\u201cAt the debate, Scott Wiener refused to call Israel\u2019s indiscriminate killing of women and children in Gaza a genocide,\u201d Julie Edwards, a spokesperson for Chan\u2019s campaign, said in an email. \u201cPeople getting killed didn\u2019t move him, but boos at a forum did. This is about politics, not principle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chakrabarti, who previously served as chief of staff for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and worked on Sanders\u2019 2016 presidential campaign, said the issue is about \u201cmoral clarity.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGenocide shouldn\u2019t be something you say yes or no to based on the reporter you are talking to or how your poll numbers look,\u201d he posted on X after Wiener\u2019s statement on Sunday. \u201cThousands of real people have died and continue to die.\u201d<\/p>\n
The three candidates in last week\u2019s debate shared similar positions on many issues. They all support Medicare for All, believe San Francisco needs more housing, and want stronger protections for immigrants and LGBTQ people.<\/p>\n
But the foreign policy question about Israel and Gaza marked a clear contrast between the candidates and painted Wiener as an outlier.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had to take steps on this, otherwise it was going to be an issue that would haunt him,\u201d said Democratic political consultant Jim Ross, who has worked on several San Francisco campaigns. He added that the senator\u2019s response may not draw many new voters toward Wiener, but it could \u201cinoculate\u201d against a potential campaign crisis. \u201cI think it is an issue that probably will stick around, but with less impact, for the next eight months, 10 months.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/260107-SFCongressionalCandidateForum-24-BL_qed.jpg\")
Candidates running for California\u2019s 11th Congressional District, (from left) Saikat Chakrabarti, state Sen. Scott Wiener and San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan, take part in a forum at UC Law San Francisco on Jan. 7, 2026. (Beth LaBerge\/KQED)<\/p>\n
Wiener\u2019s decision to go further with his language on Israel has sparked criticism from Jewish groups.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe diminishment and weaponization of the term \u2018genocide\u2019 in this context has been deeply painful for our community, given our own historical experiences with the Holocaust,\u201d reads a joint statement from five Jewish groups, including the San Francisco-based Jewish Community Relations Council. \u201cAll too often, those harboring antisemitic views have used the war to justify their hatred of our community\u2026 Framing this conflict in reductionist and inflammatory terms fuels further hostility toward our community.\u201d<\/p>\n
The groups said their statement was not intended to support or oppose any candidate.<\/p>\n
Pro-Palestinian advocacy group Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC) Action said Wiener\u2019s statement marks a positive step.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cAt the debate, Scott Wiener refused to call Israel\u2019s indiscriminate killing of women and children in Gaza a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":512133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[99,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-512132","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-israel","9":"tag-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115885312897192480","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/512133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}