Israel divide grows in Democratic Party after New York primaries [View all]

Source: The Hill

The divide over Israel is only deepening in the Democratic Party after New York City’s first democratic socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani, helped propel three primary candidates to victory last week, unseating two incumbent Democrats in the process.

The New York City primaries were unusually focused on Israel, with Mamdani-backed candidates making the issue a central line of attack as they blasted their opponents for being insufficiently critical of the war in Gaza or for taking money from AIPAC-aligned groups.

The Democratic Party now finds itself more divided than ever over its approach to Israel, raising questions about whether there’s room in the party for such divergent positions and whether the results in some of the deepest blue districts in the country could hurt Democratic candidates in purple states heading into the midterm elections.

“When it comes to Israel, it’s absolutely evident that a small but very vocal sector of the Democratic electorate not only is very angry at Israel, but has made it their only issue,” Matt Bennett, co-founder of center-left think tank Third Way, told The Hill.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5943424-new-york-primaries-israel-divide/

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The Third Way co-founder suggests opposition to Israel's actions over the last two-and-a-half years are fueled by the irrational emotion of "anger" and that it represents a "small, but very vocal sector" is undermined by the record-high polling released by Quinnipiac on Wednesday showing 48% of Americans - and 66% of Democrats - calling to limit our support.

I am disappointed by number of disingenuous (that's the nice way to put it) arguments by fellow Democrats in this article framing the issue as "extremists" on the "pro-Hamas wing" with a "socialist obsession" over "a country the size of New Jersey 5,000 miles away." These are the sort of argumentation tools of Republicans, the kind you use when you don't really believe in the correctness of your position but you want to put one over using rhetorical tricks.