Over one-third of the Democratic members of the US Senate urged President Joe Biden’s administration to pursue “bold” measures towards the establishment of a Palestinian state, marking the latest instance of resistance against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
More than a third of the US Senate’s Democrats called on President Joe Biden’s administration Wednesday to take “bold” action toward establishing a Palestinian state, in the latest pushback against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The letter to Biden comes days after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the country’s highest-ranking Jewish elected leader and longtime advocate for Israel, sent shock waves with a speech criticizing Netanyahu’s conduct of the Gaza war and urging new Israeli elections.
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 “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 president Bill Clinton in his peace push two decades ago—and would recognize Israel while renouncing Hamas, whose bloody October 7 attack in Israel triggered the massive military operation.
The senators called for a “regional peace initiative” that would integrate Israel—an allusion to ongoing attempts to persuade Saudi Arabia to offer normalization with Israel, the focus of the latest visit to the Kingdom by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Biden and Blinken have repeatedly voiced support for a two-state solution but did little to advance it before the war, aware that Netanyahu and his hard-right government are firmly against the idea.
Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, has built close relations with the rival Republicans, whose presumptive nominee to challenge Biden in November, Donald Trump, staunchly backed Israeli positions during his time as president.
The Israeli leader meanwhile addressed the minority Senate Republicans via video link Wednesday, giving a presentation on the military operation and taking questions.
“I made it clear to him that it’s not the business of the United States to be giving a democratic ally advice about when to have an election or what kind of military campaign they may be conducting,” Republican leader Mitch McConnell told reporters afterwards.
McConnell, who has been repeatedly critical of Schumer’s intervention, said the proposal for the appearance had come from Netanyahu, who wanted “to speak to all Senate Republicans.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, the top elected US Republican, said he spoke with Netanyahu at length by telephone earlier in the day and expressed “strong disagreement” with Schumer.
With AFP
