Rocket Men: Hezbollah Demands Impunity and Democrats Say 'Sure!'

Jeff Robbins on Jun 2, 2026

Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen recently claimed that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee was "un-American," an announcement that surely surprised the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of American citizens who have supported AIPAC, whose forebears and family members served in America's military and fought for their country in America's wars. Van Hollen is prominent among Democratic politicians scrambling to denounce Israel more loudly and more mindlessly than their potential rivals. This includes parroting the obligatory nonsense that, in defending itself from a genocidal attack on Oct. 7, 2023, and trying to prevent a reprise, Israel is actually the party guilty of genocide.

In a column in The New York Times last week, Van Hollen sought to distinguish himself from other potential contenders for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination by urging Democrats to leave Israel to fend for itself while under siege by well-armed, well-funded genocidal actors attempting to eliminate it. It is what anyone seeking to advance their career in Democratic politics needs to say. Van Hollen was also among the twelve Democratic Senators blasting Israel for attacking Hezbollah forces and missile sites in Lebanon because, of course, Israel simply feels like attacking Lebanon and desires to expand its territory into it.

In Hezbollah's case, as with Hamas, Democrats seem to know little and care less. Their emerging talking point about Israel's "aggression" in Lebanon verges perilously close to crossing the fine line separating vapid from idiotic. Hezbollah, the paramilitary group whose name means "Party of God" in Arabic, has two central tenets: fealty to Iran's Supreme Leader and the annihilation of Israel. Owned and operated by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, its Manifesto states, "Our struggle will end only when (Israel) is obliterated."

This isn't a rhetorical flourish. Since the UN-approved arrangement in 2000 by which Hezbollah was supposed (no, really!) to cease attacking Israel, Hezbollah has fired tens of thousands of rockets into Israel, emptying northern Israel and terrorizing the entire country. In the summer of 2006 alone, Hezbollah -- designated by over two dozen countries and the European Union as a terrorist organization -- fired thousands of rockets into Israel, forcing roughly 500,000 Israelis to flee their homes.

By Oct. 7, 2023, Hezbollah had amassed an estimated 150,000 missiles on Israel's northern border. They were, naturally, placed in civilian areas, underneath and adjacent to schools, mosques and houses. Guess why.

On Oct. 8, hours after 5000 Hamas gunmen had invaded Israel, Hezbollah once again resumed its missile attacks, firing thousands of them into Israel "in solidarity" with Hamas. After a(nother) ceasefire was reached earlier this year, Hezbollah began firing what has been another 9000 rockets into Israel.

In Van Hollen World, either (1) who cares? or (2) tough luck.

Unsurprisingly, Israelis see it somewhat differently and have imagined that others residing on Planet Earth would see it differently as well.

Not, however, if you harbor any hope these days of winning a Democratic primary.

This hardly renders criticism of Israel's government off limits. Far from it. The revulsion that certain elements of the Netanyahu government have generated is deserved, and the revulsion at the present government's acceptance of those elements is equally deserved.

The attacks on Palestinian farmers and villagers by fanatics channeling the Brownshirts of the 1930s are flat out indefensible. If anyone in the Israeli government thinks that Israel's friends should defend them, or could if they wanted to, they are delusional. If Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel's unhinged Minister of National Security, is not a fascist, he is doing one heck of an imitation of one; he and his cohort are besmirching Israel daily, and costing Israel dearly among Democrats who already view President Donald Trump's support of Israel as the deadliest of poison kisses.

Israel will have to suffer the damage being done to its standing by the likes of Ben Gvir at least until its elections in the fall. But Ben Gvir's actions are no excuse for the inanity about Israel on the Left, an inanity so profound that it holds Israel to blame for trying to keep Hezbollah from fulfilling its vow to obliterate it.

This is no time for idiocy. For some Democrats, however, when it comes to Israel, it's already too late.

Jeff Robbins' latest book, "Notes From the Brink: A Collection of Columns about Policy at Home and Abroad," is available now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books and Google Play. Robbins, a former assistant United States attorney and United States delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, was chief counsel for the minority of the United States Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. An attorney specializing in the First Amendment and a longtime columnist, he writes on politics, national security, human rights and the Middle East.