At its recent state convention, the slate of resolutions adopted by the Washington State Democratic Party included one resolution about abortion, one about mental health, and one about homelessness.
But the war between Israel and the Hamas terrorists is apparently too much to address in a single resolution, so Democrats passed… three.
Good luck finding the text of the three resolutions on the state Democrats’ website, but judging from news coverage, they call for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and the release of all hostages and an end to our nation’s military aid to Israel.
What seems missing is any condemnation of Hamas for starting the war, with its Oct. 7, 2023 massacre of some 1,200 Israeli citizens.
Unfortunately, going easy on Hamas — despite its longtime designation as a terrorist organization by the U.S. Department of State — has become a pattern for many Washington Democrats.
A rare exception was my counterpart, Senate Democratic Leader Andy Billig – the most prominent Jewish member of our state Senate.
In a joint letter sent to Governor Inslee four days after the Hamas massacre of innocent Israelis and capture of hundreds of hostages, Senator Billig and I asked that our state demonstrate its support for the people of Israel by flying their flag at the state Capitol and directing that all Washington state flags be flown at half-staff.
“The United States is Israel’s closest ally and the demonstration of our support for the Jewish homeland is an important show of solidarity,” we wrote. “Flying the Israeli flag over our Capitol will say that, in our corner of the world, we stand with our friends on the front lines whose blood is being shed in the defense of freedom and the quest for peace.”
On Oct. 25, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a resolution to stand with Israel “as it defends itself against the barbaric war launched by Hamas and other terrorists.”
Our state’s Rep. Adam Smith and Rep. Kim Schrier have been pilloried by Hamas sympathizers for their “yes” votes on House Resolution 771, while Rep. Pramila Jayapal took the low road by voting “present” — neither yes nor no — then defended her choice by criticizing Israel’s efforts to defend itself.
Sadly, the principled stands taken by Senator Billig and some of our state’s congressional Democrats have not been echoed by rank-and-file Democrats or the state Democratic Party in the nearly nine months since Hamas committed the worst acts of violence against Jews since World War II.
Skip ahead to the first weekend in January, when a pro-Hamas protest shut down traffic for five hours across Interstate 5 in Seattle.
It’s a class C felony to interfere with the ability of emergency vehicles to serve the public by interfering with a mode of transportation, such as a freeway, yet none of those arrested were charged with that crime.
The governor could have done what Republicans did, and made his own public statement about the importance of protesting respectfully and lawfully, and the risk that blocking a major road poses to both protesters and motorists. Instead, he took to his taxpayer-funded social media to woof about the upcoming college football national championship game.
During the legislative session I thought our branch of government might come through by passing my bipartisan bill to require Washington public schools to teach about the Jewish Holocaust and other campaigns of genocide.
Senate Bill 5851 won approval from two committees, then the majority Democrats let it die while a more “inclusive” version moved ahead in the House. That one ended up straying far from the original intent, and I wasn’t disappointed when it eventually failed as well.
On April 15, about five weeks after our legislative session ended, the Hamas-friendly protesters were back to blocking roads, this time at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
I hoped the governor and the attorney general would condemn this protest as well, seeing how it also falsely accused Israel of committing genocide and fed antisemitic sentiment.
Wrong again. While travelers were forced to leave their cars and walk to get to the airport terminal, the governor did a social-media post publicizing the deadline for filing federal tax returns, and Attorney General Bob Ferguson used his taxpayer-funded social media to tout a “win” in a case about online reviews of a plastic-surgery provider.
Seeing how these prominent leaders did nothing to discourage disruptive protests, it’s no wonder college students in Olympia, Seattle and Bellingham began taking over public property with pro-Hamas encampments in late April and May. Sure enough, their demands were largely met by weak-kneed administrators.
Speaking of weak in the knees, the Washington State Standard reported Democratic Party leaders struck a deal with backers of the three Gaza resolutions, to deter protests at their convention.
Those speaking against the resolutions were definitely in the minority, like the state representative from Mercer Island who pleaded for the passage of just one, not all three.
“Let's not ostracize Jewish voters who are a key voting bloc for Democrats and our friends and neighbors,” she said.
Even if Democrats had passed only the resolution calling for a cease-fire, it’s still an anti-Israel/pro-Hamas position to take, in the view of a former Israeli-government official writing in The Jerusalem Post almost five months ago.
The author leads by noting Israel and Hamas already had a cease-fire — then Hamas broke it on Oct. 7.
“It seems that the international community has not yet grasped that the Israel of today is not the Israel of Oct. 6. Israelis have learned, the hard way, that truces have a nasty way of blowing up in their faces,” she wrote.
The strongest words by far at the Democratic state convention came from a delegate from east King County, speaking against the second of the resolutions.
“Hamas is a terrorist organization whose stated goal is the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people. Israel was attacked on Oct. 7 where men, women and children were killed in horrific ways and rape was perpetrated on women,” she declared, correctly.
“Israel responded as any country would under such an attack. A war is going on. Too many Palestinians have died, the Palestinian people are living in awful conditions, and Hamas has used the Palestinian people as human shields, taken aid money to build tunnels and buy weapons…This resolution is one-sided; it blames Israel but not Hamas.”
Her truth didn’t matter. The least offensive of the resolutions passed by a lopsided 668-81 vote. The other two were adopted by votes that were closer but still no contest.
In light of how so many leading Democrats have gone soft on Hamas, it’s hard to believe Democrat legislators in our state once helped observe a milestone anniversary of the first national elections in Israel.
It happened through 2009’s Senate Resolution 8602, passed 60 years after the creation of Israel’s Knesset — its national legislative body.
“In the ensuing 60 years the United States and Israel have remained strong allies because of their shared interest in democracy and basic human rights, and more recently, from standing together at the forefront of a new kind of war, the war against terror,” the resolution reads.
“Israel represents the strongest democracy in the Middle East, and as such is deserving of continued and unwavering support from the United States,” it continued.
This January brought the 75th anniversary of Israel’s first national elections. You wonder whether a similar resolution, with its mention of “unwavering support,” would have been allowed a vote in the Senate this year.
Judging from what happened at the state Democratic convention, I suspect there would have been a lot of wavering by our Democratic colleagues, and zero support from either Inslee or Ferguson.
Republicans have no problem condemning Hamas and the unspeakable acts it committed October 7, as well as its continued imprisonment of Americans and others taken hostage that day.
By now, no one should question that Hamas is a tool in the hand of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which wants to wipe Israel off the map — “from the river to the sea,” as the Hamas sympathizers repugnantly chant. Then it would come for America. These forces of evil hate modernity, hate Western values, and hate our nation.
If Washington Democrats can’t bring themselves to speak forcefully against that kind of violence and brutality as well, no one should trust them to keep our families and communities safe.
Sen. John Braun of Centralia serves the 20th Legislative District, which spans parts of four counties from Yelm to Vancouver. He became Senate Republican leader in 2020.
