Senate Democrats introduce first bid to recognize Palestinian state

Democrats plan to introduce the Senate’s first resolution calling for the U.S. government to recognize a Palestinian state, escalating a push from the party’s progressive flank to take a firmer stance as Israel resumes its full-scale war in Gaza.

Sen. Jeff Merkley (Oregon) will unveil the measure Thursday, ahead of a similar effort next week by Rep. Ro Khanna (California) in the House.

“I recognize it will be a handful of us who will sign this initial resolution, but I think support for America to weigh in will grow,” Merkley said in an interview. “It’s probably way past time.”

The resolution calls for a “demilitarized” Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders and governed by the Palestinian Authority. It has five cosponsors, mostly hailing from the party’s progressive wing.

The largely symbolic measure is expected to fail but marks the latest attempt by lawmakers on the left to preempt the rapidly changing politics toward Israel within their party. Almost two years into the war in Gaza, which has killed more than 65,000 people according to the Gaza Health Ministry, Democrats are torn over their historic support for Israel and a young progressive base that is appalled by the conflict’s toll on civilians.

Progressive groups protested the Biden administration’s support for Israel across the country last summer. Since returning to office, President Donald Trump has cracked down on such demonstrators and publicly backed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Neither Joe Biden nor Donald Trump represent America’s future,” Khanna said in an interview last week. “We’ve had the unfortunate coincidence of being covered by 80-year-olds for over a decade.”

Still, at times even Trump has been frustrated by Netanyahu’s relentless campaign against Israel’s enemies.

“I’m not thrilled about it,” Trump told reporters last week, following Israel’s strike against Hamas leadership in Qatar.

At a news conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer Thursday, Trump said that recognizing a Palestinian state was one of the few areas of “disagreement” between the two leaders and that his main priority was to secure the release of the remaining hostages still held by Hamas. “I want it to end, but I want the hostages back,” Trump said of the war.

Since losing the Senate and White House last year, Democrats have debated whether the party’s stance on Israel contributed to an electoral drubbing. Many lawmakers have also grown increasingly alarmed at the dire humanitarian conditions within the Gaza Strip, which is experiencing critical food shortages and mass evacuations as Israeli tanks and jets launch a new offensive to occupy Gaza City.

Merkley and Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) visited Israel and the West Bank in August, saying the Israeli government was carrying out an “ethnic cleansing” of the Palestinian people.

Their position is growing more mainstream among even vocal supporters of Israel within the party. Rep. Adam Smith (Washington), the moderate top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, called for the U.S. to withhold some security aid from Israel to pressure the Netanyahu government to end the Gaza war.

“I believe it is time for the United States government to stop the sale of some offensive weapons systems to Israel as leverage” to force a ceasefire and increase humanitarian aid, Smith said in a statement.

Similar measures by Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) in late July failed, though more than half of Senate Democrats voted in favor.

In interviews, Merkley, Van Hollen and Khanna referenced recent polling that shows a plummet in Israel’s favorability among the American public, especially among younger voters. They predicted the issue could unite Democratic voters with the more isolationist wing of the Republican Party.

On the right, some Republican lawmakers have also grown increasingly critical of Netanyahu, with MAGA-aligned Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Georgia) the first in her party to label Israel’s war a “genocide.”

Greene had submitted an amendment to block U.S. military support for Israel in the House’s major defense policy bill, which passed last week, but a House panel did not allow the measure to come up for a vote.

In recent months, longtime U.S. allies from Canada to France have publicly committed to supporting a Palestinian state while trying to pressure Netanyahu to end the Gaza war. That group includes Britain, where Trump is making a state visit this week.