Dem Jewish pols get pressured on Israel
When President Trump authorized U.S. military strikes against Iran in coordination with Israel, condemnations resonated within the Democratic Party. Leaders like former Vice President Kamala Harris and California Gov. Gavin Newsom denounced the move as reckless and unconstitutional, and many presented it as yet another example of U.S. policy being geared toward Israel’s interests.
In today’s Democratic politics, positions perceived as aligned with Israel are no longer neutral. They are increasingly treated as ideological signals and political risks.
New Gallup data highlights just how abrupt this shift has been. Democrats’ sympathy for Israelis has fallen to 17%, the lowest level on record, while 65% now sympathize with Palestinians. The party’s unpublished post-election autopsy concluded that Harris lost significant support in 2024 due to the Biden administration’s approach to Gaza, according to Axios.
In such an environment, supporting Israel, whether in Gaza or in a confrontation with Iran, is no longer a basic democratic position; it’s a calculation. For aspiring Jewish Democratic politicians, this calculation carries particular weight. Does the Democratic Party still have room for Zionists?
Historically, a Jewish Democrat’s support for Israel was a political non-event. For those elected, this required no qualifications and even less any excuses. It was a moral and strategic principle, embedded in the DNA of the Democratic Party, alongside labor rights, minority protections, and a postwar commitment to Democratic allies.
American Jews were actively engaged in Democratic politics for much of the 20th century. Jewish leaders grew through the labor movement, helped found and lead unions, and became the architects of the New Deal coalition.
But today, Jewish candidates and officials face a frightening new reality: Has unqualified support for the Jewish state become disqualifying within the Democratic Party?
What is being tested today is not loyalty to any particular Israeli government; it is about whether support for Israel’s legitimacy, security, and continued role as a U.S. ally itself becomes suspect within Democratic politics.
However, for a majority of American Jews, the U.S.-Israel relationship is not simply a foreign policy platform. It’s history, it’s people, and it’s essential to Jewish survival.
As hostility toward Israel hardens within the progressive left, Jewish leaders see the conditions of belonging within their political home quietly changing.
When Scott Wiener, a progressive Democratic state senator from San Francisco who is running for Nancy Pelosi’s congressional seat, was first asked whether Israel’s actions in Gaza constituted genocide, Wiener refused to answer. Days later, after a backlash, Wiener backtracked, releasing a video calling Israel’s actions genocide.
Nothing has changed in 48 hours, but Weiner has given up any moral clarity in a political environment that increasingly punishes Jews who refuse to distance themselves from Israel.
In April 2024, as encampments invaded campuses and Jewish students faced intimidation, harassment, and physical attacks, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro spoke clearly. Universities failed to protect Jews, he said. That clarity followed him into Harris’ campaign’s vice presidential selection process. By Shapiro’s own account, Harris herself urged him to soften his remarks. He refused.
He also revealed that he had been asked if he had ever served as an Israeli agent, reviving an old slander about dual Jewish loyalties. In his memoir, Shapiro writes that he wonders if these questions are addressed only to him, the only Jewish candidate, or to everyone.
The Democratic Party was built on the principle that no citizen should have to check their ID at the door. This principle must also extend to Jewish and Zionist politicians.
Karsh is a six-time Emmy Award-nominated multimedia journalist and board member of the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles.
