Littwin: The Israeli-Hamas war won’t be settled by the Denver city council. But if the war continues, so will the protests.
And it’s even less surprising that the protesters’ request for council members to stay after the demonstration — which went on for nearly two hours — to discuss their issues was refused.
It was just the latest local protest springing from the war between Israel and Hamas, and there will definitely be more, maybe as Joe Biden begins his two-day visit to the state.
As long as the war continues, you can expect the protests to grow larger and more frequent.
This issue won’t be settled in Denver, of course. Not by the city council or by the state legislature — which saw its own recent pro-Palestinian demonstration — or by anyone else. But, as you’d expect, passions are running high here and everywhere, but mostly on social media. Thank you, Elon Musk.
And with those passions have come an ugly, violent resurgence in both antisemitic and anti-Muslim incidents, including the shooting of three college students of Palestinian descent the other day in Vermont.
In a war that began with a horrifying Hamas massacre of more than 1,200 innocent Israelis — terror brought by a group that has vowed to eliminate Israel — the focus has turned for many to the scenes of death and destruction in Gaza, where more than 12,000 innocent Palestinians, as many as half of them children, have been killed.
Too much death. Too much horror. Too much.
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And far too few easy answers — actually, no easy answers — to the Israeli-Arab conflict that has plagued the region for so long.
The pro-Palestinian demonstrators came to the Denver city council to request that it pass a resolution calling for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas — as a few U.S. cities have done — and to protest the four-day Global Conference for Israel that comes to Denver on Thursday. Gov. Jared Polis is scheduled to address the meeting of Israel supporters.
For many Democratic politicians, in Denver and elsewhere, the war in Gaza, which has split the party , has become a difficult proposition — if not quite as difficult for them as it is for those whose lives remain at risk.
The divide is mostly generational — between young Democrats on the left and establishment Democrats with a long history of support for Israel, including the president. And for Joe Biden, who is struggling in the polls with younger voters, it is also political.
And though it may seem counterintuitive, the fragile humanitarian truce now in place between Israeli forces and Hamas — a truce that has allowed for an exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners — has probably deepened the divide. It has certainly increased the pressure on progressive politicians to call for a permanent ceasefire.
With the halt in fighting, the destruction in Gaza has become ever more visible. In the northern part of Gaza, where most of the bombing and ground war has taken place, more than half the buildings have been damaged or destroyed. Access to food, water, medical supplies and fuel has been cut off or severely limited.
The country has become a large refugee camp with incessant bombing overhead and Hamas-dug tunnels — dug so that ordinary Palestinians and even reportedly hospitals are effectively used as shields — below. Using citizens as shields is a war crime. Bombing innocent civilians is also a war crime.
Meanwhile, U.S. officials and others are trying to expand the truce so that more hostages can be released — the stories of little children held hostage will break anyone’s heart — and that more humanitarian aid can reach desperate Palestinians.
But as Bibi Netanyahu’s right-wing government, which has vowed to eliminate Hamas in Gaza, knows full well: It becomes harder, with each passing day, for the war to begin again, with just a flick of a missile-launching switch.
And so the possibility of a ceasefire has become the latest front in the war.
Biden, who has opposed a ceasefire, wants the truce to continue. He wants the 240 or so hostages taken by Hamas and its allies, including eight or nine Americans, to be released. He wants aid to go to Gaza. But even as many European allies are calling for a ceasefire, Biden continues to support Netanyahu and the war.
Biden is now warning Israel that when it resumes fighting the war, it must do more to avoid mass casualties and also “significant further displacement” of Palestinians. He’s pushing for what they call “surgical” bombing instead of what we’ve seen, which is closer to what they call “indiscriminate” bombing. Biden is not getting pressure simply from progressives, but even from some on his own staff.
Will Israel listen to Biden? The war is moving to the south of Gaza, where refugees are packed in camps and where bombs will inevitably kill and displace many. With more death comes an increased risk of a widening war. With more Palestinian prisoners released, Hamas becomes more popular in the West Bank. Meanwhile, also in the West Bank, violent raids by Israeli settlers have increased since Oct. 7.
And by championing the settlements, Netanyahu has all but destroyed any chance for a two-state solution , which Biden somehow still believes possible. For there to be any peace in a postwar Gaza, there must be some belief in the possibility of a better future. As of today, there doesn’t seem to be a plan for a postwar Gaza, even though if Hamas is removed, there must be someone to run the place. And it obviously can’t be Israel.
It’s that complex. It’s that daunting. It’s not the kind of thing you’d expect the Denver city council, which is still stuck on the homeless issue, to resolve. But a few words on stopping the killing probably wouldn’t be a bad place to start.
Mike Littwin has been a columnist for too many years to count. He has covered Dr. J, four presidential inaugurations, six national conventions and countless brain-numbing speeches in the New Hampshire and Iowa snow. ’s newsletter.
