<\/p>\n
Families return to Khan Yunis, southern Gaza, on Oct. 12, 2025, surveying the widespread destruction in the city and salvaging belongings.<\/p>\n
ABDELRAHMAN RASHAD<\/p>\n
AFP via Getty<\/p>\n
Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s latest wiffle-waffle messaging on Israel<\/a> is the Democratic Party\u2019s problem in a nutshell: Even while support for the Palestinian people is now at a two-decade high, party leadership simply cannot get in tune with voters.<\/p>\n During a podcast interview earlier this month, Newsom said that some people \u201care talking about (Israel) appropriately as sort of an apartheid state,\u201d<\/a> referencing a column by New York Times opinion columnist Thomas Friedman, and that \u201cthe current leadership in Israel is walking us down that path where I don\u2019t think you have a choice about that consideration,\u201d referencing continued U.S. military presence support.<\/p>\n But in an interview with Politico earlier this week, Newsom said he regretted using those words \u201cin this context,\u201d and said he \u201crevered\u201d and was \u201cproud to support\u201d Israel.<\/p>\n I just rolled my eyes so hard I think I hurt my optic nerves. It shouldn\u2019t be this hard to call a spade a spade \u2014 or an apartheid an apartheid<\/a>, as it were.<\/p>\n The American public is learning how to say it: According to a recent Gallup poll,<\/a> 41% of Americans now say they sympathize more with the Palestinians, while 36% say they sympathize more with the Israelis.<\/p>\n \u201cThe five-percentage-point difference is not statistically significant, but it contrasts with a clear lead for the Israelis only a year ago (46% vs. 33%) and larger leads over the prior 24 years,\u201d Gallup reported.<\/p>\n Among Democratic voters alone, the divide is even more stark: Gallup found that 65% of Democrats<\/a> say their sympathies lie more with the Palestinians, while just 17% say they sympathize more with the Israelis.<\/p>\n So why are the Democrats struggling to publicly condemn Israel\u2019s military action when support for Palestine is clearly the voters\u2019 will?<\/p>\n Well, if you ask some people, it\u2019s because too many elected Democrats are beholden to AIPAC \u2014 the American Israel Public Affairs Committee \u2014 and their Political Action Committee, which pours millions of dollars in state races<\/a> to promote moderate Democrats over progressives.<\/p>\n AIPAC spent more than $21 million supporting pro-Israel candidates in the Illinois primary election earlier this month, reported ABC News.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIn this election cycle so far, this strategy seems to be, \u2018Let\u2019s go after any candidate who is not blindly pro-Israel,\u2019\u201d Suzanne Chod, a professor at North Central College, told the Chicago ABC affiliate. But final results were mixed: AIPAC-backed candidates in Illinois won in two primaries, and lost in two.<\/a><\/p>\n According to a POLITICO analysis of campaign finance data<\/a>, AIPAC was the biggest source of Republican money flowing into competitive Democratic primaries in 2024, and \u201cnearly half of AIPAC donors to Democratic candidates \u2026(had) some recent history of giving to Republican campaigns or committees.\u201d<\/p>\n The Democratic Party clings to established, moderate, elderly candidates \u2014 the same kind AIPAC loves to support with millions of dollars in campaign funding. But those candidates are the exact same lawmakers who have failed to oppose some of the worst atrocities of the Trump administration, and are failing now to understand that their party base is younger, more liberal and less supportive of Israel<\/a> than they (or their campaign financiers) are.<\/p>\n
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