When war threatens – or starts – in the Mideast, blaming Israel has become fashionable. And Democratic politicians have gotten the memo.
The example of California Governor and political weathervane Gavin Newsom is illustrative. Newsom visited Israel shortly after October 7 to show solidarity but now sounds like a leftist in his attacks on the Jewish state. The Democrats’ 2028 presidential frontrunner clearly concluded that joining the anti-Israel bandwagon is crucial for winning his party’s base – and he’s not alone. Elected Democrats are increasingly stigmatizing and scapegoating Israel and its US supporters.
Asked about accepting money from AIPAC during a February podcast, Newsom replied, “Never have and never will.”
In reality, AIPAC stays out of state and local races regardless but needn’t help the new Newsom’s federal campaign.
On the “Pod Save America” podcast last week, Newsom made real headlines. He said New York Times columnist Thomas “Friedman and others are talking about [Israel] appropriately as sort of an apartheid state.” He added, “it breaks my heart because the current leadership in Israel is walking us down that path where I don’t think you have a choice but to have ”military aid reconsidered”. As for the current war, the “influence” of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “who’s trying to stay out of jail” is “pretty damn self-evident” given "where Trump ultimately landed on” Iran, he said.
California’s Jewish leadership subsequently sought “clarification” of Newsom's comments. The comments may be disappointing but they are rather clear.
Another example is Democratic Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego. He also has national ambitions and is likewise abandoning his liberal image when it comes to Israel. He started the month of March by posting on X, “When the bill comes to pay for the replenishment of interceptors and munitions the middle eastern countries [sic] that we have been protecting need to pay for it,” calling this “a war of choice and not in our interest.” The next day, Gallego posted in response to Secretary of State Rubio’s discussing Iran’s “imminent threat” to the US: “So Netanyahu now decides when we go to war? So much for America First.”
That night on Chris Hayes’ cable news channel MS NOW, Mediate reported Gallego accused American leaders of “following Netanyahu who has literally told us ... that he’s been trying to do this for 47 years. ... I suffered the first attempt at this in 2005 [as a Marine in Iraq].” Gallego added, “There’s a lot of ways that we could defend Israel’s existence, its sovereignty. I’m 100% for that. But we don’t need to go to war for them, especially when it’s a dumb war.”
FoxNews reported Gallego added that America should have withheld intelligence and bombs if Israel planned to attack Iran. “Instead, [the Trump administration] said, ‘You know what? We’re going to go with you.’”
California Representative Sara Jacobs, who is Jewish, also blamed Israel for supposedly dragging the US into the conflict with Iran. Jacobs tweeted, “this is an unnecessary war of choice. Israel forced our hand … And instead of talking Israel out of going to war, President Trump went along with it and put US lives at risk.”
Meanwhile, long-standing anti-Israel Democrats haven’t relented either. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who is Jewish and supported votes to withhold weapons from Israel mid-war, issued a statement tying President Donald Trump to the Democrats’ least favourite international leader:
“President Trump, along with his right-wing extremist Israeli ally Benjamin Netanyahu, has begun an illegal, premeditated and unconstitutional war. Tragically, Trump is gambling with American lives and treasure to fulfil Netanyahu’s decades-long ambition of dragging the United States into armed conflict with Iran.”
At J Street’s recent national conference, the Forward reported that Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen said, “We should not be sending America into war for the political ambitions of Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Saudi Crown Prince.” Jewish Insider described how Van Hollen attacked AIPAC for opposing his effort to add new conditions to aid for Israel in the middle of a war, telling J Street: “I will tell you that AIPAC may call itself pro-American. They may call themselves pro-Israel. But they are neither.”
In truth, AIPAC is simply an organisation of American citizens who value the US-Israel relationship.
Leveraging the increasing vilification of AIPAC, The New York Times recently ran a hit piece on AIPAC-backed New York Congressman Daniel Goldman, who faces a Mamdani-supporting primary challenger. Under the headline, “Congressman Faces Questions About Wife’s Social Media Stances on Israel,” The Times “exposed” Mrs. Goldman’s social media activity in the aftermath of October 7, when she liked posts criticizing pro-Palestinian activists, noting that she met her husband “at an AIPAC event in 2012”.
Antizionist and conspiratorial messaging sells these days and so ambitious Democratic politicians willingly sacrifice Israel for their career advancement.
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