American politicians like to repeat that America’s and Israel’s interests align. But neither our interests nor Israel’s are served by arming Israel to the teeth, believing that will make Israel more secure. Instead, it has allowed Israeli governments to believe they can postpone justice for the Palestinians indefinitely. Preponderant power does not check itself.

Arming Israel to the teeth has allowed Prime Minister Netanyahu to believe he can postpone his own day of reckoning with the people of Israel by provoking a war with Hezbollah.

An end to his war against the Palestinians would cool things with Hezbollah, but that is not what he and his fellow nutcases in Tel Aviv want.

America needs a president who has had enough of Israel calling the shots in Washington. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), has effectively silenced too many politicians, apparently including my Congressman Joe Neguse and my Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper.

The failure of the Democratic Party to ask a Palestinian to address the national convention delegates and its viewers last month speaks volumes. I fully intend to vote for Kamala Harris, but I am ashamed of how our Democratic president and lawmakers have, on the whole, treated Palestinians as second class to Israelis.

Before Oct. 7, I regarded Congressman Neguse as presidential material. But his unwillingness to publicly oppose our sponsorship of Israel’s war against the Palestinians, in Gaza especially but increasingly in the West Bank as well, leaves me inclined to support a Democratic challenger in 2026.

Congressman Neguse’s colleague, Jason Crow, (D-Aurora) has demonstrated a little more nerve on this issue. Crow was the author of a May 3 letter to the Biden administration arguing that indeed Israel was in violation of the Foreign Assistance Act and National Security Memorandum 20, which President Biden had issued on Feb. 8. (Neguse was among eighty-six House members to sign that letter, but I never saw mention of it on his website and he did not seem eager for his constituents to know.) The administration did delay one arms shipment, then exonerated Israel with some cynical acrobatics.

In that maneuver, as well as the decision to not provide for a Palestinian speaker at the Chicago convention, as well as in every vote to supply offensive weaponry to Israel, the hand of AIPAC has been evident.

To repeat, the staunch support that Democrats and Republicans alike have provided Israel has not made Israel more secure. The billions America spends on Israel’s “security” would be much better spent helping to relocate West Bank settlers back to Israel proper. If all of those Jewish settlements were dismantled, Israel would still retain something like 78% of historical Palestine.

Make no mistake, Israeli leaders would like to rid Gaza of Palestinians, to make way for Jewish settlements. Those who are offended by charges of genocide ought to realize that what we have witnessed in the last year is at least an attempt at ethnic cleansing.

Vice President Kamala Harris needs to make a very tough decision, given the influence of the Israel lobby. She needs to call for a freeze on offensive weapons shipments to Israel. That is the only way the Israeli government will get the message that America is finally wise to its game.

I have no illusions about Hamas. But Hamas is the logical result of the many years of neither Israel nor the United States taking the plight of the Palestinians seriously. The only way Hamas or its kind will disappear is if Democrats muster the nerve to make any and all support for Israel conditional on a political solution. In the meantime, obliging Hamas leaders by continuing the war in Gaza is utter foolishness, which can only produce more Palestinians who hate Israel.

Kamala Harris needs to articulate this new way forward today. Otherwise, she may very well lose critical Muslim, Black and youth voters in this election.

Todd Buchanan lives in Eldora.