Both parties responsible for failing to restrain Israel in Gaza | Opinion

That the United Nations General Assembly overwhelming voted to endorse a declaration outlining “tangible, timebound, and irreversible steps” toward a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians is the latest indication of how the United States has surrendered its global leadership, this time to Israel, a supposed democracy whose people have lost control of their government.

The vote was 142 in favor and 10 against, including the no votes of Israel and the United States.

In the grips of strongman Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition of parties, Israel wages war across the Middle East. Those who justify Netanyahu’s refusal to call a cease-fire in Gaza, and bring food and medical assistance to thousands of wounded and injured civilians, cite the Hamas attack on innocent Israelis on Oct. 7.

As despicable and deadly as that attack was, killing approximately 1,200 people — 815 of whom were Israeli and foreign civilians — it cannot overshadow the loss of Palestinian lives, documented in September by former Israeli army commander Herzi Halevi, who noted more than 200,000 Palestinians have been killed or injured in the war in Gaza, with some estimates significantly higher.

The Arab/Israeli conflict has a long history of violence. Israeli historians like Ilan Pappe in his book, “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine,” remind us that around 800,000 Palestinians were displaced and dispossessed of their land with the creation of Israel, and historical memory of what Pappe termed “ethnic cleansing” runs deeply among Palestinians to this day.

Yet American support of Israel has been for the most part unqualified over the years. Republicans and Democrats have jousted for how strongly they can support Israel, with some even accusing any hesitation in support of Israel as antisemitism. What could possibly account for America’s subservience to the Israeli version of history and politics?

I know part of the answer, and I came close to experiencing it when I ran for the U.S. Senate from Illinois in 1996. In the primary election, which I would lose, I enjoyed the support of key Chicago businessmen who were strong supporters of Israel. I will never forget a conversation I had with them prior to the Republican primary election.

After the primary, they told me my first order of business would be to visit Israel as a guest of the American Israeli Political Action Committee (AIPAC). No one can doubt then or now the enormous influence of AIPAC in solidifying strong American support for Israel by Democrats and Republicans in the highest offices in the land.

My likely opponent in the general election, had I survived the primary, would have been then-Democratic Rep. Dick Durbin, a strong supporter of Israel, and this advice from Republican supporters of Israel was intended to put my candidacy on equal footing with him. (Durbin would go on to win the general election and still represents Illinois in the U.S. Senate.)

No one either organized as a political action committee or private citizens spent any time either suggesting I should visit Palestine or at the very least building a case for Palestinian justice in this centuries-old conflict. It was a one-way street for Israel’s supporters, with hardly a mention of a Palestinian cause, and certainly no understanding of the history of the conflict.

American government textbooks tell us that contending political forces do battle in the political arena and through this tug of war between opposing sides, compromises are achieved and justice is served. Each side of an argument is lobbied by special interests who attempt to make the case for their side. In the case of the Arab/Israeli conflict and America’s role in supporting the state of Israel, nothing could be further from the truth.

There simply was no counterargument. Israel gets its way in American foreign policy regardless of party or president.

How could this be? Open Secrets tracks campaign contributions in Congress and lists former Sen. Joe Biden as the overall beneficiary of pro-Israeli campaign contributions totaling $4.2 million from 1990 to 2024, almost double the contributions of the next senator in line, who also happens to be a Democrat.

Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders has introduced a resolution to block the sale of specific weapons to Israel, but some members of the Democratic caucus who were the beneficiaries of huge AIPAC contributions resisted and voted no with Republicans and Israel. President Trump’s periodic and mild criticism of Netanyahu sends a signal there is no need to change course.

American politicians, with few exceptions, ignore the long-term history of Israel’s displacement and dispossession of Palestinians, building settlement after settlement on Palestinian land — further inflaming the passions of dispossessed Palestinians.

It is no longer, if it ever was, an argument for Palestinian justice coming only from Palestinians. Israeli historians, like Pappe, and journalists have documented Israeli abuses on Palestinian land. One Jewish-American journalist based in Jerusalem, Nathan Thrall, has written a tragic account of a deadly school bus accident that killed Palestinian children on their way to school.

“One Day in the Life of Abed Salama” documents how the Israeli government has restricted the movement of Palestinians on their own lands, a policy of apartheid that makes for dangerous conditions that played a role in the deaths of these children and the aftermath of the deadly accident.

There is no way to justify the antisemitism that raised its ugly head in reaction to the war in Gaza, but it is also important for Americans to understand the role America has played in fortifying the Netanyahu government and its refusal to, at the very least, halt the shipment of weapons to Israel until it finds a peaceful path to the conflict. As late as this September, the Trump administration sent a $6 billion package of arms sales to Congress for its approval.

It is clear from the United Nations vote that the United States is out of step with the global community on delivering justice for the Palestinian cause. And anyone who lays the blame only at the Trump administration is short of the mark in identifying those public officials — Democratic and Republican — who bring us to this point in history.

Bob Kustra served as president of Boise State University from 2003 to 2018. He is host of Readers Corner on Boise State Public Radio, a regular columnist for the Idaho Statesman and a contributing columnist for the Chicago Tribune. He served two terms as Illinois lieutenant governor and 10 years as a state legislator.

This story was originally published September 28, 2025 at 4:00 AM.