Democratic Fissure over Israel Hits a Moderate Swing State

Yomiuri Shimbun

2 days ago

Democrats in North Carolina are engaged in a bitter fight after the state party condemned Israel for 'apartheid rule,' exposing an internal rift in a moderate swing state that is festering nationally and could complicate the party's plans for the 2026 midterm elections.
The narrow approval of a strongly worded party resolution late last month calling for an arms embargo on the U.S. ally comes after two other state parties adopted similar measures and Democratic voters in New York chose a longtime critic of Israel as their nominee for mayor. A crowded Senate primary in Michigan, where many Democrats withheld their votes to protest Israel policy during last year's presidential primary, could open another avenue for the party's disputes to emerge.
The disparate places where the debate is flaring – Southern and Midwestern states as well as deep-blue coastal cities – reveal a deepening tension between the party's base and its elected leaders. Some are warning that the intractable foreign policy issue threatens to distract the party from developing a coherent message about the economy and other issues that connect with the largest swath of voters.
'Any time Democrats are dealing with this issue, they're not working on electing other Democrats,' said Amy Block DeLoach, a vice president of the Jewish caucus of the North Carolina Democratic Party. 'It's a problem.'
The state party's executive committee passed the resolution June 28, the same weekend Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) broke with President Donald Trump on his tax and immigration bill and announced he would not run for a third term. Democrats seized on the announcement but didn't put as much attention on it as they otherwise might have because they were still squabbling with one another over the Israel resolution.
Trump has offered near-unconditional support to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing government, claiming last year that any Jewish person who votes for Democrats 'hates their religion,' while using a broad fight against antisemitism to clamp down on universities and protesters.
Internal Democratic divisions over Israel hampered party unity and depressed young voter enthusiasm during last year's presidential campaign as Israel struck back at Hamas for its surprise attack on Oct. 7, 2023. Critics of Israel occupied college campuses across the United States. Demonstrators heckled Democratic candidates. Activists called for Democrats to cast protest votes during the presidential primaries.
In Michigan, more than 100,000 Democrats – 13 percent of primary voters – declared themselves 'uncommitted' in the state's presidential primary to signal their displeasure with President Joe Biden's policy on Israel. Trump went on to win Michigan and every other battleground state.
Democrats' differences over Israel have continued to smolder. They ignited last month as some Democrats expressed dismay that their party nominated Zohran Mamdani for mayor of New York. Mamdani, who is Muslim, declined to condemn the slogan 'globalize the intifada,' which some Jews view as a call to violence against them and many Palestinians see as support for their struggle for a homeland. Critics have called such language particularly troubling after Jews were attacked in D.C., Boulder and elsewhere.
Republicans have had their own intraparty fights over Israel and the United States' role on the world stage, particularly after Trump authorized the bombing of Iran last month. Trump announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran soon afterward and hosted Netanyahu at the White House this week as he sought a ceasefire in Gaza.
In a March poll by the Pew Research Center, 53 percent of U.S. adults expressed an unfavorable opinion of Israel, up from 42 percent in March 2022, before the conflict began. Democrats had a worse view of Israel than Republicans, with 69 percent of Democrats expressing an unfavorable opinion compared with 37 percent of Republicans.
Democrats in a May survey by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs gave Israel an average rating of 41 on a 100-point scale, an 11-point decline since 2022 and the lowest rating in 47 years of polling. More than two-thirds of Democrats said the United States should not take a side in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, 20 percent said it should take the Palestinians' side and 10 percent said it should take Israel's side.
Reem Subei, who heads the Arab caucus of the North Carolina Democratic Party, said she pushed for the arms embargo resolution because it is not only morally correct but also sound politics.
'We see this as an issue that is uniting and bringing in more voters to the Democratic Party,' Subei said. 'This vote here at [the] North Carolina Democratic Party is an invitation to those that have walked away from the party or have walked away from voting altogether in the past election.'
Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, disputed such claims, noting that Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-New York) and Cori Bush (D-Missouri) lost their primaries last year to candidates who backed Israel. Soifer's group supported their opponents, as did the super PAC of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
'It's actually this resolution that is more the outlier than anything else,' Soifer said of the North Carolina measure.
At least two other state parties have passed resolutions similar to North Carolina's, though in more measured tones. The Wisconsin Democratic Party adopted one last month that said its base is 'overwhelmingly supportive of restricting weapons to Israel.' The Washington State Democratic Party approved one last year that called on the state's congressional delegation to demand that military assistance to Israel fully comply with a law that bars aid to countries that violate human rights.
The resolution in North Carolina said the state party supports 'an immediate embargo on all military aid, weapons shipments and military logistical support to Israel' that should remain in place until Amnesty International and other rights groups 'certify that Israel is no longer engaged in apartheid rule.' Supporters said the party's executive committee approved it 161-151; opponents said they believed there were three more votes against the measure but acknowledged it had passed by a small margin.
The resolution is nonbinding, and opponents said its only effect was to put the Democrats' infighting on display. Democratic candidates and officeholders won't change their positions on Israel, and the resolution takes energy from campaigning against Republicans, said former congresswoman Kathy Manning (D-North Carolina), chair of the Democratic Majority for Israel.
Supporters of the resolution need to reflect on what happened when opponents of aid to Israel gained momentum during Michigan's presidential primary, she said. 'The end result in part is Donald Trump won the state of Michigan,' Manning said. 'And how are people feeling about that?
Republicans, meanwhile, are reveling in the Democrats' divisions and painting them as opposing the United States' chief ally in the Middle East. 'The radical Left continues to drive misguided anti-Israel and America Last policies,' Matt Mercer, a spokesman for the North Carolina Republican Party, said in a statement.
North Carolina's Senate race is viewed as one of Democrats' best opportunities for picking up a seat next year, and Democrats have been energized by Tillis' decision to retire. Former congressman Wiley Nickel entered the Democratic primary in April, and party members are waiting to see whether former governor Roy Cooper also gets in the race.
Nickel called the party resolution 'extreme' and said cutting off defensive weapons to Israel would amount to a 'death sentence for thousands.' In the House, Nickel voted for a bipartisan aid package for Israel and against a Republican one, and said he takes a nuanced view on U.S. policy there. 'If I were in the U.S. Senate right now, with what I see from Netanyahu and Trump, I would be hard-pressed to vote for some offensive weapons to Israel,' he said.
Cooper, who has won five statewide elections, would be the instant front-runner in the Democratic primary, and Nickel said he would have to decide whether to stay in the race if Cooper got in. Cooper, who declined to comment, has not had to take a detailed position on Israel because he hasn't served in Congress, and the party could avoid a messy primary clash over Israel if he clears the field.
That may not be true in Michigan, where four Democrats are vying for the nomination to replace Sen. Gary Peters (D), who is retiring. The candidates include Rep. Haley Stevens, a longtime champion of Israel, and Abdul El-Sayed, the former health director of Wayne County who has described Israel's actions in Gaza as genocide.
Before the Senate primaries play out, Mamdani will stand for election this fall in New York's general election. That will offer a test of how his views on Israel play in an overwhelmingly Democratic city with the largest Jewish population in the world outside of Israel.
Mamdani received the most primary votes for mayor in the city's history, but party leaders did not rally around him. Instead, several moderate Democrats came out against him.
Rep. Laura Gillen (D-New York) called Mamdani 'too extreme to lead New York City' on X. Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-New York), who had endorsed former New York governor Andrew M. Cuomo in the mayor's race, said he had 'serious concerns' about Mamdani. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York) told a popular New York City radio host that some of her constituents were 'alarmed' by some of Mamdani's statements, 'particularly references to global jihad.' She later apologized for mischaracterizing his comments.
Supporters of the North Carolina resolution said Democrats in Congress were out of touch with ordinary voters. Young voters are taking a fresh look at the party because of the resolution, said Mark Bochkis, who belongs to a group of Jewish progressives in the state party that backs the resolution.
'The danger,' he said, 'is in the party not recognizing where its electorate is going.'