Democratic divisions on Israel come thundering back, in preview of fights to come
By TIM BALK and JENNIFER MEDINA
The midterm elections are ending, as they began, with Democrats fighting about Israel.
The debate returned to center stage late in the pivotal Senate race in Michigan, when Rep. Haley Stevens, who lost the Democratic primary, pulled her endorsement from the winner, Abdul El-Sayed, citing his rhetoric on Israel, among other issues. She stunned and dismayed her fellow Democrats by endorsing the Republican nominee, Mike Rogers, a former member of Congress.
The surprising turn of events the weekend before the election suggested that the party’s divisions over Israel were sure to endure after the new Congress is seated and the party lurches into a wide-open 2028 presidential primary.
Democratic lawmakers and candidates have become more critical of the Israeli government since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, reflecting a broader shift in public opinion within the party. A New York Times/Siena poll found in May that three-quarters of Democratic voters opposed U.S. economic or military support for Israel. But the new, more critical stance has antagonized other members of the Democratic coalition, who have argued against moving too far from a close U.S. ally, and who have warned that criticisms of Israel have at times veered into antisemitism.
The party had hoped to table the debate going into Tuesday’s elections. Instead, it came roaring back.
“It’s an agonizing set of issues,” said Brad Lander, a Jewish New York Democrat who won a House primary this year. Lander, who has accused the Israeli government of genocide in Gaza and campaigned for El-Sayed, added that the “conundrum is likely to continue.”
Lander defeated Rep. Dan Goldman, another Jewish Democrat, in a primary race consumed by the candidates’ positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Goldman, who accepted the endorsement of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel lobbying organization, lost by more than 30 percentage points in a district with a considerable Jewish population.
In the Chicago area, another House primary ended with the two top contenders each declaring that the group wanted them to lose. Ultimately Daniel Biss, a Jewish Democrat, won after opposing unconditional aid for Israel, but he did not accuse Israel of genocide as the runner-up had.
The new Democratic class in the House is poised to be far more skeptical of Israel than previous ones. It is expected to include emphatic critics of Israel’s government, including Darializa Avila Chevalier of New York, a pro-Palestinian progressive who stunned a longtime incumbent in a primary, and Rep. Analilia Mejia of New Jersey, who has accused Israel of genocide and is favored to hold onto the seat she won in a special election this year.
That could present a challenging dynamic for Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, who is seen as likely to become speaker if Democrats win the House. Jeffries has long supported the U.S.-Israel relationship, though he has been fiercely critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. Other House Democrats who have defended the U.S.-Israel alliance, such as Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, have vowed to fight Democrats who portray Israel as a pariah.
Potential 2028 Democratic presidential hopefuls have a wide spectrum of views on Israel.
Those prospective candidates include Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, who accuses Israel of genocide and opposes all U.S. military aid to the country, including for defensive systems; Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia, who is Jewish and says he has family in Israel, has opposed certain weapons transfers to the country, and has stopped short of accusing it of genocide; and Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, a supporter of Israel who in September suggested that El-Sayed was a “fringe” candidate.
In Michigan, Israel had long been at the core of the feud between El-Sayed and Stevens, even as their rupture had been fueled by other factors, including an uneasy personal dynamic and sensitive egos. Last week, Stevens demanded that El-Sayed disavow an ad that she described as antisemitic and called on him to apologize for comments he had made about Israel.
“We can’t stand with hate,” Stevens said as she stood with Rogers near a church in Detroit, pointing in part to support El-Sayed had received from provocative streamer Hasan Piker, a fierce critic of Israel who has made incendiary statements about Jews. “We can’t stand with Hasan Piker.”
Piker said in a text message that Stevens had pulled a “selfish stunt.”
If El-Sayed wins in a swing state with a relatively large Jewish population, it could embolden progressive Democrats who argue their party has moved too slowly to shift its position after the war in Gaza.
Michigan has long been at the center of the debate: The Detroit area is home to one of the largest Arab American populations in the United States and a large Jewish community.
Many Democrats in Michigan have embraced El-Sayed’s forceful criticism of Israel. El-Sayed supports ending U.S. aid to Israel, and has said Israel is “not actually our friend.”
But some Jewish Democrats say they worry his rhetoric will make them less safe.
Andrew Bank, 37, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, said he planned to unhappily vote for El-Sayed. “There are Jewish people who are saying: Can I trust the progressive left side of this party to protect Jews?” he said.
Rabbi Josh Whinston, a Democrat who leads a reform synagogue in Ann Arbor, declined to say how he would vote in the Senate race but said that he thought El-Sayed’s rhetoric had offered a “potential permission for people with radical views to do harm to the Jewish community.”
El-Sayed has said he takes Jewish safety seriously.
“To all of my sisters and brothers of the Jewish faith, or any faith at all, or no faith at all,” he said in a speech after winning the primary, “I want you to know that my commitment to your safety — to Jewish safety — is the same commitment that I have to the safety of my own daughters.”
Lander defended El-Sayed. “I just don’t have any doubt he will show up for Jewish Michiganders,” he said.
On Friday, four days before the election, Gottheimer suggested that the feud between Stevens and El-Sayed was not about Stevens — but about bigger questions facing Democrats.
He called on El-Sayed to condemn the ad from an outside group that bothered Stevens. The video showed a grocery shopper blaming Israel for rising costs of living in America. Addressing El-Sayed, Gottheimer wrote on social media, “You can be for lower costs and stand up to hate at the same time.”
El-Sayed ultimately condemned the ad, saying Saturday that he did “not agree with” its contents. But he has stood firm in his fierce criticism of Israel, declined to disavow Piker and cast Stevens’ criticisms as distractions.
The Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus has declined to endorse him.
