As the partial government shutdown drags on into its 26th day, Congressional Democrats and President Trump remain in a stalemate, lacking a plan to reopen the government anytime soon. Trump has demanded that Congress enact a budget that includes over $5 billion for a wall on the Southern border, a proposal that was central to his 2016 campaign, or seven critical government agencies will continue to be unfunded.

The divisive debate has gone on for almost four weeks now with no end in sight and threatens to seriously imperil the recent economic growth in the United States. As if matters couldn’t get worse, while government employees remain furloughed or continue to work without pay,  the shutdown has raised yet another debate between Senate Democrats and Republicans over an anti-BDS bill introduced last week.

The bill would effectively ban companies who promote BDS, a group focussed on boycotting, divesting from and sanctioning Israel, from partaking in business deals with U.S. state and federal governments. Seems pretty common sense, right? Not for Senate Democrats, apparently, who have blocked the bill (since Senate rules require 60 votes to advance bills or simply debate them), citing the shutdown and the little progress that the negotiations between both sides have produced after nearly a month of gridlock.

The fact of the matter is that the government shutdown, while deeply disappointing and easily avoidable, is completely separate from the anti-BDS bill, which stands up for one of our strongest allies, our closest in the Middle East region and a fervent advocate of democracy abroad.

All Senators, regardless of party, should remain focussed on resolving the shutdown as quickly as possible by finally striking a deal with the President. However, they also need to recognize that the shutdown, which has little chance of being settled soon, is not a reasonable blanket to hide behind when discussing Israel. The truth is that Democrats have taken on a fierce anti-Israel approach in recent years and have failed to mask their opposition to the State of Israel using various excuses, including the shutdown.

Democratic party leaders, such as Senators Charles Schumer of New York, Bernard Sanders of Vermont and Dianne Feinstein of California, all of whom are Jewish, spoke out against the bill. Furthermore, several Democrats in the U.S. House chamber contributed to the Israel bashing session, expressing the party’s blatant and widespread anti-Israel sentiments.

By attempting to cover up their politically-dangerous views regarding Israel, Democrats are actually revealing their true colors and efforts to conceal their intentions to repudiate a steadfast ally of America. It’s time that all Democrats put their true beliefs on display for the American people to judge those actions for themselves and know the truth. I hope the American people, particularly those in the CESJDS community, will see through the Democrats’ hypocrisy and inexcusable opposition to the State of Israel.

There is no doubt that hypocrisy and lies are extremely common trends in U.S. politics among both political parties. But achieving actual progress in times like these with the government shutdown (which Democrats are using as their excuse for obstructing a popular bill) requires that politicians of all stripes place their real beliefs above winning elections and scoring political points.