South End Democrats Condemn Senator Maria Cantwell For Backing Genocide

Earlier this week, the 37th Legislative Democrats, a district that includes Beacon Hill, Central District, Rainier Valley, Columbia City, and Rainier Beach, voted to condemn Senator Maria Cantwell for her long string of actions supporting Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. The Democrat group called out her photo op with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, her recent vote against the Democratic party to continue the sale of weapons to Israel, and the hundreds of thousands the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has spent to keep her in office defending Israel. But the resolution to condemn her is not only significant because it is just, its 48 to 2 passage serves as yet another signal of shifting attitudes toward Israel within the Democratic Party. 

As The Burner reported in early July, Cantwell, among a bipartisan group of U.S. senators, posed with genocidal freak Netanyahu in a photo that will age like fucking milk. She earned universal condemnation from any organization or individual vaguely anti-war or pro-Palestine or pro-don’t-end-up-in-history-books-next-to-war-criminals. I mean, at least think of self-preservation, Cantwell! 

And if that wasn’t enough, later in July, Cantwell broke with the majority of the Democratic Party, siding with Republicans to reject Sen. Bernie Sander’s resolutions to block $675 million in weapons sales to Israel and prohibit the sale of tens of thousands of fully automatic weapons. Even her Washington colleague Sen. Patty Murray, typically a good friend to Israel, caved and voted to block the weapons. 

Not only did the resolution call Cantwell out, the 37th Democrats urged Washington’s entire congressional delegation to refuse further donations from AIPAC and “other similar donors complicit in the genocide.” Cantwell, according to OpenSecrets, pro-Israel PAC’s have poured almost $600,000 into her campaigns over the course of her political career. AIPAC has dumped more than $200,000 alone. According to advocacy group, AIPAC Tracker, every single Washington State-based member of congress has benefited from donations from pro-Israel lobby groups, except for Rep. Pramila Jayapal. 

The 37th Democrats also called on the congressional delegation to push for accountability for Israel’s killing of University of Washington graduate Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi. 

While a resolution is little more than symbolic, the symbolism does matter. Over the past almost two years, Pro-Palestine organizers have fought tooth and nail for resolutions in their Democrat organizations that turn out only half as staunchly pro-Palestine. Hell, this may be the first resolution The Burner has seen come out of a local Democrat group that does not explicitly condemn Hamas. 

The author of the resolution, Amy Hagopian, seems to agree that the resolution marks a change in attitude. 

“I’ve been working on this issue for a long time in the Democratic Party,” Hagopian said in a press release. “It used to be very contentious to back a Palestinian state or oppose a Democratic Party elected official's eagerness to send weapons to Israel to use in its violent campaign against Palestinians, but the more vicious and cruel the Israeli Occupation Forces become, the more public opinion is shifting.” 

Anti-war positions that a year and a half ago would have earned you a spot on the far-right's doxxing docket have become so mainstream, they may have even helped catapult underdog Zohran Mamdani to his blowout victory in the Democrat primary for Mayor of New York City.

Any change of attitude in the Democratic establishment is too late to save tens of thousands of lives in Gaza. But if they don't get with the program, the thing these egomaniac politicians actually care about –– their career –– may soon be at risk.