2026-07-07T09:00:25.481Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/07/politics/israel-democrats-antisemitism-concerns
众议员贝卡·巴林特协助参议员伯尼·桑德斯起草并领导削减美国对以色列武器销售的相关行动，曾发表专栏文章称以色列在加沙的战争是“种族灭绝”，并二十年来自豪地与其他进步人士站在一起。但上周站在国会山台阶上时，巴林特正强忍痛苦，回顾她对国会幕僚发出的警告。
“我知道总有一天会有清算之日，因为我仍然认为犹太人应该拥有家园，”这位佛蒙特州民主党人告诉CNN。“我认为会有一些人，包括我的一些支持者，会转而反对我，因为我仍然支持两国方案。我仍然坚持。我仍然认为以色列应该安全稳定。我相信巴勒斯坦人长期以来受到了如此恶劣的对待，他们理应拥有一个安全稳定的家园。我不认为以色列应该被摧毁。”
巴林特形容自己“深受震撼”，此前她观看了一段视频：加州州参议员斯科特·威纳正在角逐即将退休的众议员南希·佩洛西的席位，却在一场跨性别权利活动中被愤怒的人群驱逐，现场传来愤怒的叫喊声：“你从支持以色列的那一刻起就不再是酷儿了，你这个狗娘养的！”
她描述了一种熟悉的痛苦。就像那些告诉她恐同症不存在，却又问她身为女同性恋意味着什么的人。就像她不愿具名的众议院民主党同事，这位同事曾在一个两党反犹太主义特别工作组会议上说：“我真的不认为现在还有反犹主义，因为所有犹太人都很有钱。”就像那些指责犹太政客有双重忠诚的人。
对许多自由主义者而言，全民医保或遏制气候变化等长期政策优先事项，如今与反对以色列绑定在一起。左翼阵营中日益壮大的一派认为，不存在“除了巴勒斯坦问题之外的进步派”——这句话在2023年10月7日哈马斯袭击以及随后的加沙战争后的几年里流行开来——并将反对以色列视为民主党的试金石。
就在旧金山那场跨性别权利活动的同一天，佐治亚州萨凡纳市，一名女子站在参议员乔恩·奥索夫身后，身穿“保护跨性别儿童”T恤，脖子上围着象征巴勒斯坦身份的凯菲耶赫头巾，头巾上装饰着代表LGBTQ团结的彩虹色。
包括巴林特和威纳在内的许多批评以色列政府的进步犹太领袖认为，当前围绕以色列的一些言论表达正在为反犹主义合理化。他们指出，有人提及犹太或以色列利益通过金钱邪恶地操控政治，或是暗示犹太人并不完全忠于美国或民主价值观。
“当他们说‘我的以色列主人’和‘我的犹太复国主义操控者’时，这清楚地表明了这些人的立场，”威纳告诉CNN。他说，他的手机收到了来自全美各地、对以色列持有各种不同观点的犹太政客，以及一些非犹太民主党人和其他进步人士的大量担忧和声援信息。
众多犹太民主党领袖告诉CNN，威纳被围攻的视频所展现的场景，让“犹太候选人是否应该参选总统”成为了一种常规政治讨论话题。
“许多进步派犹太人感觉自己被挤出了进步派空间，”威纳补充道，他此前拒绝将以色列在加沙的行动称为种族灭绝，如今则改口如此称呼。“不只是我：我经常听到这种说法，非常左倾的犹太人被要求接受这样的试金石：你必须呼吁摧毁以色列，否则你就不是真正的LGBTQ群体成员，在这里不受欢迎。”
纽约市审计长马克·莱文去年在与市长佐赫兰·姆达尼相同的选举中当选，姆达尼曾表示“为巴勒斯坦解放的斗争是我政治理念的核心，并且将继续如此”。姆达尼是美国民主社会主义者组织的成员，该组织呼吁“结束以色列对所有阿拉伯土地的殖民和占领”。
“左翼阵营中当然有一些人如今兴高采烈，感觉自己被纳入了DSA的发展势头，但我认为可以公平地说，许多犹太民主党人，甚至可能是大多数，如今都感到相当孤立，”莱文说。
莱文所在的选区，达里亚利扎·阿维拉·谢瓦利埃以反对以色列控制加沙和约旦河西岸，并将其与纽约的 gentrification（ gentrification译为“绅士化改造”，即高端化改造）联系起来为竞选核心议题，击败了众议员阿德里亚诺·埃斯派利亚特。她将这两种情况归咎于“那些进来声称土地、购买土地并将居住在那里的人赶走的人”。
在阿维拉·谢瓦利埃和另外两名获得姆达尼支持的候选人获胜的几天前，这位市长发表演讲，称美国以色列公共事务委员会（AIPAC）是“怪物”，他们“投入数百万美元的暗钱以实现单一目标：维护他们的权力，这样他们就能让我们互相敌对”。
获得AIPAC支持的埃斯派利亚特成为8天内输掉初选的三名众议院民主党人之一。
纽约州众议员丹·戈德曼在面临对其支持以色列、拒绝将加沙战争称为种族灭绝以及反对姆达尼的批评后，被同样是犹太人的布拉德·兰德击败。科罗拉多州众议员戴安娜·德盖特是任职15届的进步派现任议员，她输给了民主社会主义者梅拉特·基罗斯，后者呼吁实现代际变革。基罗斯还提到，她曾因在10月7日袭击后写下反对以色列存在的信件而被一家律师事务所解雇，但她认为这不应与反犹主义混为一谈。
初选前几天，戈德曼被一家咖啡店拒之门外，店主指责他是“种族灭绝共犯”，资金来自AIPAC。
“身为犹太民主党人的体验是，感觉……无论话题是什么——可以是经济适用房——迟早都会有人将其与以色列联系起来，”莱文说。“试金石议题清单是什么？据我所知，目前这完全是一系列关于以色列的问题。我们是进步派。我们绝对愿意批评以色列现任政府的行动。我们也确实这么做了。但我们如今感觉被许多空间排除在外，很难不得出结论：这是因为我们是犹太人。”
密歇根州众议员诺亚·阿比特援引了2024年针对时任总统兼候选人乔·拜登因加沙战争发起的抗议投票运动。阿比特表示，民主党正濒临出现“‘未承诺’运动的镜像——情况完全相同”。
“我不认为这是右派或左派的问题，”他说。“我认为这是打着批评以色列幌子的美国反犹主义的暴露。”
阿比特曾在西布卢姆菲尔德犹太会堂举行成人礼，并代表该会堂，该会堂于3月遭到袭击，显然是对以色列在黎巴嫩的空袭的报复。他描述了一种超越州议会层面的深刻疏离感。
“卸任公职后，我不确定自己是否还会自称民主党人，”阿比特说。“当基层民众对你和你的社区充满敌意时，我不知道犹太人怎么能觉得自己可以与任何政治运动结盟。”
民主党内部的裂痕在密歇根州表现得最为明显，该州拥有大量犹太人和阿拉伯裔人口，即将举行的开放参议院席位初选对民主党来说是必赢之战。
前县卫生总监阿卜杜勒·埃尔赛义德大量借鉴伯尼·桑德斯的政治理念，包括支持“全民医保”，但也将竞选核心放在攻击AIPAC和批评以色列上，这帮助他赢得了左翼支持。
据AdImpact数据，AIPAC的盟友超级政治行动委员会已承诺至少投入2000万美元，支持众议员黑利·史蒂文斯对抗埃尔赛义德。在州参议员马洛里·麦克莫罗退出竞选后，这场对决于本周末正式形成。
身为埃及裔美国人、穆斯林的埃尔赛义德将人们对以色列的看法与他们如何落实其他进步派优先事项联系起来，称这是一场“道德罗夏克墨迹测验”。
“如果你无法谈及人们对他人所能做出的最恶劣行径，那么当你说你会挺身而出保护自己社区的民众时，就很难让人认真对待，”他告诉CNN。
这一观点让锡安主义组织“Zioness”的创始人兼首席执行官阿曼达·伯曼感到“生理上的、发自内心的反感：我将其视为反犹主义”。
“我的解放运动威胁到了你在美国的医疗保险或粮食安全——这种想法和《锡安长老议定书》一样古老，”伯曼说，她提及了这本20世纪的反犹主义书籍，该书声称揭露了犹太人操控世界的阴谋。这本书最初在俄罗斯出版，最终被纳粹用作灵感来源，如今仍被用于反犹言论。
“你会告诉我轰炸数万名儿童是一场解放运动？这对‘解放’一词的用法真是有趣，”埃尔赛义德在得知这一回应时说道。
埃尔赛义德称，不反对以色列就是被企业主导势力俘虏，害怕AIPAC。他最近告诉Semafor，史蒂文斯“只是一个拥有大量AIPAC银行存款的政客，仅此而已。希望他们能想办法教她如何连贯地说出两句话。”
当被问及他是否认为对以色列的支持不可能与金钱无关时，埃尔赛义德告诉CNN：“如果你是民主党人且相信人权，那就不可能。”当被问及一个人能否既是犹太复国主义者又是进步派时，他说：“每一个犹太国家的定义最终都会表达出一些非自由的价值观，每一个都是如此。”
当CNN的凯西·亨特追问他是否认为以色列有生存权时，他拒绝回答。
“以色列的存在权不是一个问题，”他告诉亨特。“我不会玩这种‘陷阱提问’游戏，讨论它是否有生存权。最终的问题是，我们是否想要一种尊重平等权利的政治。”
史蒂文斯的竞选团队提到了周一在MS NOW节目上的亮相，她在节目中批评唐纳德·特朗普总统和以色列总理本雅明·内塔尼亚胡没有让该地区更接近“长期和平”。
“我和阿卜杜勒之间有区别，”她说。“我支持两国方案。我希望看到巴勒斯坦人民和加沙人民与以色列人民和平共处，并肩而立。他无法认可以色列的生存权。”
当被CNN问及一个人能否既是进步派又相信犹太国家作为犹太家园的存在时，国会进步核心小组主席、德克萨斯州众议员格雷格·卡萨尔直截了当地给出了“可以”的回答。
“如果我们想要促进所有人的安全，并在国内打击反犹主义，那么声称质疑持续的军事资助就是反犹主义或试图颠覆国家，实际上对任何这方面的努力都毫无帮助，”他补充道。“进步派必须，并且一直在强烈反对反犹主义。我们有责任谴责侵犯人权和战争罪行，无论是谁犯下的。”
卡萨尔指出，在德克萨斯州5月的 runoffs（ runoffs译为“决选”）中，他在众议院初选中支持了更温和的约翰尼·加西亚，而非另一位候选人莫琳·加林多，因为加林多曾表示她想将一个移民拘留中心变成“关押美国犹太复国主义者和前移民海关执法局官员的监狱，指控他们犯有人口贩运罪”。
上月在科罗拉多州初选中击败现任议员德盖特的基罗斯，拒绝将博尔德市抗议者被纵火袭击事件称为反犹主义，这些抗议者呼吁哈马斯释放以色列人质。这导致科罗拉多州总检察长菲尔·韦泽在当晚赢得州长提名后，在当地电视采访中表示：“如果有人不承认这一点，我对此感到担忧。”
“这种情况在‘黑人的命也是命’的语境下经常听到。现在我们在说‘犹太人的命也是命’，”韦泽说，他是犹太人，母亲出生在纳粹集中营。
佛蒙特州民主党国会女议员巴林特承认，尽管她相信卡萨尔能够引导其他进步人士，但她试图推动就反犹主义展开更广泛讨论的努力已经失败。
“人们非常害怕在国会内部创造一个可以安全讨论这些问题的空间，因为我们的同事会泄密，会在推特上发言，所以我认为人们真的担心召集人们真正坐下来讨论这些问题会让情况变得更糟，”巴林特告诉CNN。“但我知道这些问题不会自行消失。”
包括前副总统迈克·彭斯和特德·克鲁兹在内的共和党人都曾警告右翼反犹主义抬头，这位得克萨斯州参议员在6月的保守派信仰与自由联盟会议上表示，反犹主义“像癌症一样扩散”，是“生存威胁”。
特朗普不仅在海湖庄园接待了白人至上主义者尼克·富恩特斯，多年来他还模糊了美国犹太人与支持以色列行动之间的界限，从称华盛顿最高级别的犹太官员、参议院少数党领袖查克·舒默为“巴勒斯坦人”，到上周在CNBC采访中表示：“一个犹太人怎么可能投票给民主党，我完全无法理解——我是以色列历史上最好的总统。”
这更让亲以色列的民主党人产生了政治上无家可归的感觉，而就在两年前，CNN出口民调显示，尽管卡玛拉·哈里斯输掉了大选，但她在犹太选民中以78%对特朗普的支持率胜出。今年3月的CNN民调显示，72%的民主党人和民主党倾向的独立人士认为，“美国对以色列的支持程度”问题是导致民主党内部出现问题的分歧点。
哈里斯在2024年确实强力压制了更亲巴勒斯坦的政治声音——她的团队排除了“未承诺”运动在芝加哥的民主党全国代表大会上发言。她的前助手如今表示，部分原因是试图在密歇根州迪尔伯恩等阿拉伯裔美国人聚居区失去支持，与在该州以及宾夕法尼亚州和佐治亚州等其他战场州的犹太选民中失去支持之间找到平衡。
哈里斯可能会在2028年再次参选。政党内部人士和外部人士猜测，可能有多达四名犹太候选人进入白宫竞选阵营：前芝加哥市长、白宫办公厅主任拉姆·伊曼纽尔，奥索夫（已打消参选传言），伊利诺伊州州长JB·普利兹克，以及宾夕法尼亚州州长乔希·夏皮罗。
伊曼纽尔的中间名就是“以色列”，他在4月呼吁停止对以色列的军事援助后，将于周三在特拉维夫发表演讲，呼吁重新审视美以关系。他喜欢说：“民主党没有反犹主义问题——美国有反犹主义问题。”
但当他考虑2028年参选时，伊曼纽尔表示，在讨论犹太人是否能够参选的话题时，需要照镜子的不是他。
“我的信仰不是你的问题。美国人对美国失去了信心，这才是问题所在，也是我们应该努力解决的问题，”他告诉CNN。“如果我的信仰对你来说是个问题，那是你需要解决的问题，而不是我。”
As Israel becomes Democratic litmus test, Jewish progressives warn about a tilt into antisemitism
2026-07-07T09:00:25.481Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/07/politics/israel-democrats-antisemitism-concerns
Rep. Becca Balint helped Sen. Bernie Sanders craft and lead efforts to cut US arms sales to Israel, wrote an op-ed calling Israel’s war in Gaza a “genocide” and has stood proudly with fellow progressives for two decades. But Balint was wincing last week as she stood on the steps of the Capitol, recounting the warning she gave her congressional staff.
“I know at some point there will be a day of reckoning, because I still believe that Jews should have a homeland,” the Vermont Democrat told CNN. “There will be people, I think some of my own supporters, who will turn on me, because I still believe in a two-state solution. I still do. I still believe that Israel should be safe and secure. I believe that the Palestinians have been so ill-treated for so long and deserve a safe and secure homeland. I do not believe Israel should be dismantled.”
Balint described being “shaken to my core” watching the video of Scott Wiener, the California state senator running for retiring Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s seat, recently being hounded out of a transgender rights event with angry shouts including, “You stopped being queer the moment you started supporting Israel, you piece of sh*t!”
She described a familiar ache. Like the people who tell her that homophobia doesn’t exist and then ask her what it means that she’s a lesbian. Like the House Democratic colleague she wouldn’t name who she says came to a bipartisan antisemitism taskforce meeting and said, “I didn’t really think there was any antisemitism anymore, because all the Jews are rich.” Like the people who accuse Jewish politicians of having dual loyalty.
For many liberals, longtime policy priorities like universal healthcare or stopping climate change are now intertwined with opposing Israel. An ascendant faction of the left argues there’s no such thing anymore as “progressive except for Palestine” — a phrase that took off in the years following Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack and the ensuing war in Gaza — and sees opposition to Israel as a Democratic litmus test.
The same day as the trans rights event in San Francisco, a woman stood behind Sen. Jon Ossoff in Savannah, Georgia, wearing a “Protect Trans Kids” T-shirt and a keffiyeh — the scarf associated with Palestinian identity — decorated with the rainbow colors of LGBTQ solidarity.
Many progressive Jewish leaders, including those who are critical of the Israeli government, like Balint and Wiener, see some expressions of sentiment around Israel as rationalizing antisemitism. They point to references to Jewish or Israeli interests nefariously controlling politics with money or suggesting that Jews aren’t fully loyal to America or to Democratic values.
“When they were saying things like my ‘Israeli masters’ and my ‘Zionist handlers,’ that made really clear where these folks were coming from,” Wiener told CNN. He said his phone was flooded messages of concern and solidarity from Jewish politicians from across the country, with a wide range of views on Israel, as well as some non-Jewish Democrats and other progressives.
What the video of Wiener captured, a wide range of Jewish Democratic leaders tell CNN, is why it’s become a conventional political conversation to wonder aloud whether a Jewish candidate should even try to run for president.
“A lot of progressive Jews have felt like we’ve been pushed out of progressive spaces,” added Wiener, who now refers to Israel as having committed genocide in Gaza after previously refusing to do so. “And that’s not just me: I hear that all the time, very lefty Jews who are put to a litmus test that you have to call for Israel’s destruction, or you are not actually LGBTQ and you’re not welcome here.”
Mark Levine, the New York City comptroller, won his office last year in the same election as Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who has said that “the struggle for Palestinian liberation was at the core of my politics and continues to be.” Mamdani is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, which has called for “the end of Israel’s colonization and occupation of all Arab lands.”
“There are certainly folks on the left who are exuberant right now and feel very much included in the DSA momentum, but I think it’s fair to say that many, and probably a majority, of Jewish Democrats are feeling pretty isolated right now,” Levine said.
Levine lives in the district where Darializa Avila Chevalier toppled Rep. Adriano Espaillat by centering her campaign on opposing Israel’s control of Gaza and the West Bank and linking it to gentrification in New York. She blamed both situations on “folks who are coming in, claiming the land and buying it up and kicking the people who are living there out.”
Days before the victories of Avila Chevalier and two other candidates Mamdani backed, the mayor gave a speech calling the American Israel Public Affairs Committee “monsters” who “move millions in dark money to accomplish a single goal, to preserve their power, so that they can turn us against one another.”
Espaillat, who had AIPAC’s support, became one of three House Democrats in eight days to lose primaries.
New York Rep. Dan Goldman was soundly defeated by Brad Lander, who is also Jewish, after facing criticism about his support of Israel, refusal to refer to the war in Gaza as a genocide and his opposition to Mamdani. And Colorado Rep. Diana DeGette, a progressive 15-term incumbent, lost to Melat Kiros, a democratic socialist who called for generational change. Kiros also noted she was fired from a law firm for refusing to take down a letter she wrote after the October 7 attacks opposing the existence of Israel, but argued that this should not be conflated with antisemitism.
Days before his primary, Goldman was banned from a coffee shop whose owners accused him of being a “genocide enabler” who gets his money from AIPAC.
“The experience of being a Jewish Democrat is to feel like … no matter what the topic — it can be affordable housing — it’s just a matter of time before someone links it to Israel,” Levine said. “What is the list of litmus test issues? As far as I know, at this point, it is exclusively a list of questions on Israel. We’re progressives. We’re absolutely willing to criticize the actions of the current government of Israel. And we are. But we’re feeling excluded from many spaces right now, and it’s hard to conclude it’s not because we’re Jewish.”
Michigan state Rep. Noah Arbit invoked the 2024 protest vote effort against then-President and candidate Joe Biden over the war in Gaza. Arbit said the party was on the brink of seeing a “mirror image of the Uncommitted movement — it is exactly the same situation.”
“I don’t see this as a right or left issue,” he said. “I see this as the unmasking of American antisemitism under the guise of criticism of Israel.”
Arbit had his bar mitzvah at and represents the West Bloomfield synagogue that was attacked in March in apparent retaliation for Israeli strikes in Lebanon. He described a deep alienation that goes beyond the statehouse.
“After I leave office, I’m not sure I’ll ever call myself a Democrat again,” Arbit said. “I don’t know how Jews can feel like you can align yourself with any political movement when the grassroots are so hostile to who you are and your community.”
Nowhere is the Democratic fracture more in play than in Michigan, a state with significant Jewish and Arab populations with an upcoming primary for an open Senate seat that’s a must-win for Democrats.
Abdul El-Sayed, a former county health director, is drawing heavily from Bernie Sanders-style politics, including supporting “Medicare for All,” but also centering his campaign on attacking AIPAC and criticizing Israel, which has helped him capture the left.
AIPAC’s allied super PAC has committed at least $20 million so to boosting Rep. Haley Stevens against El-Sayed, according to AdImpact, in what became a head-to-head race this weekend after state Sen. Mallory McMorrow ended her campaign.
El-Sayed, who is Egyptian American and a Muslim, links how people view Israel to how they will deliver on other progressive priorities and called it a “moral Rorschach test.”
“If you can’t speak to the absolute worst thing that people can do to other people, it’s hard to take seriously when you say that you’re going to stand in the cut and be a protector for the people in your own communities,” he told CNN.
That argument gives Amanda Berman, the founder and CEO of Zioness, a group with the tagline “Unabashedly Progressive. Unapologetically Zionist,” what she said is a “physical, visceral reaction: I experience it as antisemitism.”
“The idea that my liberation movement is a threat to your health insurance or food security in America — those ideas are as old as ‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,’” Berman said, citing the 20th century antisemitic book purporting to reveal a conspiracy of Jews running the world. The book was published first in Russia, eventually used by the Nazis as inspiration and is invoked in antisemitic rhetoric today.
“Would you tell me how bombing tens of thousands of children is a liberation movement? That’s an interesting use of the word ‘liberation,’” El-Sayed said when told of that response.
Not opposing Israel, El-Sayed said, is proof of being captive to corporate dominance and afraid of AIPAC. El-Sayed recently told Semafor that Stevens “is a suit with a large AIPAC bank account, that’s it. I hope maybe they find some way to teach her how to string together two coherent sentences.”
Asked whether he believed that support of Israel could not be about money, El-Sayed told CNN, “Not if you’re a Democrat and you believe in human rights.” Asked whether one could be a Zionist and a progressive, he said, “Every definition of a Jewish state ends up in some articulation of illiberal values, every single one.”
He declined when pressed by CNN’s Kasie Hunt to answer whether he believed Israel has a right to exist.
“The question of Israel’s existence is not a question,” he told Hunt. “I’m not going to play this gotcha game about whether or not it has a right to exist. The question, ultimately, is about whether or not we want a politics that dignifies equal rights.”
Stevens’ campaign pointed to a Monday appearance on MS NOW in which she criticized President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for not bringing the region closer to “long-term peace.”
“There is a difference between me and Abdul,” she said. “I believe in a two-state solution. I want to see the people of Palestine and in Gaza live peacefully, side by side, with the people of Israel. He cannot qualify Israel’s right to exist.”
Asked by CNN whether he believes one can be a progressive and believe in a Jewish state as a Jewish homeland, Rep. Greg Casar of Texas, chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, gave a straightforward “yes.”
“If we want to promote safety for all people and fight antisemitism here at home, it actually does no favors to any of that to then say questioning the continued military funding is antisemitic or is trying to take down the nation,” he added. “Progressives have to, and have been, speaking out strongly against antisemitism. And we have a responsibility to speak out against human rights violations and war crimes no matter who commits them.”
Casar noted that in May’s runoff elections in Texas, he endorsed the more moderate Johnny Garcia in a House primary over another candidate, Maureen Galindo, because Galindo said she wanted to turn an immigration detention center into “a prison for American Zionists and former ICE officers for human trafficking.”
Kiros, who defeated incumbent DeGette in last month’s Colorado primaries, declined to call antisemitic the firebombing of protesters in Boulder who were calling on Hamas to release Israeli hostages. That led Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, who won the gubernatorial nomination that same evening, to say in a local TV interview, “If someone isn’t going to acknowledge that, I am concerned about that.”
“You hear it a lot in the context of Black Lives Matter. Now we’re talking Jewish lives matter,” said Weiser, who is Jewish and whose mother was born in a Nazi concentration camp.
Balint, the Vermont Democratic congresswoman, acknowledged her attempts to force a bigger discussion about antisemitism have failed, despite her faith in Casar to guide fellow progressives.
“People are very afraid to create a space within Congress to have a safe conversation about these things, because our colleagues leak and our colleagues go on Twitter, and so I think there has been a real fear that convening people to really talk through these issues is going make it worse,” Balint told CNN. “But I know that these things don’t go away.”
Republicans including former Vice President Mike Pence and Ted Cruz have warned of the rise of antisemitism on the right, with the Texas senator saying at the conservative Faith and Freedom Coalition conference in June it is “spreading like a cancer” and is “an existential threat.”
Trump hasn’t just hosted White nationalist Nick Fuentes at Mar-a-Lago; he’s for years blurred the lines on American Jews and support for Israeli actions, from calling Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish official in Washington, “a Palestinian,” to just last week in a CNBC interview saying, “How a Jewish person can vote for a Democrat is beyond me — I’ve been the best president in the history of Israel.”
That just adds to the feeling of political homelessness for pro-Israel Democrats, just two years after CNN exit polls showed Kamala Harris winning 78% of Jewish voters over Trump even as she lost the election. CNN polling this March found 72% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents said they saw the question of “how supportive of Israel the US should be” as a divide that’s causing problems in the Democratic Party.
Harris did forcefully move against more pro-Palestinian politics in 2024 — with her team excluding the Uncommitted movement from speaking at the party convention in Chicago. Part of why, her old aides now say, was trying to find a balance between losing support in Arab American centers like Dearborn, Michigan, and losing support among Jewish voters in that state and other battlegrounds like Pennsylvania and Georgia.
Harris may run again in 2028. Party insiders and outsiders speculate that as many as four Jewish candidates could also enter the White House field: former Chicago Mayor and White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, Ossoff (who has brushed off talk of a possible bid), Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.
Emanuel, whose middle name is literally Israel, is following up an April call to end US military aid to Israel with a speech in Tel Aviv on Wednesday calling for a larger rethinking of the US-Israel relationship. He likes to say that “the Democratic Party doesn’t have an antisemitism problem — America has an antisemitism problem.”
But as he flirts with a 2028 run, Emanuel said he’s not the one who needs to look in the mirror when the conversation comes up about whether a Jewish person could run.
“My faith is not your issue. It’s a fact that Americans have lost faith in America. That’s the issue and that’s what we should work on,” he told CNN, “and if my faith is an issue to you, that’s something you have to work on, not me.”