> > Before Democrats can articulate a more humane foreign policy, they need to >> reckon with the mortal sin of the genocide in Gaza. >> excerpt - Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's high profile trip to the >> Munich Security Conference earlier this month sprouted 1,000 takes >> <https://www.thetimes.com/us/american-politics/article/aoc-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-jd-vance-democrat-republican-fear-62w2qk0zx?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=AWEtsqel5qBq8_7RapJkRggvxhZIqIL3UR3h0zCnIHNAw31-jAF4xS7yl9f-M9lk0js%3D&gaa_ts=699c62a6&gaa_sig=pyC0WnQsnbxCqgT656YwCZQCQ2bXvFFXpuvNHtQ_4s4In0m32UiZEz4h6vjX4O07Y1Yniqj4ZNo8YI9jR46jcg%3D%3D> >> , counter takes <https://x.com/mehdirhasan/status/2023453655802802534>, >> editorials >> <https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/02/16/cortez-munich-class/> >> , op-eds >> <https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/aocs-munich-stumble-is-a-warning-to-the-left.html>, >> and analyses >> <https://www.ms.now/news/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-populist-message-global-politics-national-2028> >> from the right, the center, and the left. Ocasio-Cortez, along with her >> new foreign policy adviser Matt Duss, attempted to paint a vision for a >> “progressive >> foreign policy >> <https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5740934-ocasio-cortez-foreign-policy/>” >> that would embrace >> <https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/13/politics/munich-2028-democrats-aoc-newsom> >> “working class-centered politics” to “stave off the scourges of >> authoritarianism.” >> >> It’s a perfectly sensible, and potentially appealing, narrative that >> speaks to a real truth: There is little doubt rising inequality and decades >> of neoliberal policy have fueled the rise of the far right. But it was >> nevertheless jarring to watch an American Democratic politician immediately >> pivot to a vision of the future where a progressive U.S. president could >> usher in an era of consistently applied Liberal Rules Based Order >> <https://theintercept.com/2026/01/05/trump-venezuela-war/> *without >> reckoning with their own party’s role in supporting a genocide for 15 >> months. Aiding and abetting a genocide makes you a war criminal*, and >> progressive Democrats should, in principle, have no issues explicitly >> condemning war criminals. Genocide is a central moral transgression that >> needs to be faced head-on, not just referenced opaquely, or in passing, or >> as an abstraction we need to avoid in the future. Its culprits within the >> party need to be called out by name and admonished before anyone can move >> on to this newer, kinder version of the Liberal Rules Based Order. >> >> But so far, there’s been no discussion or plan from progressives in >> Congress to lay out *what accountability would look like for Biden >> officials*, namely Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Director of Policy >> Planning Jon Finer, national security adviser Jake Sullivan, and the >> president himself. These officials, among others, not only armed and funded >> genocide, but worked to cover it up >> <https://www.reuters.com/world/early-warning-apocalyptic-wasteland-gaza-blocked-by-us-envoys-israel-2026-01-30/> >> , lied to Congress >> <https://www.propublica.org/article/gaza-palestine-israel-blocked-humanitarian-aid-blinken> >> about >> it, and repeatedly misled the public >> <https://internationalpolicy.org/publications/the-biden-administrations-false-history-of-ceasefire-negotiations/> >> . >> >> "US officials should absolutely be held accountable for their role in >> the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza,” Tlaib said in a statement to The >> Intercept. “Genocide is the crime of crimes. It is not something you can >> commit or enable and just move on from without facing justice. This is true >> for Biden administration officials and Trump administration officials >> alike. *The evidence is clear that high-level Biden officials, such as >> Secretary of State Blinken, knew exactly what was happening in Gaza, >> silenced internal reports of war crimes and forced starvation, and >> proceeded to lie to the American people and continue to arm, fund, and >> enable mass atrocities.”* >> >> The reason why it matters, aside from the intrinsic virtue of justice, is >> that the assumption that those covering up, arming, and funding a genocide >> could do so, half-heartedly mumble some excuse, and everything would >> eventually go back to Business As Usual in the coming years was the exact >> dynamic they were counting on when they helped Israel carry out its genocide >> *.* They knew full well this dynamic would play out, as it did for >> Vietnam >> <https://theintercept.com/2025/12/27/pete-hegseth-mark-kelly-investigation-vietnam/>, >> post-9/11 CIA torture, and Iraq before it >> <https://theintercept.com/2023/03/15/iraq-war-where-are-they-now/>. >> Those who unleashed untold horrors, mass death, starvation, and wiped out >> entire families could — in the event it became a minor PR headache— feign >> powerlessness, insist they were actually changing things from the inside or >> index it as a “mistake,” then eventually ease their way back into the >> liberal foreign policy establishment. >> >> This plan appears to be working. as key supporters of the genocide and >> its cover-up are filling elite jobs without any meaningful pushback. Finer >> and Sullivan started a chummy podcast for Vox >> <https://www.voxmedia.com/2025/11/4/24481223/jake-sullivan-and-jon-finer-launch-new-weekly-podcast-the-long-game-in-partnership-with-vox-media/> >> and >> the latter has joined the left-leaning >> <https://www.fp4america.org/jake-sullivan/> Foreign Policy for America >> as well as Harvard Kennedy School. Blinken has joined >> <https://responsiblestatecraft.org/blinken-war-crimes/> the board of >> directors of the influential liberal think tank Center for American >> Progress, with Finer joining him there as a distinguished senior fellow >> <https://www.americanprogress.org/press/release-jon-finer-to-join-cap-as-distinguished-senior-fellow/>. >> *No harm, no foul; everything is going back to business as usual.* >> >> *The moral minimum would be to support war crime prosecutions*, as Tlaib >> explicitly does, *and refer top Biden officials to the International >> Criminal Court for prosecution*. The optical minimum — the bottom of the >> barrel, the floor under the floor of the barrel — is the wholesale >> rejection of the genocide’s top architects from polite society, to declare >> that they ought to have no role in any future Democratic Party event, >> administration, consultancy, or top think tank. >> >> This, of course, is in no way a sufficient punishment, but it’s the bare >> minimum for anyone who believes Gaza is a genocide. Any embrace of Blinken, >> Finer, Sullivan, or Biden in these circles is to desecrate and belittle the >> very concept of genocide. It is to mock the intelligence of their >> supporters and the suffering of Palestinians in equal measure. >> >> Under the banner of “unity,” many will insist that rejecting, much less >> demanding prosecutions of, Biden officials is simply not possible. *We’d >> like to in the abstract*, they may insist, *but Savvy Pragmatism has >> once again forced us to “bridge the divide” and unite the left and liberals*. >> This was, albeit in the “bipartisan” context, the logic former President >> Barack Obama used *when he **refused to prosecute any Bush >> administration war criminals for their widespread use of torture* >> <https://theintercept.com/2019/12/04/george-bush-barack-obama-and-the-cia-torture-cover-up/> >> *.* “Look forward, not back,” Obama infamously insisted >> <https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2009/08/white_house_obama_looks_ahead.html> >> in >> 2009 under the auspices of “unity >> <https://www.cbsnews.com/news/aide-obama-wont-prosecute-bush-officials/>” >> and “healing <https://www.wbur.org/news/2011/09/11/obama-911-anniversary> >> .” >> >> This culture of not looking backward helped create the circumstances >> under which the genocide in Gaza could foment. Biden officials could do >> whatever they wanted to do, regardless of the depravity and cruelty, >> knowing full well this cycle of impunity would be fiercely backstopped by >> elites in both parties. >> > > >> “Healing” without accountability is simply another word for cover-up. >> Biden officials knew this, Trump officials currently know this, and the >> next administration that seeks to dispossess, starve, and kill Palestinians >> will no doubt know it too. If progressives in Congress can’t break this >> cycle of elite impunity, who will? If they can’t draw a line in the sand, >> name names within their own party, and have a principled opposition to >> genocide and its authors, what is the point of having a left wing of the >> Democrats at all? There will always be some existential election just >> around the corner to deploy as pretext to discipline the left wing into >> complying and accepting the unacceptable. Years out from 2028, no such >> excuse exists now. Biden and his officials remain either obscure or >> unpopular. >> > > >> Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez, and Khanna not replying to requests for comment >> on this topic is not, of course, evidence they have no plans to address the >> matter of accountability at some further date. But at some point in the >> near future, it’s an issue they will have to confront. Accusations of >> genocide carry certain obligations and implications. It’s not an abstract >> moral claim or a box to be checked; it’s a duty to stand in clear >> opposition to the architects of genocide. If those attempting to articulate >> a progressive foreign policy cannot do this, if they can’t name names and >> commit to — at the very least — purging Biden officials from the party and >> liberal spaces, then how can any progressive vision for foreign policy be >> seen as remotely credible? >> *https://theintercept.com/2026/02/25/democrats-gaza-genocide-accountability/ >> <https://theintercept.com/2026/02/25/democrats-gaza-genocide-accountability/>* >> >> >>
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