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Democrats Can’t Avoid a Reckoning With Gaza

We can’t defend democracy while upholding elite impunity

As Democrats continue to struggle to coalesce around a shared message for the future, last week offered some troubling examples of their refusing, once again, to learn from the mistakes of the past. After a delay, the Democratic National Committee finally released the post-2024 election autopsy report that DNC chair Ken Martin had long promised. It was easy to see why he had tried to avoid making it public. In addition to being incomplete and a mess, the report was notable for not mentioning one of the most divisive and consequential issues in the party: Gaza. Even considering the report’s incoherence, it was a baffling omission, given that Gaza continues to be a real point of tension in the Democratic coalition, one that cuts to the core of what kind of party, and what kind of country, we really want to be.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t last week’s only example of Democratic-aligned organizations trying to throw Gaza down the memory-hole. On May 19, the Center for American Progress, Washington’s largest Democratic Party–aligned think tank, held its annual “Ideas Festival,” featuring a panel on “The Future of US Foreign Policy.” Three of the four panelists were former Biden administration officials, and two of those—former secretary of state (now CAP board member) Antony Blinken and former UN ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield—were top decision-makers during Biden’s catastrophic handling of the Gaza war, which a growing consensus of experts has categorized as a genocide. Gaza was not even mentioned on the panel. (It’s notable that Blinken appeared at the event unannounced, possibly to avoid protests that now follow him everywhere.)

The previous day, Foreign Policy for America (FP4A), which describes itself as a group “working to strengthen support for principled US leadership in the world,” held an event honoring Thomas-Greenfield with a lifetime achievement award. While Thomas-Greenfield had an admirable diplomatic career before joining the Biden administration, as UN ambassador she vetoed multiple UN Security Council ceasefire resolutions, measures that might have saved thousands of lives, to enable Israel to continue its assault. FP4A’s choice to honor her with an award was an insult to every Palestinian killed, maimed, or still suffering in Gaza, and a middle........

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