The Democratic Party is in the middle of a rupture over foreign policy – with Israel and Palestine at the center.
In recent weeks, the Democratic senators Brian Schatz and Chris Van Hollen both called for a break with the Biden administration’s policies toward Israel. Schatz said the next administration needs “a whole new crop of foreign policy staffers,” while Van Hollen went further, accusing Biden’s senior decision makers of “complicity.” And Gaza has become a central issue splitting Democrats in primaries around the country. It’s become such a profound fault line, it reminds me of how the Iraq war remade the Democratic Party years ago.
And Democrats face huge foreign policy questions beyond Gaza, too. Trump has taken a wrecking ball to the rules-based order, and the American public has become increasingly cynical about U.S. interventions abroad. Do Democrats want to try to restore what came before Trump? Is that even possible? Or is there a vision for something new?
Matt Duss is at the center of foreign policy thinking on the left. He’s the executive vice president at the Center for International Policy, previously served as Senator Bernie Sanders’s foreign policy adviser and is currently advising Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. So I thought he’d be the perfect person to ask: What would a left foreign policy actually look like? What would it try to do in the world?Mentioned:
“<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/26/opinion/democrats-israel.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Hard Truth My Party Needs to Face</a>” by Chris Van Hollen
“<a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/democats-party-dnc-chair-gaza-genocide/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Democrats Can’t Avoid a Reckoning With Gaza</a>” by Matthew Duss
“<a href="https://www.chrismurphyct.com/p/why-we-need-a-progressive-foreign" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Why We Need a Progressive Foreign Policy</a>” by Chris Murphy
“<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTtXza31D0k" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Congressman Jason Crow’s New Vision for American Foreign Policy</a>” by Jason Crow
Book Recommendations:
<a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374621117/crisisofthecommongood/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Crisis of the Common Good</a> by Chris Murphy
<a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374621117/crisisofthecommongood/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">From Life Itself</a> by Suzy Hansen
<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/29436/book-of-mercy-by-leonard-cohen/9780771021879" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Book of Mercy</a> by Leonard Cohen
Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.
You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/column/ezra-klein-podcast" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast</a>, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs</a>.
This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Rollin Hu. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris with Julie Beer and Mary Marge Locker. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld, with additional mixing by Isaac Jones and Johnny Simon. Our recording engineer is Johnny Simon. Our executive producer is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Marie Cascione, Annie Galvin, Kristin Lin, Emma Kehlbeck, Jack McCordick, Marina King and Jan Kobal. Original music by Pat McCusker. Audience strategy by Shannon Busta. The director of New York Times Opinion Shows is Annie-Rose Strasser.
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