Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) delivered a reality check for his fellow Democratic colleagues on Tuesday, writing in an essay that their party has failed in its approach to Israel by continuing to provide an unconditional flow of weapons, money and diplomatic support despite the country’s government and military having “increasingly undermined American interests and values.”
In an opinion piece for The New York Times titled “The Hard Truth My Party Needs to Face,” Van Hollen called on Democrats to use their leverage by withdrawing American taxpayer support for Israel and conditioning weapons sales in order to push the long-proposed two-state solution past simply lip service.
“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,” the senator wrote. “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.’”
While world leaders have supported the idea of such a solution for years, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s violent, extremist government has made a reality in which his country can peacefully live alongside Palestine nearly impossible to attain. Settlers and security forces have recently ramped up the decades of apartheid in the West Bank, Palestinian land that the International Court of Justice has ruled Israelis illegally occupy. Human rights experts and scholars have widely concluded that Israel’s ongoing destruction of Gaza and its people amounts to genocide. Netanyahu is executing what experts have described as the “Gaza playbook” in Lebanon, and essentially roped the U.S. into launching an expensive joint war against Iran that is now flailing.
Throughout it all, the U.S. government has continued to funnel an exorbitant amount of money and arms to Israel in the name of protection, while defending the country’s clear violations of international law from efforts at accountability by the United Nations and some Western states. Van Hollen said that cynics “rightly” roll their eyes at Democrats who talk about a two-state solution, but that they still must make a “last-gasp effort” to salvage the option. A spokesperson for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“If that effort fails, the United States will have to consider other options to secure equal political and legal rights for all,” he wrote. “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.”
The senator, who has long been vocal about Palestinian rights, has criticized both Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden for their complicity. And with a crowded group of Democrats expected to take on MAGA in 2028, Van Hollen warned his party it must win back the credibility it lost last time with voters concerned about Democrats’ hypocrisy and blasé attitude toward Israel’s violent behavior. That includes rejecting money from the Israel lobby, recognizing Palestinian statehood, and withholding offensive weapons until Israel complies with international and U.S. law and agrees to a time-bound plan to end the occupation. But as of August, the Democratic National Committee has refused to endorse an arms embargo.
“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,” he wrote. “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.”
