Democratic Whip Katherine Clark of Massachusetts called Israel’s war on Gaza a genocide Thursday night, making her the highest-ranking House Democratic official to do so.
Up to this point, Clark has largely aligned with the rest of Democratic leadership on Israel’s war – expressing concern for civilian harm, advocating for an “end to the hostilities” (and, eventually calling for a ceasefire), and criticizing the Benjamin Netanyahu government. But she has fallen short of advocating for conditioning or ending aid to Israel, or supporting resolutions like Rep. Delia Ramirez’s “Block the Bombs” Act.
AIPAC features Clark on their website alongside the five other top Republicans and Democrats in the House, with the caption: “We stand with those who stand with Israel.”
So genocide is not a dealbreaker for her? That’s actually worse than refusing to call it a genocide.
Sort of like how our reasoning for invading Iraq in '03 was “Preemptive War” to prevent Saddam Hussein from attacking our allies first.
The Israeli genocide of Gaza is regularly framed in the context “Palestinians want to kill all of us, so this is the only way to stop them.”
Yea, what a weird stance for someone to openly state.
It’s not a dealbreaker for her voters. Politicians can have one stance on a subject but it is their job to do what their constituents want them to do.