Arizona opinion: The Democrats on Gaza - a case of moral hypocrisy

In an op-ed published in The Hill, I criticized Democrats for calling to “Save Democracy” even as they failed to fully embrace it in the domestic electoral process. Here, I pick up where that essay left off and look in detail at another aspect of Democratic hypocrisy: this time, foreign policy.

Democratic leadership’s position on Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians provides a deeper glimpse into the Party’s internal contradictions.

Many top Democrats have supported Israel unflinchingly since its founding and continue to do so amid the current Israeli military campaign in Gaza.

This steadfast loyalty persists even as much of the world recognizes that Israel’s treatment of Palestinians — long before October 7 — amounted to apartheid. Apartheid is a crime against humanity, one that the international community once condemned South Africa’s government for before its fall in the early 1990s. Organizations such as B’Tselem, Israel’s leading human rights NGO, have now made that same charge against Israel.

Former President Joe Biden once berated Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of State, George Shultz, for that administration’s policy of “constructive engagement” with South Africa’s apartheid regime, calling apartheid “repugnant” and “immoral,” and strongly supporting the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act.

As a student at Occidental College, former President Barack Obama likewise called for U.S. divestment from South Africa.

Yet neither Obama nor Biden has shown the same moral conviction when it comes to Israel.

Much of the Democratic leadership also continues to back Israel’s current campaign despite South Africa, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, and an independent UN commission accusing Israel of the “crime of crimes,” genocide. Still, many Democrats maintain that support even as several nations — including the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia — have recently moved to recognize an independent Palestinian state.

Apartheid and genocide are the antithesis of democracy. Yet when it comes to Israel, many Democrats remain unwilling to acknowledge this simple truth.

Prominent Democratic figures such as Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and California Governor Gavin Newsom – both of whom have called for a ceasefire in Gaza, and whom some voters have hoped might lead the charge to save democracy at home – have yet to denounce Israel for these human rights violations. Neither politician has explicitly used the words “genocide” or “apartheid” in their speeches. Even former Vice President Kamala Harris hasn’t dared utter them. Perhaps Pritzker’s reticence is unsurprising, given his past role on the national board of AIPAC.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) are two notable exceptions to the trend among high-profile Democrats. Both have accused Israel of engaging in genocide, and yet they are not so firmly within the Democratic mainstream.

When we look at the congressional voting record, the picture becomes even clearer. A majority of Senate Democrats voted in favor of Senator Sanders’s July 2025 resolutions to block U.S. arms sales to Israel. However, 19 Senate Democrats — including Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) – voted to keep arming Israel, despite the mass violence, starvation, and killing of journalists and aid workers witnessed daily on social media and television. Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) missed both votes. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) has reaffirmed his strong support for Israel, repeatedly calling the U.S. commitment “ironclad.” He has also opposed every proposal to condition U.S. aid on Israel’s conduct.

When Democratic Party leadership votes and speaks in this way — voting to allow human rights abuses to continue and refusing to call out violations — it forfeits any moral authority to claim the role of defenders of democracy. A politics that tolerates the mass destruction of an entire people cannot credibly claim to stand for democratic values or be trusted to defend them — abroad or at home. It should be no surprise, then, that so many voters have turned away from the Democrats.