Senator Cory Booker continues to show how little he cares for the Palestinians, while ignoring the genocidal violence in Israel. He’s not fooling anyone.
A little less than 2 months ago, on April Fool’s Day 2025, Senator Cory Booker spoke for more than 25 hours about the evils of Donald Trump but never found even five minutes to mention the on-going and brutal genocide in Gaza. Perhaps it was fitting for that marathon speech to be given on the first of April, because whatever positive publicity Senator Booker got from that speech seems to be dissipating today, as he shows himself to be more on the side of Israel, than those that Israel is killing in ever increasing numbers.
However, every time there’s an opportunity for Booker to show the public whose lives matter most to him, and where his allegiance lies, he comes down almost completely on the side of the Israelis. One can only hope that more and more people are beginning to see through this sleight of hand, and are rejecting Senator Booker’s play to become the voice of opposition to the ever-increasing efforts by the Trump administration to repress freedom of speech, to support Israeli violence and, in general, to keep the U.S. as one of the leading participants in the war crimes of genocidal bombing and using hunger as a weapon of war.
How did Booker vote just a few days later on a resolution to stop sending weapons to Israel? He voted against that resolution and in favor of sending another $8.8 billion to the genocidal regime even while 15 Democratic Senators voted against this next round of weapons being sent to Netanyahu and Israel as the bombings and deaths continue to rise, and Israel proclaims their intentions to starve, kill or expel every Palestinian from Gaza and the West Bank.
And then there’s the case of the 14-year-old U.S. teenager from the U.S. shot and killed by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) on April 6, 2025, a few more days after Booker’s marathon. A week later, Senators Booker and Kim demanded that President Trump call for an open and transparent investigation of what happened that day. Oh, Booker used words like “another tragic example of the horrific human cost of the protracted conflict and the increased tensions in the West Bank that continue to spiral,” but please. Asking the Trump administration to investigate it? Such a soft response. And now, more than a month later, the issue is off the front pages with no investigation completed or even underway.
On May 20th, the self-proclaimed center of resistance to Donald Trump, much to the chagrin of many who were entranced by his 25 hours plus speech on April 1st, was the only Democrat to vote to approve once convicted felon Charlie Kushner as the next ambassador to France. Charlie Kushner is Jared Kushner’s dad and father-in-law of Ivanka Trump, pardoned by Donald Trump. Some Booker supporters wondered out loud how this vote was consistent with resistance to Trump. How could this type of vote come from someone who wants to be seen as the leader of the opposition to Trump’s policies? They say that, for them, this vote just erased all the good will Booker had earned for his marathon speech.
Said Cory Booker early on May 22nd (taken from his Facebook post), “I am horrified by the attack that has taken the lives of 2 Israeli Embassy aides. My heart is with the victims and their loved ones. We must all do more to push back against the scourge of antisemitism…” But his heart seems never to be with the Palestinian victims of genocidal violence. A search on the internet for a similar statement regarding Palestinians killed by bombings and forced starvation reveals nothing.
So, for many, loss of support for Booker began long before that vote on Charlie Kushner, whom he describes a someone he’s supported from way back, with his hypocrisy regarding Israel and his willingness to grieve for all the Israeli losses without showing the same empathy for Palestinian losses.
One can only think of this time-tested saying. “Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice, shame on us.”
