Democrats Can’t Avoid a Reckoning With Gaza

As Democrats continue to struggle to coalesce around a shared message for the future, last week offered some troubling examples of their refusing, once again, to learn from the mistakes of the past. After a delay, the Democratic National Committee finally released the post-2024 election autopsy report that DNC chair Ken Martin had long promised. It was easy to see why he had tried to avoid making it public. In addition to being incomplete and a mess, the report was notable for not mentioning one of the most divisive and consequential issues in the party: Gaza. Even considering the report’s incoherence, it was a baffling omission, given that Gaza continues to be a real point of tension in the Democratic coalition, one that cuts to the core of what kind of party, and what kind of country, we really want to be.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t last week’s only example of Democratic-aligned organizations trying to throw Gaza down the memory-hole. On May 19, the Center for American Progress, Washington’s largest Democratic Party–aligned think tank, held its annual “Ideas Festival,” featuring a panel on “The Future of US Foreign Policy.” Three of the four panelists were former Biden administration officials, and two of those—former secretary of state (now CAP board member) Antony Blinken and former UN ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield—were top decision-makers during Biden’s catastrophic handling of the Gaza war, which a growing consensus of experts has categorized as a genocide. Gaza was not even mentioned on the panel. (It’s notable that Blinken appeared at the event unannounced, possibly to avoid protests that now follow him everywhere.)

The previous day, Foreign Policy for America (FP4A), which describes itself as a group “working to strengthen support for principled US leadership in the world,” held an event honoring Thomas-Greenfield with a lifetime achievement award. While Thomas-Greenfield had an admirable diplomatic career before joining the Biden administration, as UN ambassador she vetoed multiple UN Security Council ceasefire resolutions, measures that might have saved thousands of lives, to enable Israel to continue its assault. FP4A’s choice to honor her with an award was an insult to every Palestinian killed, maimed, or still suffering in Gaza, and a middle finger to everyone who tried to get the Biden administration to change course.

Another Democratic-aligned foreign policy group, National Security Action, has also recently been in the news. Cofounded in 2018 by former Obama administration officials, former Biden administration national security adviser Jake Sullivan rejoined its board of directors, as he did with FP4A’s board shortly after leaving the government in 2025.

I have worked with all these organizations. I spent six years at CAP as a national security policy analyst. I have been involved in numerous meetings and workshops with both National Security Action and Foreign Policy for America since their founding. I spoke at FP4A’s launch event in 2017 alongside Sullivan. All these organizations have many talented, principled staff—such as the recently relaunched National Security Action’s new executive director, Maher Bitar—and the potential to play a positive, constructive role in the future of the Democratic Party and of our democracy. Progressives need strong organizations to help build and mobilize our movement. But they cannot do that if those organizations facilitate impunity rather than accountability.

Elite impunity is at the core of our political crisis. Far too often, the wealthy, the powerful, the well-connected pay no price, whatever their offense. They operate under a different set of rules than the rest of us. Anger at this impunity and disillusionment with a self-dealing establishment is what Donald Trump exploits when he rightly claims that “the system is rigged.” The fact that it’s rigged on behalf of the wealthy and powerful like Trump and his cronies doesn’t matter; his words resonate because they’re true. It’s no surprise that candidates who effectively channel this disillusionment are winning.

Joe Biden declared in a 2022 speech that Americans were locked in a “battle for the soul of the nation.” Allowing those officials who assisted him in perpetrating the Gaza genocide to simply move past it and resume careers of respect and remuneration, and possibly eventually return to positions of government power, would be another loss in that ongoing battle. Democrats cannot hope to offer the American people a compelling alternative vision of governance while turning a blind eye to the previous Democratic administration’s abuses. Accountability for Gaza is both good policy and good politics. Democratic voters are motivated and energized to engage when they feel leaders are acting with honesty, transparency, and moral clarity.

Recently, two leading Democratic senators, Hawaii’s Brian Schatz and Maryland’s Chris Van Hollen, noted the need for a Democratic foreign policy housecleaning. “I’m not into blacklisting anyone from future work in their area of expertise but I do think it’s fair to want a whole new crop of foreign policy staffers in the next democratic administration,” Schatz tweeted on Sunday.

Van Hollen was even more direct: “Primary voters won’t trust any Democratic presidential candidate who does not have a record of moral and strategic clarity on these issues, especially if, as a legislator, he or she voted to send Mr. Netanyahu bombs even as his government imposed a total blockade on Gaza,” he wrote in a New York Times op-ed calling for a course correction on Israel-Palestine. “Nor will they support a candidate who plans to re-enlist the senior Democratic decision makers who whitewashed the truth during the Biden administration and refuse to acknowledge their complicity.”

A predictable argument against seeking accountability for former officials is that it divides Democrats and distracts from the threat of Trump and Trumpism now. Echoing Barack Obama in 2009, when he decided not to seek accountability for the Bush administration’s crimes, they believe we should “look forward as opposed to looking backward.” (If you want to know why Donald Trump acts seemingly without fear of consequences, just look at the guest list for Dick Cheney’s funeral.)

But this is not simply “looking backward.” The Gaza genocide is not over. It is ongoing. Accountability is necessary to not just prevent future atrocities but also raise the alarm and hopefully stop one still being committed. Democrats cannot hope to credibly punish the Trump administration’s constantly mounting acts of corruption and criminality while absolving our own side for its own abuses and lies. If we are serious about restoring and strengthening our democracy, unrigging the system and the elite impunity it sustains is essential. This isn’t just about the past. It’s about the party and the country we want to build for the future. We need organizations that are genuinely committed to that struggle.