Should the United States call a ceasefire - or "pause" - in Israel's war? Should Hamas be condemned? Israeli "occupation" or unjustifiable attack by a terrorist group? The Administration's position, for the moment, is homogeneous, although ambiguous, regarding several of these questions: repudiation of Hamas, which must be eliminated, support for Israel and call for a humanitarian "pause."
Among the blue ranks, however, these questions are dividing the party into increasingly opposing camps, as demonstrated by the recent statements by former President Barack Obama and Senator Bernie Sanders. The Vermont politician was the last to give his opinion, uttering some words that surprised quite a few on the left:
I don't know how you can have a permanent cease fire with an organization like Hamas, which is dedicated to turmoil and chaos and destroying the state of Israel. And I think what the arab countries in the region understand is that Hamas has got to go.
#BREAKING: Bernie Sanders rejects calls for a ceasefire to benefit Hamas.
"I don't know how you can have a permanent cease fire with an organization like Hamas, which is dedicated to turmoil and chaos and destroying the state of Israel.
HAMAS HAS GOT TO GO” pic.twitter.com/IbdBMWprDO
— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) November 5, 2023
The veteran politician described the war as a "horror show" and defended sending humanitarian aid to Gaza. He also asked not to reduce the conflict to Manichean slogans, since it "is a complex issue." With these statements during a television interview, Sanders responded to Democratic Congresswoman for Michigan Rashida Tlaib, who in a video published on Friday called for a ceasefire and rebuked Biden for his support of Israel.
"The American people are not with this one," Tlaib told the president, accusing him of sponsoring "the genocide of the Palestinian People." In the one and a half minute recording - which features images of pro-Palestine marches, in which anti-Israel chants can be heard such as "the occupation's got to go," "no peace on stolen land" and "from the river to the sea"-, the member of the Squad threatened Biden with the withdrawal of support for next year's presidential elections (and perhaps even campaign against him):
The American People won't forget. Biden, support a ceasefire now. Or don't count on us in 2024.
.@POTUS, the majority of the American people are not with you on this one. #CeasefireNow pic.twitter.com/rV97zrMkad
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) November 3, 2023
Democrats against Tlaib
The Democrat, of Palestinian origins, later believed it was necessary to clarify the use of the slogan "from the river to the sea," which appears in the video. "It is an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate," she later wrote. The phrase, however, refers to the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, between which Israel is located - in addition to the Strip and the West Bank. As the organization Stop Antisemitism explained:
From the river to the sea refers to the full erasure of the Jewish state, from Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.
It is also the battle cry of Hamas, a savage terrorist group.
You echo terrorists.
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) November 3, 2023
Democrats Debbie Wasserman Schultz, congresswoman from Florida, and Jeremy Moss, state senator from Michigan, came out to clarify the same thing:
This phrase means eradicating Israel and Jews. Period. Dressing it up in a new PR ploy won’t change that. Only a return of hostages, eliminating Hamas and liberating Gaza from oppressive terror will save civilian lives and secure the peace, justice and dignity you seek. https://t.co/pPcjpMYRkS
— Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (@RepDWStweets) November 5, 2023
This is not how Jews view the phrase “from the river to the sea.” This is not how Hamas views the phrase “from the river to the sea.”
Hamas uses it as a rallying cry. And they don’t simply want to displace Jews in Israel. They want Jews dead. https://t.co/pRh8cU55if
— Senator Jeremy Moss (@JeremyAllenMoss) November 4, 2023
Blue Rep. Noah Arbit and Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel also came out against Tlaib:
It is disturbing and enraging that Jewish communities in Southfield, Franklin, Bingham Farms, Beverly Hills and beyond are represented by someone who adopts wholesale the call for the State of Israel to be wiped from the map, necessitating the elimination of 8 million Jews. https://t.co/0EL3MYR9Pm
— Rep. Noah Arbit (@NoahArbit) November 4, 2023
.@RashidaTlaib, I have supported and defended you countless times, even when you have said the indefensible, because I believed you to be a good person whose heart was in the right place.
But this is so hurtful to so many. Please retract this cruel and hateful remark. https://t.co/HBCf8jRgYo
— Dana Nessel (@dananessel) November 4, 2023
Obama: "occupation" and "nobody's hands are clean"
In the fragmented position of the Democratic Party on the war, the opinion of former President Barack Obama was not lacking. On the Pod Save America podcast, Obama called the Hamas attacks of October 7 "horrific," and said there was "no justification for it."
However, as part of his call to recognize the "complexity" of the conflict, he later added that "the occupation and what's happening to Palestinians is unbearable." He then maintained that "you have to admit nobody's hands are clean." "That all of us are complicit to some degree."
President @BarackObama on the violence in Gaza.
Full interview out Tuesday. pic.twitter.com/U42Jy2Aa4y
— Pod Save America (@PodSaveAmerica) November 4, 2023
Come to blows?
Tension in the Democratic Party over the war in Israel reached such a boiling point that, on Friday, Indiana Rep. André Carson challenged his New Jersey counterpart, Josh Gottheimer, to a fight.
"If he wants to play some kind of tough guy, a gangster – we can handle it like gentlemen, or we can get into something else," Carson told CNN after describing Gottheimer as a "coward" and a "punk" who was behaving too "emotional" for his position.
Carson was responding to Gottheimer's criticism of Democrats who voted against a resolution to support Israel. "They are despicable and do not speak for our party," he said of the 15 members of his party who opposed the measure.
The leadership of the formation then announced a meeting between the representatives. Gottheimer himself tried to defuse the situation by promising to talk to those who did not share his opinion.
Right now, many people are hurting, and it’s more important than ever for us to talk to each other. Moving forward, that is my commitment to all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle.
— Rep Josh Gottheimer (@RepJoshG) October 28, 2023
