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June 17th, 2021 
Awake Goy 
At a recent town hall, an Oregon student asked Senator Ron Wyden where he stood on the Israel/Palestine conflict. He answered that a two-state solution was needed, the same answer he has given for over twenty years.
Despite Senator Wyden’s support, the prospects for a two-state solution have never been worse. Israel’s right-wing government and powerful settlers have always opposed it, and they rule Israel today. Israel’s settlements are expanding; Palestinians are forced from their homes as in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. The occupation has a firm grip on the Palestinian people, and the Palestinians of Gaza live in a permanent prison, suffering occasional grotesque spectacles of violence.
So what has Senator Wyden done in support of his two-state solution? Here are some examples:
He opposes Palestinian access to the International Criminal Court, a venue that would allow them to hold Israel accountable for war crimes. This means that Israel is not held accountable for human rights violations, and Palestinians are not protected by international law.
Israel’s expansion of settlements and Palestinian dispossession are arguably the most significant threats to a two-state solution. Instead of opposing the settlements, Wyden has supported legislation to prevent the United Nations from holding Israel accountable for its settlements. Senator Wyden has given a green light to Israel’s colonization of the West Bank. Organizations like Human Rights Watch and B’Tselem have reported on the pervasive, apartheid nature of Israel’s control over Palestinians.
Senator Wyden may champion the rights of U.S. citizens against government surveillance, but Wyden leaves his progressive values behind when U.S. citizens use their free speech rights to take action for Palestinian human rights. He supported the Israel Anti-Boycott Act (S.720) which criminalizes boycott and divestment activism by U.S. citizens against the State of Israel, claiming that a line should be drawn around our free speech rights when it comes to Israel. This legislation (opposed by the ACLU and Amnesty International) is part of a broad strategy of legal warfare against Palestinian activists. Similar state-level bills have been struck down because they were unconstitutional.
Senator Wyden says that the two sides must negotiate a solution. One key negotiating point is the status of East Jerusalem which Palestinians want for their capital. When Trump unilaterally decided to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, a severe insult to the Palestinian negotiating position, Senator Wyden weighed in to support Trump’s actions. So much for negotiations.
Senator Wyden justifies his support for Israel and domination of Palestinians because his parents fled the holocaust. But contrast Senator Wyden with Stéphane Hessel, a genuinely heroic and dashing figure. Born to a German Jewish family, Hessel joined the French resistance fighters against the Nazis and escaped two concentration camps and execution after his arrest. He co-authored the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Unlike Senator Wyden, Hessel truly believed in the word “universal” and was a staunch supporter of Palestinian rights. Hessel said that “The absence of meaningful action from governments to hold Israel accountable to international law leaves upon one path for citizens of conscience: to take this responsibility upon themselves, as done against apartheid South Africa.”
The pattern is clear: Senator Wyden is standing by for Israel whether it is support for settlements, military domination, escaping accountability for human rights violations, or protecting Israel from the activism of U.S. citizens.
Senator Wyden talks about two-state solutions, but his actions have led to apartheid.
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