The war in the Middle East is threatening to tear the Democratic Party apart. I tried to sit out this discussion as long as possible, but it isn’t going away. Where I stand is unimportant as I find both sides increasingly myopic, but my concern is something that has no impact on the tangible everyday lives of Americans is defining Biden’s reelection chances to many.

Under more normal circumstances I’d have more sympathy for President Biden’s critics within the party (or more accurately on the hard left – many claim not to be Democrats). I was someone who opposed the Afghan War (which all of one member of Congress, Barbara Lee voted against) and protested in the streets multiple times in advance of the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. I opined in 2011 that the GOP Congress should invoke the War Powers Act to stop President Obama’s involvement in the bombing of Libya, something that ended up having dramatic consequences for the entire region.

So the current war in the Middle East is tearing apart the Democratic Party, with some of the most vicious and effective criticisms of President Joe Biden’s policies coming from the left.

Ukraine

The Ukraine War has taught me much of the left isn’t as much anti-war as they are anti-western. They aren’t really “anti-imperialist” either. The number of prominent left-leaning commentators with a significant following in this country that have openly echoed Russian talking points or somehow blamed the west for Putin’s wars of aggression has given me serious pause about the entire “progressive” movement in this country.

I’ve even seen multiple leftists claim Ukraine isn’t a “real” nation. Ukrainian nationalism being suppressed has been a consistent theme since the mid-1800’s. In addition, the Russians be they right-wingers like the Nicholas II or Putin or leftists like Trotsky and Stalin (who was Georgian of course, but don’t remind him about that) have promoted myths about nationality that have attempted to fuse Ukrainians and Russians into a single people to justify Russian domination of Ukraine. Don’t fall for it. It’s absolute nonsense.

Even more diabolical have been the few people I respect telling me that the US and NATO were “aggressors” in the Balkans in the 1990’s (if anything, I believed then and believe now the US was far too timid). Simply put, they don’t understand foreign policy well enough to make these assessments and I as will demonstrate below they do not show the consistency required to have their arguments taken seriously.

Arab states and the Palestinians

I have noticed a clear pattern with the far left when it comes to defending Muslim populations against aggression. If Israel is the aggressors, they go bananas but when others are the aggressors we hear little in the way of protests. And as supposed champions of the Palestinian cause, why is they never pressure the Arab governments who either don’t accept large numbers of refugees (Egypt?), have previously put down Palestinian ambitions (Jordan?) or expelled hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees (Kuwait?) . Like most stateless groups around the world, the Palestinians are being exploited and betrayed by MULTIPLE nations in the region, not just a single one. So why does the left pick on one? Why don’t they hold Jordan to account for their actions after partition?

Other examples of the left ignoring the plight of Muslims at the hands of non-Muslim actors

• The Crimean Tatars the natives of the peninsula who made up 90% of the Crimean population before the Crimean War and were still a large percentage before Stalin forcibly relocated them in the 1940’s returned to Crimea following Ukrainian independence. Most have fled since 2014 to Turkey or western Ukraine. They are staunchly pro-Ukranian, a displaced group of Muslims. Yet not a peep about their fate from the US left.
• Russian aggression in heavily Muslim-areas Dagestan and Chechnya has been largely ignored by the western left in general.
• China’s systemic efforts at reeducation (which fits the textbook term of genocide) of Muslim Uyghur’s in Xinjiang has been completely ignored by the left. When I’ve personally raised the issue to progressives I’ve been told it isn’t important or not “our fight.”
• Indian actions in Kashmir are two or three-fold what Israel has done through the years in the West Bank and Gaza. Yet India is NEVER held to account on this in the US- in the UK many Labour pols have courageously taken a stand (perhaps because of the large Pakistani ex-pat population there). I understand much of this has to do with the amount Indian diaspora in the US and India’s importance culturally and economically. Still it stinks from where I sit.
• Serbia’s actions toward Kosovo are clear Christian on Muslim aggression. As critical as I was of George W. Bush, I applaud that he led international recognition of Kosovo, a majority Muslim state in Europe. Kosovo 15 years later is facing potential elimination, and thanks to Russia’s influence has never been admitted as a UN member. Yet we hear NOTHING about this from the left, except for one or two talking heads who consider Kosovo a “US proxy” therefore not worthy of sympathy. And now we have revisionism going on about the 1990’s and supposed western “aggression” in the Balkans while the Serbs were committing wholesale genocide against Muslims in both Bosnia and Kosovo.

So while I sympathize with children being killed and the general plight of the Palestinians I cannot make common cause with the left due to their inconsistency and seeming assumption than anytime the US is on one side, the other side is virtuous. And their constant blaming of Biden calling him “Genocide Joe” on Twitter which followed the “Biden’s War” hashtag about Ukraine which was so popular at one point in 2022.

Pro-Bibi Netanyahu Democrats

But what about the pro-Israel side? I find it remarkable that many Americans in the Democratic Party that lecture the right in this country about secularism, theocracy and social justice can support a character like Bibi Netanyahu. Israel is a country I once admired because of its good labour laws, healthcare system and generally leftist social structure. But under Netanyahu, the country more closely resembles the despotic Arab dictatorships around it, than the Israel we once knew. We were at a point where the Israeli justice system, which is based on liberal principles was about to finally hold Netanyahu to account- then Hamas struck Israel.

Why would anyone who criticizes Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis like Bibi Netanyahu? I’ve asked this question previously about pro-Narendra Modi Democrats as well, including one or two that worked on Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign.

In terms of being besieged, let’s not forget Israel has played one Muslim state off against the others through the years. Heck, post-Islamic Revolution Iran wouldn’t have been able to stay afloat in the 1980’s when Iraq invaded without covert Israeli aid…I bet Israel regrets that now (though you could argue they were the ones who had it right about Saddam Hussein all along, unlike the west or the USSR). Even recently Israel remained a backer of Muslim Azerbaijan in their conflict with Christian Armenia, and historically has backed Kurdish aspirations probably more aggressively than any state-actor (I am not claiming this is a bad thing, but needs to be considered in the discussion- Kurds are almost all Muslim) .

Israel’s recent rapprochement with the despotic, illiberal regimes of the Gulf States, Bahrain and UAE also is worth factoring into this discussion. This has been achieved in an effort to isolate Iran. But who is actually worse, Iran or the Sunni dictatorships that do so much business in the west? To me that’s an open question.

I for one did not applaud the Abraham Accords as it signaled to me a clear move by Netanyahu’s Israel to move away from the Democratic and liberal principles that stood Israel apart from its Middle Eastern neighbors, and embrace regional theocracies. Much like Netanyahu’s own domestic policies that have swung Israel hard-right, his foreign policy prior to the October 7 Hamas attack was to embrace despots in his own mold across the region.

Ethnic and Identity Politics

I have some very strong thoughts on the role of identity politics in a multiracial/multiethnic democracy that we will save for another time.

So what does all this mean for the Democratic Party?

A year out from an election, the party is hopelessly divided over something that has almost ZERO impact on the lives of most Americans. I’ve laid out why I don’t like either extreme sides stance within the Democratic Party. However, my view is most likely Democratic voters in 2024 are only paying passing interest to events in the Middle East. Many those who were concerned at first, have moved on as the Holiday’s approach, Taylor Swift and the Beatles (incredibly!) put out new records, Martin Scorsese put out a new film and the home front was largely un-impacted by this war.

Democrats need to return to focusing on kitchen-table issues and while the noise on social media is focused on this conflict, rest assured more Americans have moved on and the election hangs in the balance.

Continued emotionally-charged discussion of the war only tears the Democratic coalition apart. This is something I have come to accept on Ukraine as well, as angered as I am every single day about Russian behavior.

My hope is this is soon all over with.