As thousands flood streets in the US and abroad — one estimate puts that total in the millions — calling for a ceasefire in Israel’s bombarding of Gaza, Democrats are struggling to unite around a single stance. Progressives are slowly coalescing around a ceasefire, pushing a congressional resolution in the House, as some voters, critics, and others in the party warn that President Joe Biden’s chances in 2024 will take a hit if he doesn’t shift on his blanket support for Israel.
Israel’s assault on Gaza is approaching its fourth week, after the October 7 Hamas attack that killed over 1,400 Israelis, largely civilians, of which over 200 hostages are still being held. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, more than 8,000 Palestinians have been killed from inside the Hamas-controlled territory.
Save the Children, which also supports a ceasefire, announced that the Health Ministry’s estimate of over 3,000 Palestinian children killed since October 7 is more than the “annual number of children killed across the world's conflict zones since 2019.” Hamas continues to fire rockets into Israel, where US-supported “iron dome” technology is in use.
On October 27, as Israel’s ground assault on Gaza was underway, the United Nations General Assembly “overwhelmingly” passed a resolution for an immediate ceasefire, the release of all civilians, and safe transport of humanitarian aid. Israel condemned the resolution, which did not explicitly mention Hamas.
Earlier that week, a US Congressional resolution was passed “pledg[ing] to support Israel with whatever it needs as it fights Hamas,” as reported by the New York Times. All but nine Democrats, the majority of whom backed the progressive “Ceasefire Now” resolution (more on that later), signed onto the measure.
On October 30, Israel's President Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his refusal for a ceasefire, saying it “will only strengthen Hamas.” As some who joined the pro-democracy protests in Israel now protest for ceasefire in Tel Aviv with hopes of a safe transport home for the hostages, family members of the hostages are fearful their loved ones may become casualties in Israel’s ground invasion. The next day, CNN reported, “an enormous blast” resulted in several civilian casualties at a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip; the IDF took responsibility for the strike.
The Biden administration has received no small amount of backlash from the left for its steadfast support of Israel’s war campaign; one poll from the progressive group Data for Progress found 66% of voters surveyed support a ceasefire. After Biden cast aspersions on the death tolls out of Gaza – numbers regularly relied upon by mainstream media and advocacy groups – outraged organizations condemned the message. “The White House and many in the US government are clear as they should be that 1,000 Israelis killed is too many,” Eva Borgwardt, political director of progressive Jewish anti-Zionist group IfNotNow, told The Guardian. “Our question for them is: How many Palestinian deaths are too many?”
After weeks of refusing to endorse calls for a “humanitarian pause” to the violence to allow for the entry of supplies, the Biden administration shifted course somewhat on October 27, endorsing the proposal (a move made by liberal Jewish-American advocacy group J Street two days before) — still shy of a ceasefire.
Proponents argue that the Biden administration’s stance on a ceasefire may cost him core constituencies he will need to win in 2024, as noted by Nation columnist Elie Mystal.
On October 30, the National Muslim Democratic Council, representing “dedicated Democratic leaders from across the United States and battleground states” such as Pennsylvania and Michigan, issued an open letter demanding the Biden administration take action to secure a ceasefire by 5 p.m. ET on October 31. “It has become evident that our voices are being ignored, but our votes will not be,” the letter stated in closing. “Simply put, as Gaza turns red, so could crucial battleground states.”
On the 31st, before the 5 p.m. deadline, a poll released by the Arab American Institute found that Arab American support for Biden in the 2024 election has dropped to just 17%, down from 59% in 2020, which the organization’s president called “the most dramatic shift over the shortest period of time that I’ve ever seen.”
Reporting on this issue attributes the hold-off on endorsing a ceasefire to US and Israeli skepticism about Hamas potentially exchanging the non-Israeli hostages taken during the October 7 attack for, variously, a partial ceasefire or the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners. In Biden’s first conversation with Netanyahu since Israel’s ground campaign began in earnest, according to the Washington Post, Biden emphasized the need for humanitarian aid access to Gaza; contemporaneously, administration officials told the media they were having behind-the-scenes conversations with Israel on the subject. Nonetheless, Biden hasn’t shifted in his refusal to call for an immediate ceasefire.
This stance has led to broader disagreement within the party, not to mention Biden’s administration. A State Department official, Josh Paul, who had served under the Obama and Trump administrations resigned on October 18, after 11 years in the role, over what he called Biden’s “blind support for one side.” He wrote in his letter, “I fear we are repeating the same mistakes we have made these past decades, and I decline to be a part of it for longer.”
In an interview with the New York Times, Paul condemned US inaction in response to Israel cutting off Gaza’s water and food supply. The next day, an anonymous group of Muslim and Jewish Capitol Hill staffers issued a public letter lobbying their bosses to fight for a ceasefire and the release of all hostages and humanitarian aid to Gaza.
“Ceasefire Now” Resolution
On October 16, Democratic Reps. Rashida Tlaib (MI), Cori Bush (MO), Summer Lee (PA), André Carson (IN), and Delia Ramirez (IL) introduced their Ceasefire Now resolution to the House, calling for “an end to violence in Israel and occupied Palestine.”
“The answer to violence is not more violence,” said Rep. Carson, in his statement on the resolution.
Other cosponsors include Reps. Ilhan Omar (MN); New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jamaal Bowman, and Nydia Velázquez; Ayanna Pressley (MA); Maxwell Frost (FL); Greg Casar (TX); and Pramila Jayapal (WA). (Three more representatives support a ceasefire, but have not signed the resolution.)
According to Alex Kane writing in the progressive Jewish Currents, about a tenth of Democratic representatives have backed the ceasefire resolution, which has been endorsed by dozens of left and progressive organizations. “Look, I want to see safety and I want to see hostages released,” Illinois Rep. Delia Ramirez (D), a signatory of the ceasefire resolution, told Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman on October 30. “Bombing ourselves through it is not going to bring the hostages back safely.… The only way we are going to get to long-lasting peace is a ceasefire, is deescalating and using diplomacy.”
Notable figures absent from the pro-ceasefire camp include Sens. Bernie Sanders (VT), Elizabeth Warren (MA), and John Fetterman (PA), all of whom have been under considerable pressure from their former campaign staffers and some constituents to back a ceasefire. Fetterman has been lambasted from the left for his “unequivocal support” of Israel, and for saying “Now is not the time to talk about a ceasefire.” Over the weekend, a video went viral of Fetterman refusing to respond to and walking away from a constituent who asked him to justify his stance.
There are signs that pressure to control the humanitarian crisis is building, indicated in part by the Biden administration’s agreement to the notion of a “humanitarian pause.” A steady trickle of reporting on the crisis in Gaza — over 20,000 injured, overwhelmed hospitals damaged by bombings being told to evacuate, access cut off to food, water, and communications — has underscored the need.
Recently, more than two dozen senators pushed the Biden administration to prioritize diplomacy to enable the entry of fuel into Gaza. Meanwhile, another statement, signed onto by Sanders and Warren, emphasized humanitarian aid and the release of hostages without conditions: “As the United States put forward at the United Nations, we are calling for humanitarian pauses to allow full, rapid, safe, and unhindered humanitarian assistance for civilians and the immediate, unconditional release of all remaining hostages.”
As previously reported by Teen Vogue, students on hundreds of US college campuses staged a walkout on October 25 to demand a ceasefire. On October 27, as many as 1,000 protesters, according to one police officer's estimate, overtook New York’s Grand Central Station, chanting “Ceasefire now!” and “Let Gaza live!” with the Jewish anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace.
The following day, police told the New York Times that they had arrested 335 protesters. Throughout the weekend, thousands more took to the streets in New York, London, Rome, Baghdad, and more to support a ceasefire.
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