To the left, two women repeatedly pushed U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen to stop dodging and say whether he would support a resolution to block $20 billion in arms shipments to Israel.

“It’s up to Congress to provide checks and balances on the Biden administration, and the only way is to stop the weapons and you have the power to do that,” said Cole Breedlove, a volunteer with CodePink and other peace groups.

To the right, a major Democratic Party donor — who counts friends and loved ones among the roughly 250 hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7 — warned of the threat to Israel if that happens.

“I think it’s really important that we stand with Israel and with the American hostages to get them back,” said Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, who was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

In the back of the room, beyond the coffee and bagels, the leader of a nonprofit that works in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel lauded the twisting, turning Maryland Democrat as the rare person who talks to all sides in the Middle East morass.

“He really is sort of a legend over there for people working for peace, because so many Americans, including members of Congress, don’t really get it,” said Alice Cain, executive director of the Moriah Fund.

Van Hollen came to the Almost 7:30 Democratic Club breakfast in Annapolis to talk about politics.

Spread the word, he told the assembled members, on how important younger voters are to electing Democrat Angela Alsobrooks to replace Ben Cardin in the Senate. He wound the stem on twice-told tales — Donald Trump threatens democracy, reproductive rights, people of color, FEMA workers in the hurricane-ravaged South and world peace.

“You know all the differences between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris,” he said, stressing that he considered the coming presidential election the most important in his lifetime “because fundamental issues about the future character of our country and the existence of our democracy are on the line.”

But it was Israel that pressed hardest on him. It’s the issue Democrats can’t agree on, the one that divides them so much that Trump could slip through that crack and return to the White House.

After Hamas killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in a surprise attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, Israel launched an offensive in Gaza that the health ministry says has killed more than 42,000 people, more than half women and children. The Associated Press reports that around 90% of Gaza’s population has been displaced.

Van Hollen came close to anger over Breedlove’s refusal to accept his answer. He will consider U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ resolutions halting military aid because Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack created a humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

She wouldn’t listen as he tried to explain the choices facing Congress after the election, or when he said that he tried to force President Joe Biden to stop the arms using the same rationale as Sanders.

“I’ve been very clear that I am committed to taking action,” he said, as he and Breedlove talked over each other.

His voice calmed when Laszlo Mizrahi talked about her ties to Hersh Goldberg-Polin, the 23-year-old Israeli-American hostage executed by Hamas days after his father spoke at the convention in Chicago. But Van Hollen was no less forceful with his response.

“You should be able to recognize the horror of October 7 and understand that trauma,” he said. “We should also be able to understand the trauma of innocent Palestinians in Gaza. We should be able to have our collective humanity understand it.”

His face turned bright red. Was it the emotion of the discussion, or was the man who is soon to become Maryland’s senior senator blushing at the unexpected compliment from Cain that ended it?

“Alice, thank you for your words,” he told Cain. “Thank you for the work that you’re doing.”

How ironic to have this discussion in Annapolis. In 2007, Israeli and Palestinian Authority leaders met with President George W. Bush at the Naval Academy to pursue a “Roadmap for Peace” through a two-state solution, one for Israel and one for the Palestinian people.

Hope was expressed. We covered it at the newspaper where I worked, but what I mostly remember is delivering boxes of peace-dove cookies — iced white with a green sprig of olive — that my wife had ordered for delegates staying at the hotel where she worked. There was no agreement on a deal, just that one was needed.

Now river-to-the-sea people are on both sides, Israelis and Palestinians who want it all. Among them is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who leads a coalition of radicals and seems ready to settle business with all enemies for good.

Maybe widening Democrats’ divide enough to help Trump, who suggested American Jews owe him for his support of Israel, is a side benefit for him.

Van Hollen boycotted Netanyahu’s summer address to Congress, while Cardin shook his hand. Arab American Democrats may sit out the election to protest U.S. policy and cost Harris a victory.

Democrats are so tied up in this, that a pro-Israel PAC spent millions for the eventual winner of the congressional primary in the 3rd District, Sarah Elfreth. Was it because she visited Israel last year?

“Too many people have used the two-state solution as an idea for future peace and stability, while at the same time, settlements have expanded, outposts have expanded, making a two-state solution — almost in my view, not yet — impossible,” Van Hollen said.

How rare to hear a leading Democrat say Biden — who reportedly disparages Netanyahu as a liar in private but continues to ship more weapons — failed.

“We’ve had this pattern where President Biden says, here’s what I’d like to see, here’s my plan. And time and again, he gets swatted down by Prime Minister Netanyahu, and not just swatted down, but swatted out. And then, and then Netanyahu gets rewarded,” Van Hollen said. “This is the problem. This is the pattern.”

Maybe Van Hollen, far more critical than Cardin of Israel, is a sign that things are changing. But as organizers of the breakfast cleaned up and prepared to leave, neither side was satisfied.

Laszlo Mizrahi, wearing a metal plate inscribed in Hebrew and English with hopes for the hostages, wasn’t.

“I deeply disagree with any movement to restrict Israeli weapons at this point, because I think Israel has a moral obligation to defeat the terrorists.”

Nor was Breedlove, who said Hamas is defending itself against an illegal occupation. “Eventually, people will realize that they really are complicit in the genocide by arming Israel, and they need to stop.”

A breakfast club meeting in Annapolis wasn’t going to end the Democrats’ dilemma. Maybe, like that peace conference 17 years ago, all it could do was illustrate how big the divide truly is.