Ben Rhodes
๐ค SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
It's not just like politics.
It's true.
You know, it is fundamentally true.
And so I think no defensiveness.
The process is one piece of a much bigger picture here as to why this is wrong.
And I think Democrats have to be willing to make that argument.
You know, it's interesting to me, Tommy.
that you mentioned that the polls fluctuate to 70 to 80% of Americans are opposed to this.
You also saw a public opinion poll for the first time the other day that more Americans sympathize with Palestinians than Israelis, and that is an overwhelming majority among Democrats.
And let's just name the fact that oftentimes the people who seem the most reluctant to oppose this war are those Democrats who are most supportive of Israel in Congress.
And so we should just not be afraid to talk about the fact that this is part of the dynamic here, because there's a very clear correlation between people who take AIPAC money and who have been supportive of Bibi Nenya in the past, who are going to either vote no on that resolution or have been pretty teepid about this.
And look, Donald Trump, you know,
People, including us, gave him credit for getting tough with Netanyahu sometimes.
But that's out the window now.
He just went to war in part because Bibi Netanyahu wanted him to.
So don't ever tell me again about how Donald Trump uses this leverage.
The Democratic Party can be the anti-war party, can be the party that wants to change a dysfunctional relationship with Israel, change a dysfunctional approach to the Middle East, that learned the lessons of history, and that is...
saying it's time to stop spending money on this stuff and start investing in the things that Americans actually want us to be doing.
So those are the ones that jumped out to me.
And look, you're right.