Topline Messages
Security for Israel. Stability for the Middle East. Self-determination for the Palestinian people. Those are the objectives, and they are not in competition with one another.
- None of them can be delivered by one party acting alone. Israel, the Palestinians, Arab states and the United States each have obligations here, and our vision spells out what they are.
- Israel cannot secure itself indefinitely by military means alone, and the United States cannot secure it on Israel’s behalf. There is no Palestinian state without Palestinian institutions capable of running one. There is no durable peace without Israeli leadership willing to preserve the conditions for it. Arab governments that want a stable region have to invest in responsible Palestinian governance rather than wait for someone else to. And American engagement has to outlast a news cycle and an administration.
- Holding Israel to the commitments it has made is consistent with an ironclad commitment to its security. America’s support for Israel’s defense should not be in question, and neither should American candor when Israeli policy damages shared interests or Israel’s own long-term position.
- The leverage argument runs the opposite direction from how it is usually made. Security assistance is what gives the United States a seat inside Israeli defense planning and procurement. Ending it does not generate pressure; it forfeits the access that makes pressure possible.
- Cut everything and defend everything are the two available shortcuts. Neither one is a policy, and neither one makes the Middle East safer.
1. Preserve the Path to Two States through Shared Responsibility:
- We support a secure, Jewish and democratic Israel alongside a viable, demilitarized Palestinian state, with borders, security arrangements and permanent-status questions resolved through negotiation. The alternatives are indefinite conflict or a single state that satisfies neither people.
- October 7 hardened Israeli conviction that withdrawal and statehood create new threats. That conviction is grounded in experience and has to be met with security arrangements rather than assurances.
- Israelis should not be judged by every decision of their government, and Palestinian civilians should not be held accountable for Hamas.
- What each party owes:
- Palestinians: Reject terrorism, support Hamas’s disarmament and removal from power, end pay-to-slay, confront incitement, and build institutions capable of governing. Progress measured against benchmarks rather than asserted.
- Israel: Act against settler violence, preserve the institutional and economic viability of legitimate Palestinian governance, and avoid steps that close off a path to Palestinian statehood.
- Arab states: Invest in responsible Palestinian governance, and pair deeper integration with Israel with steps that keep two states possible.
- The United States: Sustained engagement rather than episodic attention, with normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia as a continuing objective.
Unlike other organizations, DMFI is clear that without the commitment from these four groups, there is no path forward to lasting peace. There is no Palestinian state without credible Palestinian governance, and there is no lasting peace without responsible Israeli leadership. DMFI is the only organization willing to sign both.
2. Modernize the Partnership to Advance American Interests:
- The partnership produces things the United States would otherwise have to build or buy on its own: intelligence on Iran and its proxy network, operational experience that informs American planning, and defense technology developed jointly and fielded by both militaries.
- A capable Israel also means the United States is not the only country absorbing security costs in the region.
- We support full implementation of the current MOU through FY2028. The more consequential question is what follows it. The next agreement should be built around co-development, co-production, missile defense, cyber and intelligence, structured closer to a joint venture than a transfer.
- That evolution should happen deliberately and by mutual agreement, with both countries’ security requirements protected through the transition.
3. Ensure Israel Can Defend Itself:
- Israel has substantially degraded Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran’s broader network. None of them has been eliminated, and the immediate task is preventing reconstitution.
- That requires preserving Israel’s Qualitative Military Edge, timely access to needed capabilities, and continued cooperation on missile and air defense, intelligence and readiness.
- It also requires the United States to say directly when Israeli policy undermines shared interests or Israel’s own long-term security.
- American assistance should be used consistent with American law, and that standard should apply the same way to every country receiving American weapons.
4. Build a Secure and Peaceful Future for Gaza:
- Hamas began this war and built its military infrastructure beneath Palestinian civilians. That does not lessen Israel’s obligation to protect innocent life.
- Humanitarian and recovery assistance should reach civilians quickly and impartially, with safeguards against diversion.
- Recovery should start in areas Hamas no longer controls and expand as disarmament, civilian governance and international oversight take hold. Reconstruction that outpaces demilitarization finances the next war.
- Gaza’s governance belongs within a reformed Palestinian framework covering both Gaza and the West Bank.
Not everyone in this space has been willing to say that Gaza and the West Bank belong under one legitimate Palestinian government. DMFI is.
5. Lead with Strength, Diplomacy, and Democratic Values:
- The damage done to Iran and its network is real and reversible. Preventing reconstitution takes intelligence, diplomacy, economic pressure and deterrence working together.
- When force is used it should serve defined objectives and proceed with congressional authorization and oversight.
- In Lebanon that means disarming Hezbollah and extending state authority throughout the country, consistent with UNSCR 1701. In Syria it means supporting governance stable enough to keep outside actors from operating against Israel from Syrian territory.
- We reject BDS and campaigns to delegitimize Israel. Isolating Israeli universities and research institutions narrows exactly the contact between societies that any eventual settlement depends on.
Conclusion:
Others in this space are defined by what they oppose. We would rather be measured by what we build: security for Israel, stability for the region, self-determination for the Palestinians. That is the work of a Democratic majority in 2027 and a Democratic president in 2029.
Every party in this vision carries obligations that can be named, measured and verified. That is the standard we hold ourselves to, and the one we would apply to anyone else’s plan.
We wrote this as an agenda Democrats can run on and govern with, not as a test to grade them against.