Saturday, September 12, 2026

Looking Back and Facing the Present: Political Democrats And How They View Israel

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                

              Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884 – December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. As the 34th vice president in 1945, he assumed the presidency upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt in April.

The Democratic Party's broad, n     early unanimous consensus in support of Israel spanned from Israel’s founding in 1948 through the late 2010s, anchored by figures like Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, and Barack Obama. While mainstream institutional backing remained robust for decades, significant internal party divides began visibly accelerating after 2023.                                         

 A wave of progressive candidates is knocking out establishment Democrats this year by making opposition to AIPAC and criticism of the Israeli government a central campaign theme, building on the model set by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral win. “It has come to stand for an issue of the establishment versus the insurgent populist left,” said Matt Duss, a former senior foreign policy adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders.    

Politicians           

Public figures

  • The combination of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s actions in Gaza, Lebanon and the West Bank, and Trump’s actions to join Israel in waging war on Iran, are going to have a “lasting impact on our politics,” Bill de Blasio, the former mayor of New York City,said. “I don’t think that it can be put back in the bottle.”

                                         
Rahm Israel Emanuel age 66, born November 29, 1959) is an American politician and diplomat, Rahm Emanuel, the former Chicago mayor and former President Barack Obama’s White House chief of staff, traveled to Tel Aviv where he delivered a speech defending the U.S.-Israel relationship. 

  • Parents are important to a person's makeup.  Emanuel's father, Benjamin M. Emanuel, was born in Jerusalem, where he was a member of the Irgun, a Zionist paramilitary organization that operated in Mandatory Palestine. He moved to the United States to work as a pediatrician at Michael Reese Hospital. The surname Emanuel (Hebrew: עמנואל) was adopted by their family in memory of Rahm's uncle (his father's brother) Emanuel Auerbach, who died of an infection after being hit by a stray bullet during a 1933 conflict between Arab protestors and the police in Mandatory Palestine.  Emanuel has been described as a "vocal Zionist". In June 2007, Emanuel condemned an outbreak of Palestinian violence in the Gaza Strip and criticized Arab countries for not applying the same kind of pressure on the Palestinians as they have on Israel.

    In a July 2026 speech at Tel Aviv University, Emanuel criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling for an end to United States military aid to Israel and sanctions to fight violence against Palestinians in the West Bank as well as illegal construction of settlements there. He proposed a peace process that would have 22 Arab states have diplomatic relations with Israel and the Arab League to support the creation of a Palestinian entity.  (I hope October 7th taught him that this idea is not longer on the table but has been wiped out along with the dishrag.)

  •  At a 2003 pro-Israel rally in Chicago, Emanuel told the marchers that Israel was "ready for peace" but would not get there until Palestinians "turn away from the path of terror". In 2025, Emanuel said he "support[s] the state of Israel", but that if he were elected president he would be willing to publicly disagree with Israeli policies.  He, being a Democrat, must also have belonged to Labor,.'s In November 2025, Emanuel urged "a long-term rebuilding of the narrative around Israel's needs" and added "If we do not grasp the depth of the situation, we will never fix it" at the annual General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA).

    Younger Democrat Rohit "Ro" Khanna age 50,[ (born September 13, 1976) is an American politician and attorney serving as the U.S. representative from California's 17th congressional district since 2017.  


  • Khanna was born in Philadelphia to Indian parents. A self-described "progressive capitalist", Khanna has called for a "new economic patriotism" as a governing philosophy.[1][2] Khanna has championed the abundance agenda.[3]

  •  Rep. Ro Khanna, a leading progressive Democrat from California, took a high-profile trip to the occupied West Bank, where he was caught in an altercation with armed Israeli settlers.

  • In December 2017, Khanna criticized Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, saying, "The United States and Israel share similar values of peace, democracy, and entrepreneurship. We should always look for ways to strengthen the relationship and address Israel's legitimate security concerns. The President's decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, however, is misguided and does not advance peace."

    During the Gaza war, Khanna called for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and said Congress should more closely scrutinize U.S. arms transfers to Israel. In March 2024, after reports that the Biden administration had approved more than 100 foreign military sales to Israel since the war began, he called for hearings in the House Armed Services Committee on the legal basis for the transfers and whether they complied with the administration's human rights policy.

    In June 2024, Khanna said he would not attend Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address to Congress, saying he did not want to sit through a "one-way lecture"; he was among the more than 60 Democrats who boycotted the speech the following month.

    On July 31, 2025, Jewish Insider reported that Khanna, along with fellow progressives in the U.S. House, was circulating a letter advocating for a two-state solution in the Middle East. The proposed framework would condition recognition of a Palestinian state on full recognition of Israel and the disarmament of Hamas, and came amid renewed international discussion of Palestinian statehood ahead of a United Nations meeting in September.

    In September 2025, Khanna led 47 House colleagues in a letter urging President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to have the United States formally recognize a Palestinian state. Reporting at the time linked the House effort to a Senate proposal calling for recognition of a demilitarized Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders and governed by the Palestinian Authority.

    In November 2025, Khanna was one of 20 Democratic members of Congress who cosponsored a resolution introduced by Representative Rashida Tlaib to officially recognize Israel's genocide against the Palestinian people.[173]

    In January 2026, Khanna and Senator Peter Welch led 74 lawmakers in urging the Trump administration to oppose Israeli annexation efforts in the West Bank and to preserve the possibility of a negotiated two-state solution.  That June, he received the endorsement of Track AIPAC after signing its PEACE pledge.





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The Connection Between Two Evils: Osama bin Laden and Iran and Genocide of Americans

 Nadene Goldfoot            

1988:  Osama bin Laden in a cave in the Jalalabad region of Afghanistan;  Photograph: AFP/Getty Images  Osama bin Laden founded al-Qaeda in 1988 as a militant Islamist network to wage violent jihad against Western and American influence.  Iran came to hold al-Qaeda members when hundreds of operatives and their family members fled across the border into Iran following the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001.


The relationship between Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda and the Iranian government was a complex, transactional mix of tactical cooperation and deep distrust, detailed further in analyses like the Brookings Institution's Unlikely Alliance. Despite ideological and religious divides between Sunni al-Qaeda and Shia Iran, the two entities interacted across several key phases: 
Origins of Al-Qaeda
  • Beginnings: Bin Laden used his wealth and connections to support fighters battling the Soviet Union in Afghanistan during the 1980s.
  • The Base: After the Soviets withdrew, he formed al-Qaeda (meaning "the Base") in 1988 to maintain a global network of radical fighters.
  • Shift to the U.S.: Bin Laden grew angry over U.S. military troops stationed in Saudi Arabia after the Gulf War. In 1998, he issued a ruling calling for the killing of American citizens everywhere. This is calling for a genocide against all Americans.  
Early Contacts and Training (1990s)
  • Sudan Era: Contacts between al-Qaeda and Iranian intelligence or its proxy Hezbollah date back to the early 1990s when bin Laden was based in Sudan.
  • Bombing Expertise: U.S. court rulings and intelligence reports noted that Hezbollah provided early explosives and military training to al-Qaeda operatives, aiding in techniques later used in embassy bombings. 
  • Transit Facilitation: The 9/11 Commission Report noted that Iran facilitated the transit of al-Qaeda members through its borders en route to and from Afghanistan prior to 2001.
Post-9/11 Safe Haven and Detention (2001–Onward)
  • The Western Exodus: After the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, several top al-Qaeda leaders and members of bin Laden's family fled westward into Iran. 
  • House Arrest and Leverage: Iran detained many of these figures under loose house arrest or imprisonment. Tehran used them as bargaining chips and leverage against both the United States and al-Qaeda to prevent attacks inside Iran. 
  • Quid Pro Quo: Declassified documents recovered from bin Laden's Abbottabad compound reveal that Iran occasionally offered financial support, arms, or training camps in exchange for al-Qaeda targeting U.S. interests in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, punctuated by angry rifts and hostage negotiations when members were locked down. For a deeper look at how Tehran managed these operatives, read the Heritage Foundation's analysis on Al-Qaeda's presence in Tehran. 
  • How Al-Qaeda Entered Iran: ; Review
    • Fleeing the War: After the collapse of the Taliban regime in late 2001, rank-and-file fighters, leaders, and Osama bin Laden’s family members escaped the U.S. military onslaught by heading west into neighboring Iran.
    • Prior Transit Ties: Al-Qaeda and Iran had an informal, tactical relationship dating back to the 1990s in Sudan and Afghanistan, where Iranian authorities had previously facilitated the transit of al-Qaeda operatives through their borders. 
    • Assisted Entry: Around October 2001, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force helped safely transport hundreds of al-Qaeda-linked individuals and their families into Iranian territory.
    Why Iran Detained and Controlled Them
    • Virtual House Arrest: Once inside the country, the Iranian regime tightly restricted the movement of high-ranking al-Qaeda members, placing them under virtual house arrest or in detention facilities.
    • Bargaining Chips: Tehran viewed these figures—including members of al-Qaeda's "management council" and bin Laden's relatives—as valuable leverage or hostages to deter al-Qaeda from launching attacks inside Iran and to use as bargaining chips against the United States and other powers. 
    • Shifting Control: Over time, the dynamic evolved from strict detention into a murky arrangement where select senior leaders were granted a restricted sanctuary, balancing oversight with leverage. 
Core Pipeline and Ongoing Ties: 

  • Logistical Lifeline: Over the years, U.S. Treasury designations exposed a core transit and financial pipeline operating through Iranian territory, allowing money and fighters to move safely between South Asia and the Middle East.                                     
    The Situation Room Photo: The most famous photograph associated with the event is Pete Souza's White House image of President Barack Obama and national security advisors watching the real-time monitoring of SEAL Team Six's raid in 2011. 
  • Pragmatic Alignment: Rather than a formal alliance, intelligence recovered from the 2011 raid that killed bin Laden points to a pragmatic, often tense relationship defined by mutual self-interest, deterrence, and indirect bargaining.
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