Alternate headline: 19 Senate Democrats Endorse Terrorism As Legitimate Exercise of Politics. How else to describe a memo signed by almost half of the Senate Democrat caucus calling on Joe Biden to be “bold” and unilaterally declare an intent to recognize Palestine as a sovereign state as a direct result of the war Hamas started on October 7?
And while Hamas still holds Americans hostage in Gaza, no less. Shouldn’t Senate Democrats start with demands for their release?
Nineteen Democratic senators led by Tom Carper, a longtime ally of Biden from his home state of Delaware, wrote that the Middle East crisis had “reached an inflection point” that required US leadership beyond past “facilitation” of Israeli-Palestinian talks.
“As such, we request the Biden administration promptly establish a bold, public framework outlining the steps necessary” to establish a Palestinian state over both the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the senators wrote.
They said an independent Palestinian state would be “non-militarized” — terminology embraced by former US president Bill Clinton in his peace push two decades ago — and would recognize Israel while renouncing Hamas, whose bloody October 7 onslaught in Israel triggered the massive military operation.
Yes, by all means, let’s reward October 7’s breaking of the existing cease-fire and mass rape and murder of hundreds of unarmed Israeli citizens by giving the Palestinians what they’ve been offered repeatedly in the past. Nothing disincentivizes terror, rape, hostaging, and murder quite like, er, giving the perps everything they demand as a result. And let’s face it — nothing says “We’re trustworthy for sovereignty” like spending the last 17 years launching a rain of missile attacks on one’s neighbor and repeatedly declaring that their annihilation is your ultimate goal.
Even beyond the craven capitulation to terrorism, this proposal is nonsense on stilts. The only way to get to a “non-militarized” Gaza and/or West Bank that ‘renounces’ Hamas would be to have the IDF utterly destroy Hamas. That’s precisely what this proposal intends to obstruct by forcing Israel to halt its upcoming Rafah operation. Hamas still has an estimated four brigades dug into Rafah, and Hamas has no intention of disbanding in favor of a so-called “two-state solution.” They have made that clear since their Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7.
But even more to the point, the Palestinians don’t want this proposal either. According to a poll released yesterday from the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, support for Hamas has actually increased in Gaza since October 7, and seven in ten Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank support the October 7 atrocities that started the war:
These #Palestinian poll results (from March 2024) tell a depressing story:
– 71% say 10/7 attacks were “correct”
– 91% say #Hamas committed no war crimes in this conflict
– 59% say Hamas should control #Gaza after the war is over
– Hamas has double the popular support of #Fatah,…— Robert Satloff (@robsatloff) March 20, 2024
– Hamas has double the popular support of #Fatah, the main party of the #PalestinianAuthority (34% to 17%)
– “Armed struggle,” not negotiations or non-violent resistance, is the most popular strategy to end #Israeli occupation (46%)
Gee, who wouldn’t want them as a sovereign neighbor?
This graph from PCPSR makes the point more succinctly as to whether the Palestinians will “renounce” Hamas:
And how many Palestinians will welcome a “two-state solution” guaranteed by an Arab coalition? Let’s look at that graph, too:
This should surprise no one who actually pays attention to this conflict for more than a five-second attention span. The Palestinians have been offered this deal before, at least twice, and rejected it for the “armed struggle” instead. Bill Clinton gets a mention because he got Israel to go along with this same plan at Wye River, only to have Yasser Arafat throw it back in his face (and the Saudis, who helped push it) and declare an intifada instead.
The nineteen Senate Democrats offering this proposal operate in a fantasy world. The Palestinians don’t want two states. They want one state, “from the river to the sea,” and they want no Jews anywhere in it. They support Hamas because they believe Hamas will deliver that outcome.
That’s in large part because they think Hamas will win this war — and they’re basing that on past experience:
PCPSR director Khalil Shikaki attributed the support for Hamas’s control of Gaza after the war to a lack of viable alternatives, and noted that the responses appeared to dovetail with opinions on whether Hamas will win the war, which grew among Gazans and fell among West Bank respondents.
Emphasis mine. Why do more Gazans now think Hamas will win? In part, because they see Israel’s allies attempting to force an outcome that will guarantee Hamas’ survival, but in larger part because those allies always force Israel to stop short of defeating Hamas. This isn’t irrational at all — this is a pattern over seventeen years, and it’s why Gazans can’t even consider alternatives to Hamas rule in Gaza. The West keeps protecting them in the end, which is a victory for Hamas, albeit Pyrrhic for the Gazans.
The only way to break this cycle and give any kind of peace a chance is to let Israel finish the job in Rafah. The only way to break support for “armed struggle” is by utterly defeating and discrediting it, completely and undeniably. The Palestinians will not renounce Hamas until Hamas gets utterly crushed in Gaza. The only way to move them toward peace is to fully restore the price signals for war, especially for the barbarous atrocities which touched off this war in particular.
These 19 Senate Democrats are not part of the solution — they are part of the problem.