U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin stood in the House chamber on Wednesday afternoon, waiting for Benjamin Netanyahu.

When the Israeli prime minister entered to minutes of thunderous applause, there were dozens of seats left empty in protest. Perhaps none was more noticeable for Maryland than that of Cardin’s ally and fellow U.S. senator, Chris Van Hollen.

“Well, I will not be there,” the Montgomery County Democrat said Wednesday morning. “I may watch it, or I may not. I may be meeting again with some of the hostage families.”

Few things divide these two Democratic lawmakers. Their offices often put out joint news releases touting their accomplishments together. Then came Netanyahu.

“First of all, Sen. Van Hollen and I are close friends,” Cardin said. “We share a common set of values and commitment to the people of Maryland. … We differ on the way that we view what’s happening in the Middle East.”

That difference leaped into public view Tuesday when Van Hollen gave a fiery speech in the Senate explaining his plan to boycott the rare speech by a foreign leader to American lawmakers. He called on his colleagues to join him in protesting Netanyahu and his conduct of the war in Gaza.

“The actions and words of Prime Minister Netanyahu and his ultra-right extremist coalition, both before and since the Oct. 7, attacks, have weakened the ties between the United States and the government of Israel,” Van Hollen said in the 45-minute address.

After the militant group Hamas massacred at least 1,200 people — mostly civilians — in a surprise attack on Israel and kidnapped another 250 people, Israel launched an offensive that health officials in Gaza say has killed 39,100 Palestinians and displaced much of the population.

“All of us who care about our partnership, both in America and in Israel, should understand the enormous damage that Prime Minister Netanyahu and his current extremist government coalition are doing to our relationship and to Israel’s standing in the world … it sends a terrible message to bring him here now.”

Cardin, a prominent Jewish lawmaker, rejected his call.

“To me, [the speech] presents an opportunity,” he said. “I want to see the hostages released. We’re very close to this.”

I’ve watched these Democrats form an easy partnership ever since Van Hollen moved from the House of Representatives to the Senate in 2017. I’ve observed Cardin, 80, head toward retirement this year and gently hand leadership of Maryland’s delegation in Washington to the 65-year-old Van Hollen.

And I’ve watched the divide over Israel, mostly but not exclusively over its conduct in the war with Hamas, grow in Maryland. You can feel the ground shifting.

“His actions and those of his extremist coalition represent a terrible betrayal of our shared values and our shared interests,” Van Hollen said in his speech. “The damage is being done and the evidence is abundant,” he later added.

I listened as the prime minister dismissed such protests, calling critics like Van Hollen and those protesting outside the building “useful idiots.” He accused them of falling for lies from Hamas and its financial backers in Iran.

“They refuse to make the simple distinction between those who target terrorists and those who target civilians, between the democratic state of Israel and the terrorist thugs of Hamas,” said Netanyahu, a divisive hardliner who has held power for much of the past 15 years.

It’s true that Hamas does not share Western values like individual freedom. But it’s hard to see Van Hollen, who said the prime minister is using Washington to score political points back home, as anyone’s fool.

Like a lot of people, I’ve struggled with the treatment of Palestinians. When my daughter spent a summer studying archaeology in Israel, she thrilled in the ancient land and the courage of the Jewish state’s birth.

She came back with a sense of injustice and the word familiar to anyone who knows American history, segregation.

It’s difficult to have this discussion amid rounds of “whataboutism.” Hamas started this war with a crime against humanity, killing, raping and kidnapping innocents. Israel drags it out with criminal attacks on hospitals and refugees.

How do you ignore the “sheer evil” described by President Joe Biden in coming to Israel’s aid? How can you forget the Jewish settler who said Gaza would make a great beachfront resort? How do we balance the devastation from Israeli tanks, troops, and planes after Oct. 7 with the destruction caused by American tanks, troops, and planes in Iraq and Afghanistan after Sept. 11?

Netanyahu, who directed some of his remarks to the American people, offered his view of what happens if we misunderstand.

“The ability of all democracies to fight terrorism will be imperiled,” he said. “That’s what’s on the line.”

The Holocaust. Pogroms. The Inquisition. The Crusades. The Bible. The Quran. The Torah. The Intifada. We all know this story.

It plays out in Maryland for a good reason. The Jewish community, particularly in Baltimore, is a historic one. The Lloyd Street Synagogue, opened in 1845, is one of the oldest in the United States.

There’s a thread of homegrown antisemitism in the story, starting with the Jewish doctor arrested in 1658 for denying Christianity. Annapolis had a Ku Klux Klan chapter that operated openly in the early 20th century, and those white people-only bay resorts and yacht clubs excluded Jews, too.

It continues today. The ADL found the number of antisemitic acts of vandalism, harassment and assault rose more than 200% in Maryland last year, and that followed an almost 100% increase the year before.

The International Criminal Court has accused both sides of war crimes. Netanyahu sees any criticism of him as inseparable from that of his country and antisemitism in America.

“The outrageous slanders that said Israel is racist and genocidal are meant to delegitimize Israel, to demonize the Jewish state and to demonize Jews everywhere,” he told Congress.

Van Hollen quoted hostage families who said Netanyahu came to Washington to avoid them and the protesters at home. It’s not a surprise that the speech precipitated its own hateful response. Hundreds of thousands watched it on social media, and the comments included both praise and accusations that he hates Jews.

“Well, there are some people that intentionally tried to distort my position and the position of others for their political purposes,” Van Hollen said. “They want to equate being pro-Israel with being pro-Netanyahu and his extremist government.”

This divide comes as America is in one of its most politically divisive moments.

Cardin welcomed Netanyahu while standing next to House Speaker Mike Johnson, a conservative ally of former President Donald Trump. Vice President Kamala Harris, the likely Democratic presidential nominee, and Senate President Pro Tem Patty Murray declined to preside.

Rather than praise Cardin, Johnson took it as a chance to dismiss him for political points.

“They landed on Sen. Cardin, who is retiring and has little political risk,” he told reporters on Tuesday.

It was a disservice to Cardin as a longtime ally of Israel.

“So, the prime minister of Israel coming to the United States for a joint session speech, to me, that reflects the two countries and the closeness of our relationship, not the individual delivering the speech,” he said.

There are politics closer to home, as well. The two candidates seeking to replace Cardin, Democrat Angela Alsobrooks and Republican Larry Hogan, have both made a point of directly courting Maryland’s Jewish voters.

The United States is not Israel. The war is not an existential crisis.

But it is a divide for political rivals, and even for the best of friends.