George Latimer made April 1, 2024 social media posts chastising the movement among some Democrats to cast blank ballots in the April 2nd Presidential primary. That movement, organized by the Working Families Party and others, represents an attempt by some rank-and-file Democrats to protest the humanitarian disaster in the Gaza strip.1

Latimer says he has learned that “some [have] suggested that Democrats withhold support for Joe Biden due to his commitment to Israel.” One of Latimer’s main talking points is a reference the “values of strength [and] unity,” and a need to “be unified at this moment in history.”

As one of George Latimer’s “fellow Democrats” who will be casting a blank ballot today, I’m writing this post to explain a position that many, including Latimer, find unrelatable.

To begin with, Latimer is the most inappropriate of speakers to make this appeal. Some Democrats have worked really hard to limit the humanitarian damage of U.S. support for Israel’s military campaign, and yet continue to support Biden. I see their hard work and their struggle to realize a more humane policy, and they make me think twice about my choice to cast a blank ballot. On the other hand, Latimer is a candidate who intentionally did nothing to reign in Israel’s campaign at all. Latimer chose to run on an unreservedly pro-Israel platform and align with local political interests, as well as a national lobby, that support an extremely violent and arguably genocidal foreign policy.2

President Biden made the fateful decision to continue sending aerial bombs, ordnance, and other military supplies to Israel even as it became increasingly clear that the weapons were being used in indiscriminate attacks (or even intentional attacks on civilians and their infrastructure). But in some ways, Latimer’s embrace of genocidal politics goes well beyond President Biden’s. President Biden has at least spoken out against the Israel government’s needless creation of humanitarian catastrophes. Latimer’s chosen political alignment does not allow him to do so.

Many of us who are choosing to cast blank ballots are quite sensitive about the 2024 election and feel a strong need to defeat Donald Trump. It’s not that I’m opposed to the “unity” that Latimer claims to want; I have a deep hunger for Democratic Party unity. But I’m dismayed by how very little protection has been offered to civilians. Rank-and-file Democrats have been asking for the most basic and minimal humanitarian protections, and President Biden has rebuffed even this meek request. We find ourselves in a thoroughly humiliated position.

Latimer’s phrasing of the problem suggests complete insensitivity to my concerns. The problem according to Latimer is that “some [have] suggested that Democrats withhold support for Joe Biden due to his commitment to Israel.” (Emphasis added.)

This oppositional framing makes it seem as if the crux of my issue is that the U.S. is supportive of Israel, casting me as an unreasonable, truculent voter who refuses to get on board with a mainstay of U.S. foreign policy. But for me the crux is that the humanitarian dimension of the conflict has become incredibly cruel. Giving the Palestinian civilians basic protection and providing for their minimal human needs still leaves an enormous space in which the U.S. can support Israel in various ways. But Latimer’s politics permit him to say almost nothing in support of any Palestinians, not even children.

Latimer is more of an unreserved pro-Israel hawk than Trump himself. Therefore, Latimer is in a self-created, uniquely poor position to argue against Trump and in favor of President Biden. In Trump’s recent interview with the Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom, Trump apparently referred to the excessive violence against Palestinians and the attention that violence is drawing, commenting that “Israel made a very big mistake” and “That’s a terrible portrait [of Israel]. It’s a very bad picture for the world.” Trump concluded, “We’ve got to get to peace. You can’t have this going on, and I will say Israel has to be very careful because you are losing a lot of the world. You are losing a lot of support.”3 Even Trump is reacting to the increasing discomfort the American and world publics feel with the Israel government. Latimer, on the other hand, continues to signal insensitivity and that he will be in the final echelon of politicians to support any changes that move foreign policy in a more humanitarian direction.4

The “unity” politics that are possible now, I think, involve having some basic humanitarian standards for U.S. foreign policy. If there is any compromise position that could bring someone like me on board, basic humanitarian standards are it. In other words – do what you will with foreign policy, just be minimally humane. I might not like the foreign policy then, but it probably won’t form a red-line that causes me to boycott the Biden-Harris campaign.

And yet the emissary the institutional Democrats apparently sent to bring me back on board – George Latimer – is precisely the one who will not even acknowledge that Israel’s unwanted populations – in this case, the Gaza Palestinians – have any legitimate humanitarian needs at all.

Why am I casting a blank ballot? Because for President Biden, whatever set of moral and religio-ethical commitments he has, they left room for his knowing participation in and enablement of genocide. He sent bombs and shells to Israel/Palestine knowing full well that Israel was targeting civilians with the ordnance. American ordnance fell on starving, huddled and immiserated people on Christmas Day, Ramadan, and Easter. A million people are at increasingly serious risk of starving to death.5 They have no shelter, live in fetid conditions with overflowing sewage and preventable disease, and drink polluted water.6 These otherworldly and apocalyptic scenes, incredibly visible and documented, leave involved parties with scanty ground on which to claim any moral legitimacy. The irony is that Biden-Harris intend to run against Trump based on a claim to greater moral legitimacy. They should enact decent politics and not merely preach them. There shouldn’t be any issue that they approach without at least minimal decency.

If Latimer wants to bring me on board, he should acknowledge these conditions, talk about them, and look for humanitarian solutions within the realm of the politically possible. Biden-Harris’ humanitarian airdrops and attempt at building a humanitarian pier, although mocked by some, were meaningful steps from my perspective. That’s the conversation I plead for by casting a blank ballot today.

  1. Dave Goldiner, N.Y. Daily News, Apr. 1, 2024 “Biden critics push for blank ballots in New York’s Democratic primary to protest Gaza war.” ↩︎
  2. See The Intercept, Akela Lacy, Feb. 1, 2024, “AIPAC is the Largest Donor, By Far, to Jamaal Bowman’s Primary Challenger.”  ↩︎
  3. PBS, Mar. 25, 2024, “Trump urges Israel to ‘finish up’ its Gaza offensive and warns about global support fading.” ↩︎
  4. Latimer’s campaign messaging history shows that he only supports pro-human-rights positions for Israel/Palestine when a permission structure has been created for him in advance, when the President and a long list of other Democrats have gone before him and the matter is a fait accompli as a Democratic Party position. See Chris McKenna, The Journal News, Mar. 6, 2024, “Latimer’s call for military pause in Gaza shifts battle lines in primary against Bowman.” (“Latimer, who has staunchly supported Israel in its response to the brutal attack by Hamas on Oct. 7, joined a growing list of [President Biden and other] pro-Israel Democrats to call for a halt in the military action as the civilian toll in Gaza worsens and a split within the Democratic Party over the war narrows.”) ↩︎
  5. CNN (article), Feb. 1, 2024, “‘We are dying slowly:’ Palestinians are eating grass and drinking polluted water as famine looms across Gaza.”  ↩︎
  6. New York Times, Feb. 24, 2024, “Sanitation Crisis in Gaza Spreads Disease” (“‘It is a public health concern,’ one U.N. official said of the lack of toilets for displaced people in the territory. ‘But the second thing is simply just dignity.’”)
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