Joe Lieberman’s Last Words on Israel

A warning to Biden that he risks losing the votes of Jewish Democrats like us.

Hours before his fatal fall on Tuesday, former Sen. Joseph Lieberman put his final touches on a statement we were writing together about Israel, the 2024 election and the future of the Democratic Party.

The statement was a warning to the Biden campaign that it can no longer count on pro-Israel Jewish voters to vote Democratic if it turns against Israel. Here is the statement, as edited by Joe at 2:35 p.m. the day before he died:

“We all want to see support for Israel in the U.S. remain bipartisan which is why we appreciated President Biden’s statements in the wake of the October 7 Hamas barbarisms. We believe that Israel must be allowed to achieve its legitimate goal of disabling Hamas from keeping its promise of repeating the massacres of October 7th.

“More recently however we have become concerned about what appears to be a weakening of support for Israel by President Biden, Vice President Harris and some other leading Democrats. We are especially concerned about the possibility that some of this weakening may be influenced by domestic political fears of losing electoral support from anti-Israel voters who have threatened to stay home unless the Biden administration pulls away from Israel. There appears to be too little concern about losing the support of pro-Israel voters.

“We are here to say that you can no longer simply count on our vote just because Jews traditionally have voted Democratic. We are here to say you must earn our vote. We want to continue to support Democratic candidates, but you need to know that if you abandon Israel in order to garner the support of anti-Israel extremists within the Democratic Party, it will be difficult for us to support Democrats who are on the ballot this November. Pro-Israel voters have alternatives to simply staying home. None of us can or will vote for any candidate who supports cutting military support for Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas. So please, do the right thing. Do not abandon Israel and its time of great need. And we will not abandon you.”

The statement was intended to be circulated among prominent pro-Israel Democrats and sent to the White House in a public release. Its goal was to make it clear that if domestic political considerations—the so-called two state solution, meaning Michigan and Minnesota—were influencing the administration’s change of attitude toward Israel, there would be a domestic political price to pay for such a change.

Joe’s tragic death won’t end his campaign to keep support for Israel a bipartisan issue. Joe believed in this to the depths of his being. And those of us who were working with him to send this message will continue this campaign in his memory.