The debate within the Democratic Party over Israel could come to a head this summer at its convention as it faces a significant intraparty divide on how to approach the ongoing conflict. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Members of the party critical of U.S. support for Israel amid its war with Hamas have rallied around a movement to buck President Biden\u2002<\/u><\/a>in the Democratic primaries and vote \u201cuncommitted\u201d as a protest vote against him. The movement has seen moderate success and attained some delegates to be sent to the convention, which will be held in Chicago in August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some Democrats are concerned that the divisions on display will just grow worse ahead of the quadrennial process of approving the party\u2019s official platform this summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI do think at the convention, for sure, I would be really surprised if there weren\u2019t significant protests on this issue, and unfortunately, I don\u2019t think there\u2019s a lot that Biden can do between now and then to change that,\u201d said Heather Gautney, a member of the 2020 Democratic platform drafting committee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Each party drafts its platform every four years ahead of the nominating conventions after an extensive process to set its policies on all the key issues facing the country. In 2020, then-candidate Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders\u2002<\/u><\/a>(I-Vt.) agreed to form a series of task forces to bridge the divide between two factions of the Democratic Party following a serious primary battle between the two of them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n From the task forces that developed policy positions on the most critical issues, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) created a drafting committee composed of some Biden and Sanders supporters to draft the exact language of the platform. The committee was mostly comprised of Biden supporters, but Sanders supporters did make up a decent-sized minority. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The committee held a few public hearings featuring testimony on its proposals and eventually submitted the platform to the DNC for final approval at the convention. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But former members of the drafting committee from past years said that extensive process may not happen in 2024 since Biden isn\u2019t facing serious opposition to the nomination. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Gautney, who is also a professor of sociology at Fordham University, said the Biden campaign may seek to avoid a \u201cpublic performance\u201d of the dissent within the party over the situation in Gaza but may provide an opportunity for a \u201csoft debate\u201d on the issue that won\u2019t harm Biden politically. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m not really sure about this year because there is no Bernie Sanders wing at the table this time,\u201d she said. \u201cHe\u2019s running uncontested, and so there isn\u2019t that pressure for him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But she noted that Biden has been and will likely continue to be in a difficult position with the party\u2019s divide over the war in Gaza. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Biden has had to walk a careful wire for months as the death toll has risen in Gaza amid Israel\u2019s offensive in response to the Oct. 7 attack from Hamas that killed 1,200 people. In a sign of how the intraparty criticism is becoming a political headache for him, he issued his sharpest critique<\/u><\/a> yet of the Israeli government\u2019s handling of the war to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call the two leaders had Thursday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Biden told Netanyahu that U.S. policy on the war would depend on Israel better protecting civilians and humanitarian workers. The call came after an Israeli airstrike killed seven World Central Kitchen workers who were providing food to people in Gaza. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Numerous congressional Democrats have called for placing conditions<\/u><\/a> on additional aid to Israel depending on protecting civilians and allowing humanitarian relief to get through. The internal divisions facing the party could present a difficult challenge for crafting an official policy acceptable across the spectrum of Democrats. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The 2020 Democratic platform<\/u><\/a> declared the party\u2019s commitment to Israel\u2019s security and right to defend itself while calling for a two-state solution to the conflict and recognizing the \u201cworth of every Israeli and every Palestinian.\u201d It also stated that the party was opposed to any unilateral steps by either side \u201cthat undermine prospects for two states.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Gautney said the 2024 platform may look similar to the 2020 one because Biden has not strayed much from that language, but the focus may be more so on the state of the divide than the platform itself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI don\u2019t think it will focus on the language of the platform \u2026 but certainly at the convention I think that\u2019s where people are going to express their dissent,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Jim Zogby, who has been involved in drafting numerous platforms in past election years, said he is unsure what the platform point on Israel will look like but expects it will be \u201clargely cooked as it usually is on the Middle East.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Zogby, who is the president of the Arab American Institute, a civil rights advocacy group that advises on policies affecting the Arab American community, said the administration has not had meetings with the community about policy positions. He said they have had meetings with Secretary of State Antony Blinken but not the White House. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m going to continue to hope to change the policy, change in language, change in outreach, a sincere effort to understand what our concerns are and try to accommodate them,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it\u2019s critical for November. I think it\u2019s critical just for sound policy. But they haven\u2019t shown an inclination to do that to date.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Zogby noted that the administration has reached out<\/u><\/a> to Arab American leaders in various states, but the meetings have been more focused on getting their support than discussing policy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPeople have come away from those meetings pretty frustrated, that they wanted to talk policy, they wanted to talk about cease-fire, they wanted to talk about aid to Israel. There was no discussion about any of those issues,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n