Top US House Dems from NC stay silent on party resolution against Israel

Silence is speaking volumes from the highest elected Democrats from North Carolina on their party’s pivotal foreign policy resolution.

Publicly, none of the four in the U.S. House of Representatives has taken a stand nor have any of the five in the state’s executive offices, commonly called the Council of State.

The State Executive Committee for the North Carolina Democratic Party on June 28 adopted a resolution declaring Israel guilty of apartheid against Palestinians; genocide in Gaza; and using American weapons in “self defense” against hospitals, schools, homes, refugee camps, mosques, churches, journalists and humanitarian aid workers.

The resolution calls for an immediate embargo on all military aid, weapons shipments and military logistical support from the United States to Israel.

The language says the embargo would be supported until “Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and B’tselem certify that Israel is no longer engaged in apartheid rule.”

The United States has long been an ally of Israel in the Middle East, including being the first to recognize it as an independent state in 1948 under President Harry Truman.

Monday, the Democratic Majority for Israel, considered a powerfully aligned organization to the Democratic Party, rebuked New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani for refusing “to condem the use of the phrase ‘Globalize the Intifada’ – a slogan widely recognized as a call for violence against Jews.” The DMFI said it is clearly “a call for bloodshed.”

The Center Square was unsuccessful via email getting an answer of being in support or against the state party resolution from U.S. Reps. Alma Adams, Valerie Foushee, Deborah Ross or Don Davis. Also checked were Gov. Josh Stein, Lt. Gov. Rachel Hunt, Attorney General Jeff Jackson, Secretary of State Elaine Marshall and Public Instruction Superintendent Mo Green.

Former Gov. Roy Cooper, the party's expected candidate for the U.S. Senate race in 2026, is quiet as well. The Center Square was unsuccessful via email getting comment from the office of Morgan Jackson, a managing partner at Nexus Strategies that handles political consulting for Cooper.

The resolution cites Gallop polling saying Democrats support Palestinian people (59%) and that Israel’s “assault on Gaza” was the primary reason (29%) that people voting for President Joe Biden did not vote in 2024. It says 62% of young Democrats “support an arms embargo.”

Since Israel was attacked Oct. 7, 2023, by Hamas, support for Palestine has grown in the United States, particularly in the form of protests on higher education campuses. Israel responded and the death toll has escalated to more than 57,000, most on the Palestinian side and most civilians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which is controlled by Hamas. 

On June 13, Israel attacked Iranian military and nuclear facilities. On June 21, the U.S. dropped bombs on three nuclear facilities in Iran.