At the end of last month, following weeks of horrific violence, we had a tiny glimmer of hope. Seventy-eight Israeli hostages, including 36 children, were returned to their families after being held in captivity by Hamas for over a month. Two hundred and forty Palestinian women and children, roughly 80% of whom had been detained in Israeli prison without being convicted of a crime, were finally able to hug their families too. For seven days, the near-constant bombardment of Gaza came to a pause.
But as soon as the seven-day negotiated pause was up, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doubled down on his ground invasion of Gaza, part of an all-out assault which, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, has killed more than 15,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and children. Entire bloodlines have been wiped out. For too many shattered Palestinian and Israeli families, reunion is no longer an option — and thousands more will join them as long as the carnage continues.
Meanwhile, President Biden has yet to declare support for a permanent ceasefire. In fact, just the opposite: His administration has pledged an additional $14 billion in weapons funding to Israel, a package that’s expected to reach the Senate floor this week. His support comes as Israeli forces escalate their offensive in southern Gaza, where officials had previously told Gazans to flee to safety. Rather than exercise the leverage available to him, President Biden is choosing over and over again to risk hundreds of thousands of lives by refusing to call for ceasefire.
Biden’s position is shortsighted and indefensible — not just for the millions of Israeli and Palestinian civilians crying out for peace, but for his own political efficacy, and that of the Democratic party too. After all, millions of young Americans are watching his actions with despair and disappointment.
According to a recent Gallup poll, nearly seven in 10 Americans under age 35 disapprove of the Israeli military’s actions in Gaza; only 22% of the same group approves of President Biden’s handling of the situation. And Biden’s favorability is crashing as a result: His approval rating among his own party members plummeted 11 points last month, and leaders of the most prominent youth political groups in the country penned an open letter imploring the president not to send more aid to Israel until human rights violations are addressed: “Stand on the right side of history,” they wrote. “Your legacy hangs in the balance.”
In my own capacity as the national spokesperson of IfNotNow, a movement of American Jews organizing for equal rights between Palestinians and Israelis, I have seen distrust and disappointment in President Biden reach an all-time breaking point. Our organization has been pushing for an end to the occupation of the West Bank and blockade of Gaza for years, and in recent weeks, we’ve sprung into action to call for an immediate ceasefire. Young Jews have come up to me at marches and actions, sent me messages and made heartbreaking calls, asking me how they can be expected to vote, in good conscience, for a president who sends missiles to kill civilians in their names — and who, by doing so, seems willing to risk dragging the entire region into war with Israelis and Palestinians at the center.
They feel betrayed, and I don’t blame them. Our Jewish values call us to stand up for justice, to value the dignity of all human life, and to choose peace and solidarity over violence and revenge. Looking at the White House, it's hard to see those values in action on any level.
I fear that Biden’s callous dismissal of his own base, including millions of young voters who supported him in 2020, might ultimately cost him the 2024 election. The results may have been promising a few weeks ago for Democrats on the ballot in Ohio, Kentucky, and Virginia, but those hard-earned victories were won by prochoice organizers — and try as he might, Joe Biden is not synonymous with abortion rights. According to Quinnipiac, nearly a quarter of voters say they would support Robert F. Kennedy Jr. or Cornel West if they stayed in the race as independent candidates. As the Washington Post recently reported, those are the highest numbers for independent presidential contenders since Ross Perot.
Even if Biden and his advisors remain unmoved by the cries of Palestinian children, the political risk of suppressing young voters ought to seriously influence their calculus. Instead, they have gone so far as to call members of Congress in their own party “repugnant” and “disgraceful” for calling for a ceasefire.
To be clear, I am terrified of Donald Trump and extremely aware of the threat he poses. I am terrified by the prospect of empowering his far-right, white nationalist movement with unimpaired power. And I am extremely aware that another Trump presidency would be disastrous for Jews, Muslims, Palestinians, Israelis, and Americans alike. It is because of the severity of that threat that I demand President Biden stand up to fascism, militarism, and bigotry wherever he finds it, including when it comes to the horrific Hamas attacks and ongoing hostage crisis and the Israeli government’s continued collective punishment of millions of civilians in Gaza. Anything less emboldens an ascendant right-wing and threatens to turn the White House directly over to Trump. How dare President Biden do so in the name of Jews like us?
Whether Biden acknowledges it or not, the minds and hearts of young people have changed. They will not be shamed or lectured out of their convictions: Equality and justice for Israelis and Palestinians, a permanent ceasefire in the ongoing siege on Gaza, and an end to what major human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have deemed an apartheid regime that broadly suppresses Palestinians.
Biden needs young people to turn out if he’s going to beat Trump in 2024. He can open his eyes to these demands, or he can risk their vote, and with it, our nation’s future. The choice is his — and he ought to choose wisely.
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