Gaza protesters challenging Democratic leaders
In Detroit, a congressman’s holiday party devolved into chaos and a broken nose after demonstrators protesting the war in the Gaza Strip appeared with bullhorns.
In Fort Collins, Colo., the mayor abruptly ended a meeting during which protesters demanding a cease-fire in Gaza glued their hands to a wall.
And in places as disparate as a historic church in South Carolina and Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan, President Biden has been heckled and drowned out by demonstrators objecting to his support for Israel.
Protests over the Biden administration’s handling of the war are disrupting the activities of Democratic officials from city halls to Congress to the White House, complicating their ability to campaign — and, at times, govern — during a pivotal election year.
Biden successfully avoided a messy primary fight, facing no viable opposition within his party. But the Gaza conflict has stoked intraparty tensions nonetheless, raising Democratic concerns that a sustained movement protesting a war thousands of miles away could depress turnout at home in November.
“If you are now organizing people to walk away from supporting the president, then you are now de facto supporting and helping Trump,” Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, a Democrat who has disappointed progressives with his unflinching support of Israel, said in an interview last week. “If you’re going to play with fire that way, then you need to own the burn.”
Many supporters of the Palestinian cause argue that Biden must earn their votes — and that the death toll and suffering in Gaza should transcend concerns about electoral politics.
“With all of the political threats of Donald Trump in the horizon, it should tell you something about how deeply people feel about what’s happening,” said the Rev. Michael McBride, a founder of Black Church PAC who has pressed for a cease-fire.
The national effort to pressure US leaders to limit their support for Israel has focused almost exclusively on Democrats, with former president Trump rarely — if ever — attracting significant criticism from pro-Palestinian demonstrators at his home or public appearances. Trump has said little of substance about the conflict, other than that Israel should “finish up” the war.
Biden has increasingly taken a harder stance with Israel’s government, threatening Thursday to condition future support on how it addresses civilian casualties and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
But he is still confronting fierce criticism.
At a White House gathering for Ramadan last week, a Palestinian American doctor — one of the few Muslim community leaders who agreed to attend — walked out in protest after telling Biden that Israel’s looming ground invasion of Rafah would be a “blood bath and a massacre.”
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators have spent weeks protesting outside Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s house, spilling pitchers of fake blood and shouting at him and his family.