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Yet Another Democrat Comes Out in Support for a Permanent Ceasefire

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  January 23, 2024 6:00 PM

The ceasefire narrative has failed and continues to fail for the Israel-Hamas War, though it didn't start with the October 7 terrorist attack that Hamas perpetrated against Israel that day, resulting in the bloodiest day in Israel's history and the most Jews killed in one day since the Holocaust. There had been a ceasefire in place before the October 7 attack, which Hamas broke, and a temporary pause in the hostilities late last year for hostage negotiations and prisoner exchanges. Hamas broke that, too, when it attacked Jerusalem and failed to release all of the female hostages. A ceasefire benefits Hamas, and yet people are still supporting such a narrative.

As Matt's been covering, Hamas was offered but has turned down a ceasefire agreement from Israel for a two-month pause in fighting for the release of all of the hostages. In other recent ceasefire news, earlier on Monday, the far-left, anti-zionist group IfNotNow bragged in a press release about Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) joining the call for a ceasefire over the weekend.

The senator posted a lengthy thread to his X account on Sunday, including a clip of his appearance on MSNBC's "Velshi," hosted by Ali Velshi, who, from the start, has been among those in the mainstream media repeating pro-Hamas propaganda, including when it comes to his choice of other guests. 

The Stop Antisemitism account has even exposed an associate producer of Velshi's for accusing the Israeli army in an Instagram reply of having "raped and mutilated women and children."

While the thread acknowledged the attack against Israel – which is more than what can be said about many pro-Hamas individuals and organizations – like many fellow Democrats, Van Hollen focused on criticizing and levying accusations against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

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Van Hollen's post also issued a call for President Joe Biden to "put forth a big, bold plan for a two-state solution that guarantees Israel's security – so there are no more October 7ths – and allows for self-determination, security, & dignity for the Palestinian people." 

It's worth reminding that not only has Netanyahu rejected a two-state solution, but Palestinian authorities have as well, multiple times. While there are plenty of headlines fixating on Netanyahu, a Monday headline from The New York Post pointed out, "Senior Hamas officer openly rejects two-state solution, calls for Israel's demise."

The clip Van Hollen posted shows Velshi lamenting that "the U.S. government and Israeli's government are not seeing eye to eye on how to or whether Israel should end the war despite being pressed on it by Secretary [of State Antony] Blinken and President Biden this [past] week." He, too, went after Netanyahu, calling his views "a problem," letting Van Hollen agree with him that it was "a very big problem" and calling it "a pattern" from the prime minister. 

It was then that Van Hollen called for a ceasefire and insisted that a two-state solution "is the only way to create some light at the end of this very dark tunnel." During his remarks, he also called for that solution to provide "self-determination and dignity to all the Palestinian people who have nothing to do with Hamas in a state of their own."

Such a "goal," as Van Hollen called it, is very much idealistic. Palestinians voted Hamas in as their leader. Plenty of columns for Townhall have also examined the idea of Palestinians being separate from Hamas, and polling has shown that Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank support Hamas and the atrocities it carried out against Israel.

This move from Van Hollen isn't entirely surprising. Last week, he was one of 11 senators who voted in favor of Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-VT) resolution to examine aid to Israel based on a report from the State Department about human rights violations. 

He's been one to keep an eye on when certain Democrats were ready to immediately jump on board making support for Israel a bipartisan issue and others were not. On October 26, the Senate finally managed to pass Sen. Josh Hawley's (R-MO) resolution condemning the rise of antisemitism on college campuses, though it didn't happen on the first try. The week before, Van Hollen objected to Hawley's resolution, claiming pro-Hamas demonstrators on campus had "legitimate" points, and claimed Hawley was "smearing all of the students who engaged in the protests," which the Democratic senator insisted "was wrong." Van Hollen even left as Hawley was responding to his colleague's claims.

The Soros-backed group IfNotNow doesn't merely brag about supporting the pro-Hamas narrative. Back in October, its members were involved in an illegal protest at the Cannon House building, and the agitators have been active before and since then.

Not only does Van Hollen have support from IfNotNow for such a position benefiting Hamas, but also Code Pink, with the group posting a video of the group's co-founder, Medea Benjamin, showing up to Van Hollen's office to thank him. Even still, she complained, "It's kind of late." More importantly, she noted how she continues to call on more senators to support the ceasefire narrative, including through the "pressure" campaigns, which she emphatically claimed "does work."

Benjamin and others from the group have a habit of accosting members of Congress, as she did Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) last November, though he came out on top standing by Israel and against the pro-Hamas narrative of supporting a ceasefire.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Code Pink, Benjamin, and IfNotNow do not appear to have posted to their X accounts about Hamas turning down Israel's offer for a pause in fighting.

Support for the pro-Hamas narrative of a ceasefire that benefits the terrorists is not the only concerning news story on the Israel-Hamas War. Last month, a Harvard-Harris poll came out revealing how anti-Israel and antisemitic young people are, as did a Quinnipiac University poll the month prior. This month's Harvard-Harris still revealed some troubling findings.

Notably, while a majority, 54 percent, of 18-24-year-olds still recognize that Hamas' actions were not justified, nevertheless, an alarming 46 percent still claim that the October 7 terrorist attack "can be justified by the grievances of Palestinians." And 43 percent still say they'd support Hamas over Israel. Even worse is that this demographic also shamefully, and unfortunately, a majority, has bought the lies that Israel is "committing genocide against those in Gaza," with 57 percent claiming so, while 60 percent of this demographic actually believe "Hamas is an organization that can be negotiated with to create peace."