A slew of Democratic Senate candidates hoping to unseat Republican incumbents in key battleground states came out today against Israeli efforts to annex parts of the West Bank.  

The left-leaning lobby group J Street touted their warnings as part of its ongoing campaign to deter annexation. The rival American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) took the unusual step of greenlighting Democrats to push back against annexation without fear of repercussion, so long as the criticism stops there, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported last week.

“Unilateral Israeli annexation of territory in the West Bank undermines efforts to achieve a two-state solution,” said Jon Ossoff, who hopes to unseat Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., in November. Ossoff said, “A sustainable and humane resolution of conflict can only be achieved by diplomacy. Annexation would represent an abandonment of the peace process established in Oslo in 1993, and it would confirm the failure of contemporary Israeli and Palestinian political leaders to resolve these disputes diplomatically.”

The other Democratic Senate candidates in competitive states to come out against annexation include Cal Cunningham of North Carolina, Jaime Harrison of South Carolina, Amy McGrath of Kentucky, Al Gross of Arkansas, MJ Hegar of Texas, Sara Gideon of Maine, Theresa Greenfield of Iowa and former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, a failed 2020 presidential candidate favored to win the state’s primary against progressive Andrew Romanoff later this month.