Much like Republican politicians are grilled on abortion and illegal immigration, a litmus test for Democrats seems to be condemning Israel and its Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for committing “genocide” against the Palestinian people in Gaza.
The public position of some Democrats is to defend Israel’s military campaign against Hamas, and to also condemn civilian casualties, but there is a “river to the sea” wing of the party that views Israel as an illegal “occupier” and Hamas as resistance fighters.
That split was strikingly apparent on Drop Site News, the left-wing podcast, when journalist Jeremy Scahill interviewed Rep. Ro Khanna after the congressman had returned from a visit to Israel and an unauthorized visit to the West Bank border area.
In that eye-opening exchange, Scahill defended Hamas’ October 2023 surprise attack in northern Israel because its armed militants attacked IDF bases on the Israel-Gaza border.
“On Oct. 7, when [Hamas] attacked the military bases in the Gaza envelope, did the Al-Qassam Brigades and Saraya al-Quds have a right to kill Israeli soldiers? Yes or no?" Scahill asked.
"I mean, I think Oct. 7's attack was a terrorist attack, so I don't justify it," Khanna replied.
Even though Hamas slaughtered hundreds of Israeli civilians, Scahill firmly insisted the military bases are legitimate targets and repeated his question: Does Khanna support that attack?
"No, I'm not going to say that Hamas had a right to attack Israeli soldiers or kill Israelis,” the Democrat lawmaker replied. “I don't think that advances peace or advances Palestinian statehood.”
Reacting to his party’s growing anti-Israel stance, Sen. John Fetterman is warning about a “red line” for him if the party fails to defend Israel’s right to defend itself and to even exist as a nation.
“If the Democratic Party becomes official anti-Israel, then that’s when it would force me out,” Fetterman, interviewed by CNN, said last week.
Fetterman’s comment came after more than 100 House Democrats voted to block millions in military aid to Israel, the highest number of “nay” votes ever recorded in a vote over selling military assets to Israel and the IDF.
Another liberal Democrat who is pleading with the party to not abandon Israel is Van Jones, the CNN commentator and former Obama advisor.
“I am tired, tired, tired of a set of people on the very far Left in the Democratic Party,” Jones said, “telling us that in order for us to be progressives, we now have to believe ideas and support ideas that are completely nuts. ‘Israel shouldn't exist.’ These are terrible ideas.”
After making those comments on his Facebook page, Jones stated in an X post the Democratic Party is being “hijacked” by people with “insane, outlandish, and nutty ideas.”
He gave an example, too: New York congressional candidate and DSA member Darializa Chevalier. She wants to abolish police departments, empty the prisons, and eliminate national borders.
“Believe it or not: Chevalier has refused to denounce the terror group Hamas — four times,” Jones wrote. “That’s INSANE — and progressives can’t be afraid to call nonsense like that out.”
In the comments under his post, however, many X users accused Jones of ignoring the left-wing drift of his party years while he remained silent.
Jones himself was outed for his own communist views by Glenn Beck, when Beck was hosting a Fox News show and Jones was working in the Obama administration. Those revelations, such as Jones calling himself a "self-avowed communist," pressured him to step down as the "Green Jobs Czar" in the White House.
