By Julia Terruso
U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean said a recent trip to Israel and Palestinian territories and concerns over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “dishonesty” and “broken promises” has led her to call for a bilateral cease-fire in Gaza.
Dean, a Democrat who represents Montgomery County and serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, recently returned from her second trip to the Middle East since the war started and said it confirmed her concerns about Netanyahu’s response. She said she felt a particular urgency to speak out ahead of Ramadan, one of the most sacred times for Muslims, which begins March 10.
“It was impressed upon everybody that we must get to cessation of the fighting,” Dean said in an interview. “Unfortunately the Netanyahu administration denies problems going on with settler violence. We are calling that out. It is a serious problem and it is a tinder box. And Palestinians are dying.”
Five months after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel that killed 1,200 people, almost 30,000 people in Gaza have been killed.
Dean released a three-page statement laying out a meeting with Netanyahu in November and her experience returning to the region last week. In that statement, she said Israel has a right to defense but said “what is happening is beyond self-defense and unacceptable to me.” She also called for the release of all remaining hostages.
Montgomery County, a heavily Democratic part of the state, is home to an estimated 42,200 Jewish households, the most of any of Philadelphia’s four collar counties, according to a 2019 survey. Philadelphia and its suburbs together represent the third largest Jewish community in the United States. Opinions of the war among Jewish voters in Dean’s district vary, she said, reflective of the larger divide in the Democratic Party.
Dean follows fellow Pennsylvania Democrat U.S. Rep. Summer Lee in explicitly calling for a cease-fire. The issue has become so politically fraught among Democrats that several have taken more carefully worded stances, avoiding the term cease-fire, and calling instead for “humanitarian pauses,” or “negotiated stops,” to bring in supplies to help civilians suffering in the area and then resume fighting.
U.S. Rep. Susan Wild (D., Pa.) called for such a pause in October, along with fellow Jewish members of Congress. U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D., Pa.) signed onto a letter calling for a cease-fire in November, but in a follow-up statement did not mention a cease-fire or pause.
U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D., Pa), a veteran who serves on the Armed Forces Committee, has called for a temporary, negotiated cease-fire.
Dean initially called for a “long-term pause,” in fighting at the end of October to ensure hostages could return home and access to food, water, shelter, and medical supplies could be restored in Gaza. But she said since the end of that pause, she’s seen more devastation and a disproportionately low level of success in finding Hamas operatives.
“He talked about the ability to target and be precise,” Dean told The Inquirer of her previous conversation with Netanyahu. “Now he’s dropping dumb bombs and we see this mounting number of innocent deaths and extraordinary suffering.”
Legislative logjams in the Republican-led House have prevented its members from directly voting on military aid to Israel, another test of where elected leaders stand on the war.
Some members of Congress have explicitly denounced the push for a cease-fire.
Democratic Sen. John Fetterman, whose offices have drawn protesters calling for a cease-fire, said on X last month: “Now is not the time to talk about a cease-fire. We must support Israel in efforts to eliminate the Hamas terrorists who slaughtered innocent men, women, and children. Hamas does not want peace, they want to destroy Israel.”
The war has become a major issue for President Joe Biden in his reelection campaign, evidenced in Tuesday’s Michigan Democratic primary in which more than 100,000 voters, about 13% of the primary electorate, voted “uncommitted,” as part of a protest vote against Biden’s support for Israel in the Israel-Hamas war.
A group led predominantly by younger Arab and Muslim organizers, pushed for Democrats to vote “uncommitted” as they urge Biden to call for an immediate and permanent cease-fire in Gaza and to stop sending U.S. aid to Israel.
Dean, who said she has met with pro-Israel and Palestinian constituents in recent weeks, encouraged colleagues to join her in calling for peace, no matter what terminology they choose to do it with.
“Whether you feel more comfortable with calling it a ‘humanitarian pause,’ ‘humanitarian ceasefire,’ ‘negotiated stop,’ or ‘ceasefire,’ the truth remains– it’s time to turn to diplomacy,” Dean said in the statement. “End the war, return the hostages, and arrive at a long overdue station of permanent peace.”
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