Author

Mitchell Plitnick

Browsing
A mourner holding a weapon at the funeral of Salah al-Buraiki, 19, who was killed in clashes with Israeli forces in the West Bank city of Jenin, on October 21, 2022. The weapon bears a sticker with the logo of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade. (Photo: Ahmed Ibrahim/APA Images)

While Americans and Europeans chat and debate with each other about the nuances of Israeli politics and come up with all sorts of fanciful solutions to “the conflict,” the Israeli government tightens its grip on Palestinians and Palestinians become ever more frustrated, eager for action, and impatient with their leadership and with a world that keeps telling them the time is not yet “ripe” for their rights to be realized. 

Perhaps that is why we are seeing such widespread support for armed resistance. Perhaps it’s simply a response to Israel escalating an already violent policy of apartheid. In any case, armed action seems to be moving into a more prominent role in Palestinian resistance and it will be important for supporters of Palestinian rights to be ready to defend those actions wherever we can.

Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid sign the Jerusalem US-Israel Strategic Partnership Joint Declaration, July 14, 2022 (Photo: Kobi Gideon, GPO)

For Democrats in the United States and the political “centrists” in Israel—represented by Joe Biden and Yair Lapid, respectively—the loss of credibility for the two-state solution has meant losing more and more support for Israeli policies. This helps explain the theater we have witnessed in recent days at the United Nations General Assembly and in the American media scene, where the lone Palestinian woman ever elected to Congress has come under unrelenting attack from her own party as well as the opposition. 

Maxwell Alejandro Frost (Photo: Maxwell Alejandro Frost for Congress)

Gen Z Democratic candidate for Congress Maxwell Frost seems to be a progressive in every way imaginable — except for Palestine. The 25-year-old Florida politician presents a particularly distressing dilemma for progressive Palestine advocates. His politics are not just progressive, but almost revolutionary in mainstream politics. And he is being celebrated by prominent Democrats.