Leadership Quote by Howard Berman

Neutrality is often sold as maturity in foreign policy, but Berman treats it as a dodge. Saying it is "wrong" for the U.S. to "not take sides" compresses a whole Washington argument into one blunt moral claim: this conflict is not a coin toss between equivalent claims, and American power always lands somewhere whether it admits it or not. The quotation marks around "not take sides" matter. They signal a familiar posture - the safe-sounding bipartisan language of balance and evenhandedness - and then strip it of innocence. In Berman's framing, neutrality is not restraint; it is abandonment of an ally and a retreat from U.S. leverage.

As a Democratic politician long associated with pro-Israel advocacy in Congress, Berman's intent is also disciplinary. He's speaking less to Jerusalem or Ramallah than to wavering American audiences: colleagues tempted by "both-sides" rhetoric, activists pushing for distance from Israel, and presidents who might treat the relationship as negotiable. The subtext is transactional and strategic: U.S. credibility, regional deterrence, and domestic political cohesion are all supposedly tied to a visible alignment.

Context matters because "not taking sides" is usually invoked when casualties spike or negotiations stall - moments when the public appetite for clarity rises, and so does pressure to soften U.S. identification with Israel. Berman's line functions as a preemptive rebuttal. It insists that the U.S. is not merely a mediator; it is a stakeholder with a preferred outcome, and pretending otherwise is the real bias.