As President Joe Biden navigates the funding of an increasingly indefensible war in Gaza, he faces a pivotal opportunity as he prepares to deliver his State of the Union address Thursday. It’s one reminiscent of his early days in the Senate.
In July 1986, President Ronald Reagan announced he would not impose additional sanctions on South Africa’s apartheid regime. A few days later, when Reagan’s secretary of state, George Schultz, testified in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a young senator from Delaware joined the hearings and made passionate remarks criticizing the Reagan administration’s stance on the apartheid government.
According to December’s New York Times/Siena College pole, Trump led Biden among young voters by a 6% margin. A majority of those young voters oppose additional weapons aid to Israel.
“Dammit, we have favorites in South Africa. The favorites are the people who are being repressed by that ugly, white regime.”
It was Joe Biden, then 43 years old, demanding that the Reagan administration place a timetable on South Africa to end apartheid.
How strange it is then that for five months now the Biden administration has repeatedly said it has zero red lines or restrictions for the funding American taxpayers provide the Israeli military as it carries out its war against Hamas in Gaza, which has resulted in the deaths of over 30,000 people, mostly women and children, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
As Biden prepares to address the nation Thursday, he is faced with a crucial opportunity to connect with the many young voters who, like him early in his career, are rallying behind people facing oppression.
It’s not an easy task, for sure. But to lock in a win in 2024, Biden would do well to unite a Democratic Party that has fractured over funding Israel’s disastrous war. Appealing to millions of young voters to turn out for him in November is an important part of that process.
Reports already show millennial and Gen Z voters under 45 have lower confidence in Biden than Donald Trump. According to December’s New York Times/Siena College pole, Trump led Biden among young voters by a 6% margin. A majority of those young voters oppose additional weapons aid to Israel. A plurality said Israel should stop its military campaign in Gaza. A majority of younger voters and half of those who voted for Biden in 2020 believe Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza, according to a poll by The Economist and YouGov.
Voters under 45 grew up with the war on terror. They saw what happened in Afghanistan and Iraq — so many lives lost, trillions of dollars spent, and for what? The idea that Israel will not stop until Hamas is militarily defeated echoes the approach the U.S. took in those conflicts.
Younger Democrats feel that there is likely no military solution to these conflicts, only solutions based in politics and diplomacy and addressing the root causes and grievances. Millennials are an anti-war generation; they elected Barack Obama president over Hillary Clinton, and then over John McCain, many to oppose the Iraq War.
In the recent Michigan primary, 13% of Democrats voted “uncommitted” instead of for Biden as part of a campaign to signal voters’ unhappiness with the U.S.’s support of Israel’s conduct in Gaza. That’s more than 100,000 people in Michigan — a victory for the campaign, which had been looking for only 10,000 votes initially. It’s a significant number considering Trump beat Hillary Clinton by just about 10,000 votes in Michigan in 2016.
Some say Biden doesn’t need to worry about these voters, that they’ll never vote for Trump. That’s true — they probably won’t vote for Trump. But they may choose to stay home, or vote for third-party candidates who are more forceful advocates for Palestinian lives. In a race as close as the 2024 presidential election, that’s likely just as bad for Biden.
Biden is a centrist and he’s proved himself as a professional pivoter when the center of the party has changed. We’ve seen that in his 40-plus years in office when he’s pivoted on economic policy, climate, war, abortion and same-sex marriage. It’s time for a pivot on Israel and to treat Israel just as we would treat any other country provided billions in weapons funding. On Palestine and Israel, on the other hand, we are seeing the Democratic Party double down on a set of failed policies, and doing so even as any of the predicates of that policy — namely, the existence of an Israeli government interested in peace and Palestinian statehood — have vanished. I’m a Democrat. I want to see Biden win in November. It’s time for him to stop funding Israel’s war and to explore using diplomacy, not military offensives, in the region. I’m a Democrat. I want to see Biden win in November. It’s time for him to stop funding Israel’s war and to explore using diplomacy, not military offensives, in the region. This includes diplomacy to bring home all hostages still being held by Hamas, which Israel’s current offensive has failed to do. His foreign policy experience in countries like Ireland, Bosnia and South Africa prove that he is capable of it. Nearly 40 years ago, Biden took a stand on apartheid and demanded the United States push for a timetable to end it. Now it’s time for him to do it again. People, especially younger voters, will be tuning into the State of the Union address hoping for an answer to the growing death toll of innocent Palestinians. This is Biden’s chance. If he wants to reach crucial younger voters, he needs to shift to where the center of energy is in the Democratic Party. The question of our time is whether democracy will prevail. As Americans, we must always stand with common people who defend their basic rights. We must stand with the Ukrainians who are giving their lives to keep their country free from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s domination. We must stand with the Palestinians who demand a state free from Israeli occupation and domination. We must stand with Israelis who oppose judicial coups and corruption in their government. And, we must stand up against the allies of those regimes who seek to end democracy here at home. I pray, for all our sakes, that the Biden administration corrects course — because our democracy cannot afford to pay the bill for disregarding Palestinian lives should it come due in 2024. CORRECTION (March 7, 2024, 4:15 p.m. ET): A previous version of this article misstated Biden’s age in July of 1986. He was 43, not 33.
Waleed Shahid
Waleed Shahid is a Democratic strategist and former spokesperson for Justice Democrats. He was a senior adviser to Michigan Uncommitted, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jamaal Bowman, and Summer Lee. 
