Democrats Need a New Policy on Israel and Palestine

   Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. —Isaiah, 1:17

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “mighty vengeance” has far exceeded Israel’s right to defend itself. It cannot destroy Hamas, and will swell its ranks unless Israel can come to see the folly of the unjust order it maintains.

Since Hamas foresaw a disproportionate response by Israel, and even promised more attacks like October 7, what sense did it make to oblige Hamas?

If we valued Palestinian lives equally with Israeli lives, these considerations would have informed our policy; we would have leveraged our military aid to Israel from the start.

But in Washington, Palestinian blood is cheap. The Israel lobby has made sure of that.

As of March 1, 2024, over 30,228 Gazans had been killed since October 7, 2023, and over 71,377 wounded. Health experts warned that many thousands could perish from starvation and disease even if a cease-fire happened with no further delay.

With conditions still deteriorating, Prime Minister Netanyahu remains determined to “finish the job”. He assumes the Israel lobby can keep America in line. No temporary cease-fire can send the message Israel needs to hear: the slaughter must end now. 

Airdrops of aid will not suffice. Nor will a pier that will take weeks to complete to bring aid to starving people still under bombardment. President Biden must insist now on a permanent cease-fire to allow for the level of humanitarian assistance needed, and for a hostage-prisoner exchange. He should leverage military aid to make it happen and to sustain it.

Israelis will only know security when Palestinians know the same. Israel must retreat to the 1967 “Green Line”, by which it will still retain 78% of historic Palestine. It must begin to abandon all Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and end its  war and blockade of Gaza. 

Surely, the unjust order which Israel has imposed on the Palestinians–who comprised the great majority of the original population of Palestine– would offend the prophets of old.