On Wednesday, the United Auto Workers (UAW) endorsed Joe Biden for the 2024 presidency. While the timing of the move came as somewhat of a surprise, the decision itself did not: Biden walked a picket line during the Big Three auto strike last year, and there is no doubt that another Donald Trump presidency would be a complete disaster for workers. (As UAW president Shawn Fain put it yesterday, “Donald Trump is a scab.”)

There’s a bigger debate to be had about the two-party system and union members’ hostage-like relationship to the Democratic Party — the absence of a labor party goes a long way toward explaining our perpetual predicament — but that the heat was on for a Biden endorsement is no shock.

Yet there is a wrinkle: in December, the UAW joined the growing call within the labor movement for a permanent and immediate cease-fire in Israel’s war on Gaza. As Biden is aiding and abetting Israel’s violence, which has now killed more than twenty-five thousand Palestinians, the endorsement didn’t go over smoothly.