The Washington Jewish Week’s April 4 editorial regarding U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen and his relationship to Israel was mean in spirit and off base factually.
I write as a Maryland resident — represented over the years by Sen. Van Hollen first in Congress and now in the Senate — and as the president of J Street, a pro-Israel advocacy organization.
For decades, the senator has been rightly viewed by large swaths of Jewish Maryland as a friend of our community and of the state of Israel. He has voted for tens of billions of dollars in aid to Israel, money which has gone to missile defense, military readiness, scientific research and peacebuilding. Just this February, he voted for $14 billion in additional security aid for Israel and further security funds for community institutions such as synagogues at risk of hate crimes.
Since the horrific massacre on Oct. 7 and the ensuing Israel-Hamas war, Sen. Van Hollen has almost daily made clear his horror at the barbarism perpetrated by Hamas terrorists and the right of the state and people of Israel to respond militarily to the attack, to hold those responsible accountable and to remove Hamas from operational control of Gaza.
He has met with families of those held hostage, and I can attest to his personal engagement with the State Department and other administration officials to ensure that the full force of the U.S. government is being brought to bear to pressure Hamas and, when necessary, Israel, toward a negotiated agreement that would pause the fighting and result in both the release of hostages and a surge in humanitarian aid.
The senator has been equally clear that Israel’s justified military response must accord with international law and that security assistance provided to Israel must be used in a manner consistent with relevant American laws. These are standards that the senator has insisted be applied not just to Israel but across the board to all recipients of American military aid.
He has been a passionate spokesperson for the notion that I hope all Marylanders share that the lives and safety of Palestinian civilians are of equal value to those of the Israeli victims of Oct. 7. He has reflected what many Jewish Americans feel — a deep discomfort at the devastation wrought by Israel’s military response and at the humanitarian calamity Gaza’s civilian population is enduring.
Sen. Van Hollen has taken his role as a leading member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee extraordinarily seriously, traveling personally to Israel, and specifically to the border with Gaza, to witness the humanitarian relief effort firsthand. He has organized and led briefings with American, Israeli and Palestinian officials and non-governmental organizations to better understand precisely what is happening and what the United States can be doing.
And he has promoted American policies that aim to ensure U.S. assistance to Israel is being used for the purpose it is intended — to enhance Israel’s security — and not in ways that inflict unnecessary civilian suffering. He has been a champion for the notion that humanitarian assistance cannot be used as a weapon of war.
In voicing support for Israel and its right to security and self-defense as well as critiques of specific Netanyahu government policies during — and before — this war, Sen. Van Hollen is aligning himself with a significant portion of the Jewish community and his broader Maryland constituency.
A poll by the Jewish Electoral Institute in November found that 91% of Jewish voters believe that someone can be critical of Israeli government policy and still be pro-Israel. And 76% of respondents felt you can be critical of how Israel is conducting the war with Hamas and still be pro-Israel. Only 31% of Jewish Americans have a favorable view of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The critiques of Israeli policy and action and the U.S. policy that Sen. Van Hollen is promoting fall squarely in line with those of a large portion of Jewish Marylanders and his constituency more broadly.
History will not look kindly on the words of the Washington Jewish Week regarding the senator. His friendship for the state and people of Israel and for the Jewish community of Maryland is a matter of public record and unblemished.
His moral courage standing up for the human rights and dignity of Israelis and Palestinians is far more worthy of a “Profiles in Courage” award than of the words recently used by the editors to malign a public servant they and we should be proud to call our senator.
Jeremy Ben-Ami is the founder and president of J Street, the pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy advocacy group.
