Experts believe that it is possible that the debate within the Democratic Party over Israel and its frenzied war on the besieged Gaza Strip will reach its peak next summer at the party’s conference in Chicago, as the party faces a major division within it over how to deal with the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

It is noteworthy that party members who criticize America's unconditional support for Israel met in the midst of its war on Gaza to agree on a movement to oppose President Joe Biden in the Democratic Party primaries (this spring) and vote "non-committed" as a protest vote against him. The movement witnessed moderate success and succeeded in sending some delegates to the conference that will be held in Chicago next August.

Some Democrats worry that existing divisions will worsen before the quadrennial convention to choose the party's presidential nominee and approve the party's official campaign platform this summer.

“I think I would be surprised at the convention, for sure, if there were not major protests around the issue of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” Heather Gautney, a member of the 2020 Democratic platform drafting committee, told The Hill election newspaper. “Unfortunately, I don’t think there will be many.” What Biden can do between now and the date of the conference (August 19 to 22, 2024) to change this.”

Referred to as the mother of each party, it formulates its platform every four years before its nominating conventions after an extensive process of setting its policies on all the major issues facing the country. In 2020, then-candidate Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (R-Vermont) agreed to form a series of task forces to bridge the gap between two factions of the Democratic Party after a serious primary battle between them.

Among the task forces developing policy positions on the most important issues, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) created a drafting committee made up of some Biden and Sanders supporters to craft the precise language of the platform. The committee was composed mostly of Biden supporters, but Sanders supporters formed a decent-sized minority.

The committee held some public hearings that included testimony on its proposals, and eventually presented the platform to the DNC for final approval at the convention.

But former members of the drafting committee from past years said a full-scale process may not happen in 2024 because Biden faces no serious opposition to the nomination.

In her statement, Gautney, who is also a sociology professor at Fordham University, said that the Biden campaign may seek to avoid a “public performance” of dissent within the party over the situation in Gaza but may provide an opportunity for “soft debate” about the situation in Gaza.

She said: “I'm not really sure about this year because there is no Bernie Sanders wing at the table this time, and Biden is running uncontested, so there is not a lot of pressure on him.” But there is a rise of the progressive wing within the party that demands holding Israel accountable and cutting off weapons from it, and it is a wing that is increasing. It grows larger with each day that the war continues, “putting Biden in a difficult position with the party divided over the war in Gaza.”

According to experts, Biden was forced to proceed with caution for several months as the number of civilian deaths in Gaza rose amid the Israeli war on the Strip, which has been ongoing since October 7. In a sign of how criticism within the party has become a political headache for him, he issued his harshest criticism yet of the Israeli government's handling of the war to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call the two leaders had on Thursday.

Biden told Netanyahu that US policy on the war would depend on Israel better protecting civilians and humanitarian workers. This call came after an Israeli air strike killed seven World Central Kitchen workers who were serving food to people in Gaza.

Many Democrats in Congress called for placing conditions on additional aid to Israel based on protecting civilians and allowing humanitarian aid to pass through. The internal divisions facing the party can pose a difficult challenge to formulating official policy acceptable to all spectrums of Democrats.

It is noteworthy that the Democratic Party platform for 2020 called for the party’s commitment to Israel’s security and its right to defend itself, while calling for a two-state solution to the conflict and recognition of “the value of every Israeli and every Palestinian.” It also stated that the party opposes any unilateral steps by either side that “undermine the prospects for the two countries."

Gutney told the newspaper that the 2024 platform may seem similar to the 2020 platform because Biden did not deviate much from that language, but the focus may be more on the state of division than the platform itself.

In turn, James Zogby, who participated in drafting many programs in the past election years, said, “I do not think he will focus on the language of the platform... but certainly at the conference I think this is the place where people will express their opinions.” He added that he was not sure what the program's point about Israel would look like, but that he expected it to be "pretty much cooked up as it usually is in the Middle East."

Zogby, who is president of the Arab American Institute, a civil rights advocacy group that advises on policies affecting the Arab American community, said the administration has not held meetings with the community about policy positions. He said they had meetings with Secretary of State Antony Blinken but not with the White House.

“I will continue to hope to change the policy, change the language, change the communication, and make a sincere effort to understand and try to accommodate our concerns,” he said. "I think this is critical for November. I think this is critical just for good policy. But they haven't shown an inclination to do that yet."

Zogby indicated that the administration communicated with Arab American leaders in various states, but the meetings focused more on obtaining their support than discussing policy.

“People came out of those meetings very frustrated, because they wanted to talk about politics, they wanted to talk about a ceasefire, they wanted to talk about aid to Israel,” he added. “There was no discussion about any of these issues.”

Zogby said that he considers himself part of the “Change Biden” group and not the “Abandon Biden” group, but the Abandon Biden movement “is gaining momentum every day” in turning against the president, citing the recent sale of F-35 fighter jets to Israel.

He said all of this could lead to the conference feeling like "another slap in the face" to those frustrated with the administration and lead to protests at the conference.

The potential for noisy protests inside the conference is great, and it will be difficult to stop this. This brings back memories of the anti-Vietnam War protests that rocked the Democratic Convention (also in Chicago) in 1968.

According to what Democratic strategist John Reinisch told the newspaper, “The intensity of the protests will depend on the war stance at the moment, but Biden has changed his tone in the past few days with the killing of World Central Kitchen workers.”

“The current strategy has gone on for too long and no one has won,” he said. "So [Biden] is absolutely right, and I think the party is absolutely right, to acknowledge that and not only to push our ally, but also to show his voters that they recognize the deteriorating facts on the ground," he added.

He said he expected Biden to allow the protests to continue because he did not argue that party members should not express their point of view. He said that the protests taking place at the conference are not necessarily harmful, but he considers Biden's response to the killing of these workers as a "major turning point" to enter a new phase of the war.

“I believe that meaningful facts on the ground, if they are seen appropriately and communicated appropriately, will mean something,” Reinisch said. “Is this going to make everyone who is currently protesting on this issue sit down and say, ‘I’m going to put the megaphone down’? No, but if people see that the facts on the ground are changing toward a more acceptable situation, I think that changes the facts and the levels of protests.”