or Lebanon. Washington has sent clear warnings to Tehran to stay out of it, while also indicating that it is not looking for a fight. The danger is that while neither the US nor Iran want to be drawn in further, the dynamics on the ground have their own momentum.The unendurable violence witnessed this month in part has its roots in the belief of the US and other governments that the conflict at the heart of the Middle East was unsolvable but manageable, and could be sidelined. Many warned at the time that was wrong. It appears all the more impossible to manage now – and yet that is precisely why the US and others must attempt to do so. More

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      Jewish groups rally at White House urging Biden to push for Gaza ceasefire

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      Leftwing US Jewish groups gathered outside the White House on Monday to urge the Biden administration to pressure Israel into dropping its plans for a military invasion of Gaza and instead declare an immediate ceasefire.Accusing Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of planning “genocide”, several hundred volunteers from campaign groups IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace chanted slogans, carried placards and sang ancient Jewish songs in protest of what they said was an immoral response to the deadly assault on 7 October by the Palestinian group Hamas that killed at least 1,400 Israelis.At least 30 people were arrested during the protest, according to reports from ABCNews. One organiser, identifying himself only as Yotam, told demonstrators shortly before they departed an initial rallying point at Farragut Square for the White House that 150 activists had volunteered to be arrested if security personnel ordered them to vacate the entrance points.The demonstrators also trained their sights on Joe Biden, who they said was complicit in an Israeli retaliatory bombardment that had destroyed Gaza neighbourhoods, cut off water and electricity, and left around 2,200 Palestinians dead, including 700 children.The criticism of the US president came as he was considering an offer by the Israeli prime minister to visit Israel as it grieves in the aftermath of the Hamas attacks. Biden has offered unequivocal support for the country since it was attacked, but cautioned that a re-occupation of Gaza – from which Israel formally withdrew in 2005 – would be a mistake.Monday’s demonstration came as Gaza faced an intensifying humanitarian crisis as more than half a million people fled their homes in the north of the tiny coastal enclave in advance of preparations for an apparent Israeli ground invasion with the stated goal of destroying Hamas.Standing outside the White House gates, Eva Borgwardt, political director of IfNotNow, demanded an urgent meeting with Biden. “The stakes are life or death,” she said.“We are here to tell President Biden, as the commander in chief of the most powerful military in the world he needs to do everything in his power to demand a ceasefire, to demand a de-escalation, to release the Israeli hostages and to address the underlying circumstances that have led us into this nightmare.”Protest organisers said they were prepared to engage in civil disobedience to influence US policy, including blocking entrances to and from the White House.Holding placards bearing slogans including “My grief is not your weapon” and “Stop genocide in Gaza”, they said their focus was in ending US support for Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and what they described as the Jewish state’s “system of apartheid”.Several described Israeli rhetoric towards Palestinians in the wake of the Hamas attacks as explicitly genocidal.Some attendees waved Palestinian flags, while others carried “Free Palestine” placards. Some of those present wore Jewish kippas, or skull caps.For all the focus on Israel’s policy, there was little reference to or direct criticism of Hamas for its attack on Israeli towns and communities that has triggered the latest crisis in the decades-old dispute between Israelis and Palestinians.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionInstead, activists put the focus on the Biden administration’s sale of expensive military equipment to Israel.Omas Baddar, a Palestinian American analyst, said the White House was guilty of hypocrisy for condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine while appearing to condone Israel’s actions.“When you compare the rhetoric of this administration, talking about being a human rights-first foreign policy administration, about the need to put an end to the violence that has taken place in Russia’s war with Ukraine and you contrast it with its rhetoric on what is happening with Israel and Palestine today, it is nothing short of a level of hypocrisy that deserves to be called out as aggressively as we possibly can,” he said.Borgwardt said the demonstration was evidence that the Jewish left was coalescing into a movement aimed at “throwing itself into [Israel’s] war machine” and stopping the onslaught on Gaza.However, some of those present acknowledged that wider support among the Jewish community is hard to come by.“I have a conflict with my family. I believe in a bi-national state,” said Sami Gold, 19, a political science and history student at George Washington University in Washington DC, who said his mother was Israeli-born. “Jews have been discriminated against for thousands of years and if there was a way of forming a Jewish state without discriminating against other people, I would be all for it. But we don’t live in that world.“My family still loves me, but they are sad that this is what I believe. But I think they are going to become more and more sympathetic to what I believe in.” More

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      Progressive Democrats bring resolution calling for ceasefire in Israel-Hamas war

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      A group of prominent progressive US lawmakers introduced a resolution on Monday calling for a ceasefire in the fast-escalating conflict between Israel and Hamas that has resulted in a death toll in the thousands, as fears grow that the war could spiral into a wider regional conflict.The two-page resolution, brought by 13 Democratic members of Congress, urges the Biden administration to “immediately call for and facilitate de-escalation and a ceasefire to urgently end the current violence” as well as to “promptly send and facilitate the entry of humanitarian assistance into Gaza”.“We all know collective punishment of millions of Palestinians is a war crime. No one – no one – can deny that,” said the congresswoman Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, the only Palestinian American member of the House on a Monday press call. “The answer to war crimes can never be answered with more war crimes.”Tlaib, her voice shaking with emotion, said Palestinians, including American citizens trapped in Gaza, feel “abandoned by the world”.“Please turn on the TV,” she said. “See what’s happening. Don’t turn away.”Tlaib and others, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Cori Bush of Missouri, introduced the resolution as Israel prepared a likely ground offensive into Gaza amid the crisis.The calls for a ceasefire are notable in Washington, where policymakers have rushed to express unwavering support for Israel following the shocking Hamas attacks. So far, only a handful of mostly progressive Democratic lawmakers have called for a de-escalation of violence, while most Democrats, adopting the posture of the Biden administration, have pledged unconditional solidarity.A leaked state department memo published by HuffPost warned US diplomats against using phrases such as “de-escalation/ceasefire” as the words did not align with current US policy.Joe Biden declared that Israel not only has a right to respond but a “duty” to do so. But as Israel masses troops around Gaza’s borders, the president has also begun to press for restraint. In an interview with CBS’s 60 minutes, Biden warned that it would be a “big mistake” for Israel to try to reoccupy the territory once more with ground troops.On Monday, Biden postponed a planned trip to Colorado to stay in Washington DC and focus on the conflict as he reportedly weighs an invitation to visit Israel in what would be an extraordinary show of support for one of the US’s closest allies.Meanwhile, Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, was dispatched on a faltering diplomatic mission across the Middle East to try to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and keep the conflict from widening into a regional war.In Washington DC, the Democratic lawmakers face an uphill climb to pass their resolution in the Republican-controlled House, which is presently without a speaker and therefore unable to conduct normal business. Republicans are under pressure to quickly fill the speakership vacancy, after a handful of far-right conservatives ousted the previous occupant, in part so that Congress can respond to the widening crisis in the Middle East.There is a broad bipartisan consensus in Congress for aiding Israel’s war effort. A separate bipartisan resolution declaring that Congress “stands ready to assist Israel with emergency resupply and other security, diplomatic and intelligence support” in its “brutal” and “unprovoked” war against Hamas has 381 sponsors.But as the conflict grinds on, and the death toll rises, Tlaib said she expects more members will join their call for a ceasefire. Though the overwhelming majority of the House Democratic caucus has not yet joined calls for a ceasefire, Tlaib told reporters that party leaders did not try to dissuade her or her allies from introducing the resolution.“We’ve been clear on the need for de-escalation and a ceasefire since the attacks,” Bush said. “Leadership and the White House know exactly where we stand: there is no military solution to this conflict.”Earlier calls by progressive Democrats for a de-escalation of violence infuriated colleagues of both parties who pledged unflinching support for Israel in the wake of the unprecedented terror attack that many likened to the nation’s “own 9/11”.“Calls for de-escalation, even if well-meaning, are premature”, the congressman Jake Auchincloss, a Massachusetts Democrat who is Jewish, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, last week. “Israel needs the military latitude to re-establish deterrence and root out the nodes of terrorism. Israel did not ask America to de-escalate on September 12, 2001.”The rift underscored a shift in attitude among Democrats on the decades-old conflict. Once nearly unified in their support for Israel and its right to defend itself, Democrats in recent years have grown more critical of Israel, especially under the leadership of the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his far-right government.It comes as the party’s base voters have increasingly expressed concern about the plight of the Palestinians. A Gallup poll released earlier this year marked the first time Democrats said they sympathized more with Palestinians than Israelis.A CNN poll conducted after the attack by Hamas found deep sympathy for the Israeli people among the American public. But it also found attitudes toward the conflict and the US’s response to it varied by party, with Democrats and independent voters far less likely than Republicans to say the response by the Israeli military was “fully justified”.Those divisions are only likely to become sharper as the humanitarian situation in Gaza deteriorates ahead of an expected ground invasion by the Israeli military.During the call, the congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, a progressive Democrat of Massachusetts, condemned the attack by Hamas and called on her colleagues to recognize the value of both Israeli and Palestinian lives.“Let me make it plain: the murder of innocent Israeli civilians by Hamas is horrific and unacceptable. And the murder of innocent Palestinian civilians is a horrific and unacceptable response from Israel,” Pressley said on the press call. “Vengeance should not be a foreign policy doctrine. Our shared humanity is at stake, and we must move with urgency.” More