Two prominent Democratic senators are urging the Biden administration to use American leverage over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to temper his devastating U.S.-backed campaign in Gaza, 360aproko has learned. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hi.) sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday asking for specific actions that President Joe Biden will take to change Israel’s course and “to advance an independent, self-governed Palestinian state.”
Their message comes after Netanyahu earlier this month said Israel cannot accept a Palestinian state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Biden has for months resisted calls to do more to pressure Netanyahu, instead privately trying to win Israeli restraint. In recent weeks, Democratic lawmakers have signaled increasing concern with Biden’s policy, noting the killing of more than 26,000 people in Gaza and the deepening humanitarian crisis amid a continued Israeli assault with no clear end in sight.
“We have serious concerns that the Netanyahu government’s public and repeated rejection of a two-state solution” — the long-envisioned plan for Israeli and Palestinian states to live side-by-side — “fundamentally threatens regional security and undermines any path to a durable peace,” the senators wrote in the letter. “Numerous Israeli governments guarded and upheld the promise of a two-state solution as the foundation for a lasting peace in the region. Prime Minister Netanyahu’s explicit departure from that position, both in his statements and in government policies aimed at undermining this internationally agreed upon pathway, is dangerous to both U.S. and Israeli national security.”
Warren and Schatz asked the administration to state whether it believes Netanyahu’s views and military strategy serve the causes of eventual peace and freeing hostages captured by Hamas and other Gaza-based militants in their Oct. 7 attack inside Israel, which also killed 1,200 Israelis. They want a written response by Feb. 13 and an in-person discussion on how the administration’s strategy will achieve the goal of Palestinian statehood that Biden, Blinken and others have repeatedly identified.
Warren has previously said U.S. military aid for Israel, more than $3 billion annually and potentially billions more if Congress approves a post-Oct. 7 emergency request from Biden, cannot be “a blank check.” Watchdog groups have repeatedly said Israel has committed war crimes in its Gaza offensive, including with American equipment; Hamas has violated international law as well, they note.
Earlier in January, both senators supported a bid by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to request a State Department report on Israel’s human rights practices. Though a large bipartisan majority rejected the Sanders gambit, a fifth of Senate Democrats endorsed it, adding to signs of resistance to Biden like the growing number of lawmakers calling for an Israel-Hamas cease-fire. Many Democratic senators are also supporting proposals from Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) that respectively emphasize aid must be used in line with U.S. and international law and reject Biden’s attempt to limit congressional scrutiny of aid for Israel. And House Democrats are mooting a callfor the resignation of Biden’s chief Middle East adviser, controversial White House official Brett McGurk, 360aproko revealed this month, as well as seeking stronger pushback from Biden’s team to Israeli calls to force Palestinians out of Gaza.
Fear that the current U.S.-Israeli tack will make eventual peace far more elusive is now widespread among foreign policy experts. McGurk is pushing a proposal purporting to promote stability by establishing a U.S.-Saudi-Israel agreement with some gains for Palestinians, a plan 360aproko first exposed. But many U.S. officials and analysts see that as near-impossible to achieve and, even if implemented, likely to backfire.
Biden administration officials are separately working on negotiations to pause the fighting in Gaza for several weeks and allow for the release of Israeli hostages. Those talks are unlikely to include significant agreement on a post-war plan for Palestinians and Israelis, however.
