Trump’s Gaza plan is terrible. So why don’t the Democrats have anything better?
A silent opposition means U.S. politics will begin to look more and more like Israel’s
President Donald Trump on Feb. 7. Photo by Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Senior Columnist Rob Eshman February 10, 2025
Now that everybody has had a chance to spout off on how immoral, half-baked and dangerous President Donald Trump’s plan to Boca-tize Gaza is, here’s my question: Why hasn’t a Democrat gotten in front of a microphone and offered an equally headline-grabbing but genuinely practical vision for Gaza’s future? Where is the loyal opposition’s big idea for post-war Gaza?
I won’t go into the defects in Trump’s idea for what Atlantic writer Yair Rosenberg aptly called “Gaz-a-Lago,” because so many others have. But what I haven’t heard is a big, bold, rational alternative vision, articulated by someone with passion, clarity and humanity. And the lack of that kind of effective opposition points to the ways in which politics in the U.S. increasingly resemble those in Israel — where a destructive, self-interested right-wing leader has maintained his hold on power in part because he hasn’t faced compelling leftwing opposition for a decade.
The closest Democratic alternative to Trump’s plan, so far, came from the Democratic Illinois Rep. Brad Schneider, co-founder of the bipartisan Abraham Accords Caucus, who in response to Trump’s plan issued a very, very stern… press release. Cue the crickets.
“We must break out of the box of historical thinking to create different possibilities for the future of the region,” he said. (Apparently it’s forbidden to mention Trump’s plan without the accompanying phrase, “out of the box.”) Schneider’s grand idea: the creation of a “bipartisan Gaza Working Group.”
That’s right. Trump grabs the headlines and controls the conversation with a big, bold, possibly lunatic proposal, and the Democrats fire back with their own Big Idea — a committee. Sorry, a working committee.
Some Democrats have shown that they actually are able to forcefully push back against Trump’s incessant use of shock tactics to monopolize the national spotlight. After Trump used the deadly Jan. 28 crash of an American Airlines jet and a U.S. Army helicopter to rail against DEI policies, former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg immediately took to X to point out just how troubling Trump’s approach was.
“Despicable,” he wrote. “As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying.” That criticism immediately became part of the national story, helping to mute Trump’s disinformation.
Gaza is a tougher problem, because Democrats need to not just point out what’s wrong with Trump’s idea — which is plenty — but show that there are better ones out there. Yet in the exhausting months since Oct. 7, no strong alternative voice to Trump’s has emerged. Conventional politicians, like former Vice President Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton, and dozens of Trump’s now-sycophantic former Republican opponents, have made a career out of waiting their turn to speak. When they do, they are, frankly, predictable, and therefore boring.
Sure, Trump’s Gaz-a-Lago idea is awful, but we’re all talking about it — which means it has power.
The warning for Democrats couldn’t be more stark. Either they start coming up with their own bold, strong plan, now, or they end up like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s centrist opponents, whose lack of strength and direction has helped Netanyahu develop an apparently unbreakable hold on power.
In Israel there are some unique reasons for Netanyahu’s long reign. The Israeli left has never recovered from being discredited and demoralized after the Second Intifada, and an influx of more right-leaning immigrants and the rise of the religious voting bloc have strengthened Netanyahu’s coalition.
But most of all, Netanyahu is a master communicator, able to convey a powerful message to capitalize on emotional wedge issues. When his reelection looked iffy in 2015, he took to Facebook to warn that Arab Israelis were flocking to the polling stations “in droves.” His base was galvanized, and he won.
Israelis have been waiting in vain for a similarly effective anti-Netanyahu to arise, but even the mass democracy protests of 2023 and the hostage marches since Oct. 7 haven’t yielded a single effective opposition leader.
Sound familiar?
If Democrats don’t want to get caught in the same eddy of irrelevance as their Israeli counterparts, it’s time for them to decide that a rational opposing vision can and should be captivating — and it’s their responsibility to develop one.
Because you know what isn’t dull? Arab-Israeli peace. That would make headlines, for all the right reasons. Find a microphone, Democrats, and find your voice.
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