Desmond Kahn is a resident of Newark.
When a Democrat was last in the White House, the Biden administration made a pretense of supporting democracy and the so-called “rules-based order” advocated by former secretary of state Antony Blinken. It was surprising, then, that Blinken’s initial response to the International Criminal Court’s issue of arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant was to threaten to impose financial sanctions on the members of that court. Apparently, Blinken thought the ICC’s action, which aimed to enforce the laws of international conduct, broke his rules, which seemed to allow war crimes by Israel.
This Democratic administration was headed by a man who liked to hug the indicted war criminal Netanyahu. The weak charade that he and Blinken put on of trying to require that Israel reframe from war crimes was pitiful and sickening, even as the whole world was watching.
Biden was a major advocate for Israel his whole career. In the 1980s, then-Sen. Biden held a town hall at the University of Delaware. He was praising Israel, when a Palestinian student asked why the Israelis would not allow his family members to visit their former home in Israel. Biden told him to come see his office, and he would help him out. The student later told me that Biden did nothing. The Israelis had driven the student’s family from its home during the ethnic cleansing and massacres of 1948. During this town hall, I had an exchange with the senator, who, to my surprise, asked me what I would do. I responded that I would make them sit down and negotiate. “Oh, no!” he replied. “You better work real hard to get me out of office, then!”
When Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., offered his first resolution opposing further arms sales to Israel in September 2024, only 16 Democratic senators supported it. The Republicans, of course, all opposed it. The congressional delegation from Delaware, my state, is no exception. Both of our senators, Democrats Chris Coons and Lisa Blunt Rochester, voted against Sanders’ first resolution. Sanders’ second resolution, in July 2025, got Blunt Rochester’s vote, along with a bare majority of the Democratic senators’, but Coons again voted no.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee is regarded as an enforcer of support for Israel and often works to defeat senators or representatives who refuse to toe its pro-Israel line. According to the website Track AIPAC, Coons has received $286,166 from the Israeli lobby and is endorsed by AIPAC. Former Rep. and now-Sen. Blunt Rochester has received $80,435 from the Israeli lobby, according to the same source; she is endorsed by J Street, which is not the same as AIPAC. Rep. Sarah McBride, D-Del., widely known as the first transgender member of Congress, is a strong supporter of Israel; she has accepted $46,520 from the Israeli lobby, according to the tracker. At a recent meeting of the Democratic National Committee, a resolution calling for an end of U.S. arms to Israel was defeated, even though only an estimated 7% of Democratic voters support Israel’s actions. At a recent meeting of the Democratic National Committee, a resolution calling for an end of U.S. arms to Israel was defeated, even though only an estimated 7% of Democratic voters support Israel’s actions.
Congress is, shamefully, in gross violation of its own laws, the Leahy laws, which Wikipedia defines as U.S. human rights laws that prohibit the U.S. Department of State and Department of Defense from providing military assistance to foreign security force units that violate human rights with impunity. As is evidenced by the warrant for genocide for Israel’s prime minister and the former defense minister by the International Criminal Court, Israel certainly violates the human rights of Palestinians with impunity. According to the Leahy law, Congress is obliged to end military assistance to Israel. However, Congress and many Democrats there blatantly violate their own law instead.
There are reports that the Democratic Party has suffered at the polls for its ongoing support for Israel’s crimes. Kamala Harris’ pledge of unyielding support for Israel, following in the footsteps of Biden, seems to have lost her the presidential election, according to polling results, because it was a prime reason for former Biden voters to stay home. Recently, graduating college students clearly showed that they support protests for Palestine. That does not bode well for the Democratic Party’s future support from younger voters. As economist Jeffrey Sachs recently stated, the attack by Hamas had been preceded by 50 years of violent subjugation of Palestinians by Israel.
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