There Is No Time Left for Empty Words on Gaza

After 21 months of slaughter, pro-Israel political leaders are finally speaking out about the horrors in Gaza. Great. But if it takes them as long to actually act, there will be no Gaza left.

Israeli attacks on Gaza continue

Palestinians mourn as the deceased are brought to Nasser Hospital in Gaza’s Khan Yunis on July 28, 2025. (Abed Rahim Khatib / Anadolu via Getty Images)


A palpable shift on the question of Israel’s genocide in Gaza is transpiring in American politics.

Over the past week, prominent figures who have said nothing about or even actively supported Israel’s nonstop killing spree have suddenly woken up with the same disgust and heartache as the rest of us who have watched this obscenity for two years. We’re seeing it from politicians who have made slavish fealty to anything Israel does core to their brand, like former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, Sen. Cory Booker, and Reps. Richie Torres, Hakeem Jeffries, and Dan Goldman. We’re seeing it from Barack Obama, who has largely been too busy producing a sketch show to bother weighing in until now. And we’re seeing it from Amy Klobuchar, who two weeks ago posed grinning alongside Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the man responsible for what she now says is “unacceptable” human suffering.

We’re seeing it from Marjorie Taylor Greene, the MAGA congressperson who has become the first Republican lawmaker (and one of the first lawmakers from any party) to call what’s happening in Gaza a genocide. We’re even, to some extent, seeing it from Donald Trump himself, who publicly contradicted Netanyahu to acknowledge the starvation in Gaza.

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