I think this was news commentary, but I didn’t hear the whole show: just a snippet on my car radio. At any rate, one commenter said this:
“Joe Biden is probably the last Democratic President for generations who will be in favor of Israel.”
One could say that the Democrats are taking a position of neutrality, favoring neither Israel or its opponents (e.g., Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, or Hamas), but I doubt that is the case. The Democratic Party is being taken over by so-called “progressives,” and they are opposed to Israel in general—not just “Zionism” (which means Israel’s existence as a state), and not just Netanyahu. This, according to a poll of Palestinians taken in the West Bank and Gaza two years ago, is who the Democrats are and will be favoring:
According to the poll, only seven percent of Gazans blamed Hamas for their suffering. Seventy-one percent of all Palestinians supported Hamas’s decision to attack Israel on October 7 — up 14 points among Gazans and down 11 points among West Bank Palestinians compared to three months ago. Fifty-nine percent of all Palestinians thought Hamas should rule Gaza, and 70 percent were satisfied with the role Hamas has played during the war.
Before October 7, Fatah would have defeated Hamas in a head-to-head vote of all Palestinians 26 to 22 percent. If elections were held today, Fatah would lose to Hamas 17 to 34 percent. Eighty-one percent of respondents were dissatisfied with Abbas, up from 76 percent before the war. Sixty-two percent did not view the recent resignation of former PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh as a sign of reform. And 65 percent of Palestinians think the PA is a burden on the Palestinian people. Among likely voters, 56 percent supported Marwan Barghouti, who is serving multiple life sentences for his role in the murder of Jews during the Second Intifada. Thirty-two percent supported Qatar-based Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, and 11 percent supported Abbas.
Only 5 percent of Palestinians think Hamas’s massacre on October 7 constitutes a war crime.
The poll was taken by a Palestinian organization, “the Ramallah-based non-profit Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research.” And we have this breakdown of Democratic support (almost nil) from The Arab Center:
On April 15, 2026, the United States Senate considered two resolutions to block nearly $450 million of arms sales to Israel over concerns about human rights violations and the US-Israel war on Iran. With pro-Israel Republicans controlling the Senate, the defeat of these resolutions, introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), was predictable. Indeed, the first resolution, to stop a $295 million sale of bulldozers that Israel has used in the past to destroy civilian homes, lost in a 59-40 vote; the second, to halt a $151 million sale of 12,000 1,000-pound bombs, failed 63-36. The surprise was that more than three-quarters of the 47-member Democratic caucus voted to halt at least one of the sales—an unprecedented number.
Jews were reliably Democratic before the war, and Democrats were reliable friends of Israel. Brothers and sisters, friends and comrades, those days are gone. Democrats are not only ignoring Hamas’s war crimes and avowed desire to destroy Israel, but also favoring an oppressive, misogynistic, and truly genocidal regime against the only democratic state in the Middle East. And no, I don’t think it’s just animus against Netanyahu or “Zionism” that’s motivating this change. I think that Democratic opposition to Israel would be nearly as strong if Israel had some other Prime Minister. And it’s not “Zionism” they oppose, either, for that’s just the new euphemism for “Judaism”, for Zionism is just the recognition of the validity of the state of Israel as a refuge for Jews. (Do these people oppose the many explicitly Muslim states as examples of “Islamism”? If so, I haven’t heard about it.)
Israel (and Jews) are now seen as oppressors in the “oppressor-victim” narrative that’s behind wokeness. And the “oppression” by Israel involves the Two Big Lies: Israel is “genocidal” and “an apartheid state.” (For a refutation of the “genocide” canard go here, and of the “apartheid” canard go here). We are seeing the Democratic Party becoming more antisemitic and anti-Enlightenment. For Democrats like me, this is depressing. I’m not a one-issue candidate but I’m still Jewish, and how am I to vote for someone who is anti-Israel?
I don’t get why you still are a Democrat. Dr., look at the evidence. You seem to have a religious devotion to the Democratic Party as they continue to stomp on your political beliefs. It’s irrational.
Register independent.
Dropping out of a party that you might not align with anymore might seem like a moral choice, or a sign of protest, but it is strategically unwise. With some geographic exceptions, being a member of a party is what allows you to vote in primaries. In this hyper-polarized day and age, that can sometimes be the only vote that matters and the votes of the moderates can dilute the influence of the partisans that all too often have the loudest microphones.
We don’t register by parties in Illinois, so we can vote for anybody in the primaries. I am not a “registered Democrat,” though I’ve always voted the Democratic ticket.
Agreed, Jon–and well said–and agreed, Jerry C–you plainly don’t have a religious devotion to any party or group. Here in GA we also don’t register by party. The problem with staying entirely independent is that often enough not voting in a primary helps the lesser/worse candidate win, to the potential detriment of the whole society
Yes, there are differences from state to state regarding registering to vote, voting in primaries, etc. In Colorado, there are more of us unaffiliated voters than either registered Democrats or Republicans, and interestingly we can choose which primary to cast our votes. We also generally don’t refer to ourselves as independents since there is an American Independent Party.
As I say above, we don’t register by party in illinois, so I’m not a registered Democrat.
I do not appreciate your telling me that I have a religious devotion to Democrats. I just haven’t found a Republican I support, and when a Democratic candidates doesn’t come up to snuff for me, I write in somebody.
Now apologize for calling me “irrational” and “religion.” Jebus.
Ten or twelve years or so ago, I started noticing that anti-Jewish and anti-Israel rhetoric was seeping into quarters that I’d previously always regarded as reliable allies. At first, I thought (or wanted to think?) that these instances were anomalies. But, today, I realize that I am adrift without a political party to support the issues I value. With a few exceptions (e.g., John Fetterman), I no longer trust Democrats, just as I long ago stopped trusting Republicans.
Just from my observation it’s worse than this. This is the young (of all political persuasions) turning against Israel.
Anti-Israel conservative podcasters like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens have huge audiences.
I see huge anti-Israel (or at least anti-Netanyahu) sentiment on the left. But it’s rising on the right too.
Just my observation.
I’m not Jewish but I am, most of the time, a Democrat and a liberal. And I agree with everything Jerry Coyne wrote here. Supporting the misogynistic, anti-individual rights, anti-freedom of conscience Palestinians blindly is a dangerous, foolish mistake. –Ed Buckner, Letters to a Free Country
Good to hear from you, Ed. I also agree. For this issue and others, I no longer consider myself a Democrat. I am a classic liberal and politically Independent.
I’m also getting more comfortable with skipping an election if I feel both candidates are awful in their own way. It’s called not-voting according to your conscience.
I’d urge great care about skipping elections–purity is risky as hell. Perhaps occasionally there’s no serious advantage to one candidate over another–ut only rarely.
I think I have few delusions of purity, but recently I’ve seriously considered not voting in the next parliamentary election. I am really tired of in effect being forced to vote against the greater evils (settling for the lesser ones) rather than voting for something. Until now I have tolerated this as one of my civic responsibilities and my support for pluralistic democracy in principle.
I wish we had a “none of the above” / “no confidence” option to register my displeasure in a way that would actually be counted. Maybe someday? But in the meantime I can console myself somewhat with the statistical fact that my individual vote is very unlikely to make any difference in the outcome; if you disagree with that then I’m happy to argue about it 🙂.
You’re of course correct that your one vote is quite unlikely to matter. But it is nevertheless also true that a large number of voters, each casting a quite-unlikely-to-matter vote can together change an election’s outcome, for better or worse. So I weigh my choices with some care and vote for the lesser of two evils or the better of two goods–and hope others will, too.
It’s a collective-action problem. ISTM I have weighed my choices carefully, and choose “none”. I am not responsible for anyone else’s choices. My agency is limited to exactly one vote, which is very unlikely to matter, at all, for anything. It is true that somebody wins the million-dollar lottery prize, but that’s no good reason to buy a ticket if the expected value is less than its price.
true
Yep. It’s bad. Can it be fixed? I don’t know. It’s in the hands of the next generation at this point, a generation so far removed from the Holocaust that the pull of postmodernism exceeds the pull of the enlightenment. It’s not fashionable to be blatantly antisemitic. And so we have anti-Zionism. And for those unwilling to profess their anti-Zionism, we have the cult of anti-Netanyahu. It’s not difficult to see through these more “fashionable” forms of antisemitism ans anything less than antisemitism.
I don’t care about party; I care about positions. I will not vote for an antisemite or an anti-Zionist.
Bravo Norman, you captured my sentiments and expressed them much better than I could have. Ty.
I completely agree.
Margaret Cho: “I want to believe in Democrats. I am a Democrat, but I also feel like there’s this weird attachment to decorum and taking the high road, and none of that is gonna work. We need somebody — a feral, bloodthirsty, violent Democrat. We just need somebody who is willing to put them all, (Trump and his cabinet) in prison — do the right thing and put them all in prison.”
The only thing that the Democrats need is a capable moderate/centrist candidate who is willing to ditch all the dumb “woke” policies (trans stuff, open borders, identity rather than merit, etc).
The absence (or enforced silence) of such moderates in the US center-Left is a peculiar puzzle. As things are now, it is optimistic to hope that the Dems remain merely neutral in regard to Israel vs. Hamas/Hezbollah. [That “favorable” stance would be like the US Communist Party’s neutrality in regard to Britain vs. Nazi Germany in 1940.] Outright support for Hamas/Hezbollah is now fashionable on the pop-Left. How long may it take for this trend to reach fashion-conscious “progressive” Dems?
Sadly, that’s the zeitgeist. Hasn’t one feral bloodthirsty violent sociopath been enough? It will take decades to recover from the damage that iDJT has done and is still doing. And I have no realistic hope that the next Democrat administration will be more interested in reform than in revenge. Buckle up.
Third Party Time?
My belief is that people’s loathing of Netanyahu is the crux of the tilt towards antisemitism. Some people surely use him as their cover to finally be able to say what they’re kept in the closet for so long, but many people do genuinely think that he is the personification of Israel-As-The-Bad-Guy. Americans played this game in the 2000s with Bush & Cheney playing footsie with the religious right while defending waterboarding and the Iraq War. Along comes Obama and it was night and day. Suddenly America, in popular opinion, was the nice guy again.
My prediction is that when Netanyahu goes, especially if someone more likeable on the international stage takes over, especially especially if said person cracks down on West Bank settlers, and ESPECIALLY if Netanyahu actually gets arrested as was seemingly destined to happen a few years ago, public opinion will shift again, and we will return to the days when antisemitism is no longer something Columbia students find cool. In other words, I believe that time will heal this wound.
My prediction could be sped up if Dems start taking the microphone away from the Mamdanis and Pikers of the world, and Republicans start taking away the microphones of the Tuckers of the world. The more press they get, even if whether that press is condemnatory, the more exposure they get and the more mainstream they appear. When they become reduced to waving a cardboard sign while standing on a milk carton, we’ll all be better off.
I agree, Jon, Netanyahu is certainly a lightening rod for antisemitism, a cover for Palestinian aggression posed as victimhood.
The problem is his policies – which have been very successful (by the metric that Israel is still standing and it isn’t a graveyard of 10 million people) – would need to be implemented by any future PM.
Israel should care less about the idiocy of non-Israeli citizens, Arabs who want to murder it and their useful idiots in the west. Who (and this is gonna get me slapped here I’m sure)… skew quite female if you look at the data or any “protest”, flotilla, yacht, or campus poo encampment.
D.A.
NYC 🗽
No slap from me 🙂. Women do tend to be more nurturing, empathetic, and “nice”.
Netanyahu is of course a bastard. So was Churchill, who is now acknowledged as having been the right bastard in the right place at the right time. We don’t know how history will judge Bibi.
I don’t like to officially align myself with either side because I try to avoid the bias that comes with identifying with a specific “team”. This blog helps me to see problems with the progressive liberal side that I am more closely aligned with. I used to try to find Republicans to vote for also, but since trump/maga I have failed to find anyone rational on that side and I fear that happening on the other side on some issues. I hope someone like Buttigieg is smart enough not to take the irrational side and can gain popularity.
The first time I was shocked by anti-Israel sentiment was when Jimmy Carter published a book in 2006 called – Palestine: Peace not Apartheid. I don’t think this is where it all started, but it definitely legitimated the idea of Israel as an apartheid state and pushed the democrats in that direction.
I think a couple factors are at play for the antisemitism of the Democratic party. One problem is white liberals feeling guilt over the past who see everything through the lens of victimhood and oppression. Another phenomenon I see is an influx of Muslims into the party who undoubtedly hold cultural antisemitic and misogynistic views that get a pass because nobody wants to be considered racist or prejudiced against their religion. It reminds me of the premise of Gad Saad’s book, “Suicidal Empathy: Dying to Be Kind” https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/suicidal-empathy–dying-to-be-kind_gad-saad/57884624/item/87879973/ I appreciate the premise, but haven’t read this one because there’s something about his style that I don’t like, but can’t quite put a finger on.
I view envy and jealousy as powerful emotions dictating much that goes on, whether in life (interpersonal relationships) or geopolitics. Many in the world always have been envious of Israel. People covet what they can’t create or have. No Arab or Islamic state has created what Israel has created.
Well said.
I’m Catholic and 100% pro-Israel. Been a lifelong Democrat but am not going to be voting that way here on out — for one thing I’m a woman and I want to keep my rights, which will end with the Democratic program to continue importing immigrants from countries that hate women, Jews, Christians, gays, etc. etc.
I’m Catholic and 100% pro-Israel. Been a lifelong Democrat but am not going to be voting that way here on out — for one thing I’m a woman and I want to keep my rights, which will end with the Democratic program of importing immigrants from countries that hate women, Jews, Christians, gays, etc. etc.
In the west, where Islam and M.E. politics is little understood, “Palestinism” is a cult, pure and simple. Look at its structure, its ideology, its adherents. In a earlier age they’d be dancing Hare Krshna style around an airport.
Also in the west there is next to no understanding of what Islam is. It is NOT a “religion of peace”, a browner version of Christianity with some odd sorts at the fringes.
Islam is totalitarian, murderous, regressive, deeply expansionist by violence and this is extorted every day in Mosques. It is wildly hostile to the kuffir in general and Jews in specific. Disliking those basic facts aren’t going to make them go away.
D.A.
NYC 🗽
You cant (I mean you can vote for whomever candidate you want), but this policy shift by Democrats is right up there with boys have vaginas. It does not make any sense. The success of Israel is a real embarrassment for the Muslim world, the UN and the global left. Perhaps all “oppressed peoples of the world”, whatever the heck that means, look at the success of Israel and must feel shame since it shows what can be accomplished by a strategy hard work, and not bitterness, anger, envy and handouts. It sounds harsh but that is the only way I can explain this to myself. It just doesn’t make any sense to me.
Based on what I’ve seen, the objection is to the fighting in Gaza.
It’s been a very long fight and many people have been killed. Buildings demolished. This is what people bring up.
Some of the people at those rallies also fly flags of ISIS and images of the late Ayatollah and openly call for the destruction of Israel as well as a global intifada. At least here in Australia that is what I’ve seen.
I’m only reporting what I’ve seen. I’ve read a great many user comments. The people may not be right, but that’s what they’re saying.
The objection to the fighting in Gaza started before there was any fighting in Gaza. The IDF was still trying to run down and capture or kill all the Hamas invaders in Israel when the “Death to the Jews!” crap started. Of course, I’m sure the objections were good-hearted efforts to try to talk the Israelis out of going on the offensive in Gaza by gently reminding them that this would constitute genocide against Muslims.
And what, pray tell, does “River to the Sea / Palestine will be free” mean? They’re not saying “Khirbat Ikhza’a to the Sea / Gaza will be free”, you know.
Here in Australia the “Kill the Jews” rallies began within hours of the Oct. 7 atrocity, most famously on the steps of the Sydney Opera House.
I’ll echo Norm’s position and add one of my own. No matter the rest of their agenda, I will not vote for any antisemite or anti-Zionist—nor for their enablers.
I’m not a one-issue voter. I also refuse to support anyone who promotes the hormonal manipulation, sterilization, or surgical mutilation of confused children; who claims “sex is complicated”; who negates the very idea of a country; who touts equity as the path to human flourishing; or who seeks to silence dissent. These are not ordinary policy disagreements over taxation, welfare, defense, or federalism. They strike at the nature of reality itself—and the freedom to acknowledge it.
I’m far from the first to point out that the old left-right distinctions are no longer the primary ones. In many ways, we are witnessing a postmodern reversion to the premodern—with a performative twist. A resurgent antisemitism is simply one manifestation. And despite all the concerns in WEIT circles over religion and its possible resurgence, religious peoples have at least built flourishing societies despite their flaws. I hold no such hope for the zealots who have captured the political left.
The political Left is captured, generation after generation, by geniuses who have discovered the solutions to every puzzle of human existence. These discoveries have ranged from the arcana of Marxism-Leninism to the word salads of Judith Butler and the recent deepities of DEI. Votaries of these great discoveries are so impressed by their own brilliance in seeing (or hearing about) them that they bend every effort toward imposing the same blinding light on everyone else, as fast as they can manage.