Dem Staffers Divided Over Biden Response To Israel-Hamas War

Part of President Joe Biden’s 2024 reelection campaign team is experiencing internal turmoil over Biden’s positioning on the Israel-Hamas war, Axios reported.

Some younger and more left-wing staffers of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), which Biden is leaning on for his reelection bid, view his support for Israel as aiding a vicious attack on Palestinians, while older, more centrist Democrats within the DNC’s ranks consider Biden’s position as an indicator of his “moral clarity,” according to Axios. Some of the disaffected younger staffers are so dejected by Biden’s support for the Israelis that they are reportedly considering resigning their posts in protest.

“The president centered his 2020 campaign on a ‘Battle for the Soul of the Nation,’ but it seems as though the administration is currently in a battle for its own soul,” an anonymous and high-ranking DNC official told Axios. Biden “continues to display unparalleled leadership and moral clarity” by not allowing the party’s left flank to dissuade him from his stance that “Israel has a right to defend itself from terrorism and the continued threat posed by Hamas,” DNC Chair Jaime Harrison told Axios.

On Friday, more than 50 of the DNC’s 300 staffers signed a letter to the organization’s leadership expressing their view that “it is the DNC’s moral obligation to urge President Biden to publicly call for a ceasefire,” according to the Huffington Post. The rift inside the DNC mirrors a wider disagreement about the issue within the party writ large, as many younger, more left-wing Democrats have criticized U.S. support for Israel’s response to the brutal Oct. 7 Hamas attacks that ignited the most recent war between the terrorist group and the Jewish state.

Biden called for a “pause” in the war after being confronted by a heckler at a Wednesday event in Minnesota, but framed a “pause” as a temporary measure to extract hostages via negotiations rather than an indefinite cessation to hostilities.

Biden’s campaign is working closely with the DNC to fundraise and organize infrastructure in advance of the 2024 election, which appears likely to be a rematch between Biden and former President Donald Trump.

The divide on the Israel-Hamas conflict has seeped into Capitol Hill and the State Department as well, with numerous left-wing Congressional Democrats calling for a ceasefire and the resignation of at least one high-level State Department official over the issue.

Neither the DNC nor the Biden campaign responded immediately to requests for comment.