Ds Oppose Israel Because Israel Supports Trump

The bipartisan consensus for Zionism is done.

The US bipartisan consensus on Zionism is dying. Last week almost half of the House Democratic caucus voted to end military aid to Israel; that followed a vote in May in which almost the entire Senate Democratic caucus did the same.

Candidates who oppose Israel aid, and Israel’s wars and genocides, have been winning stunning upsets. Over Trump’s term, Analilia Mejia and Adam Hamawy in New Jersey, Daniel Biss in Illinois, Melat Kiros in Colorado, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Brad Lander, Claire Valdez, and Darializa Avila Chevalier have all defeated Democratic incumbents or won open seats against AIPAC opposition. Currently Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed is doing well in primary polls against Haley Stevens, despite the fact that AIPAC has spent a record-breaking $30 million to defeat him.

This political transformation is often presented by centrist Democrats as a kind of betrayal of Democratic principles and/or as a left insurgent takeover. Neocon James Kirchick sums up this analysis in his Atlantic article titled, “The DSA is a parasite: the left-wing faction is hijacking the Democratic party.” If you poke around social media you’ll also see people declaring that the left hates Democrats, or (more than) implying that these candidates are not really Democrats and therefore cannot really represent the party.

These arguments are confused in a range of ways. I think in particular, Zionist Democrats fail to see that left candidates are winning in part because normie Democrats see AIPAC and Israel as categorically and deliberately opposed to the Democratic party and its values. Politicians who take money from AIPAC, or who endorse Israel without caveats are, in the eyes of primary voters, betraying Democrats.

More, this position is going to be difficult to argue people out of largely because it is true.

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Israel is opposed to Democratic party values

Over the last couple decades, it has slowly dawned on Democratic party voters that Israel’s government and is very right wing. Netanyahu—a far right warmonger, ethnonationalist, and racist—has been the dominant force in Israeli politics for at least 15 years, and arguably for 30. During that same period, under Obama and Biden, Democrats have seen themselves more and more clearly as a party of multi-racial democracy defined by their opposition to an openly racist and fascist movement. You’d have to be pretty dense not to look at Netanyahu and say, “wait, why are we giving this guy guns?”

Democratic voters are not, as it turns out, completely dense. As I discussed here, the party base has been increasingly skeptical of Israel and Zionism. In 2016, 43% of Democrats sympathized more with Israel compared to only 29% saying they sympathized more with Palestinians; in 2018, that number had slipped to 27% of Democrats who said they sympathized with Israel over the Palestinians vs. 25% who said they sympathized with the Palestinians. in 2026, after this most recent horrific stage of Israel’s genocidal policies, only`17% of Democratic voters sympathize with Israelis while 67% of Democrats sympathize with the Palestinians. Over a decade, supporting Israel went from a +14 issue for Democrats to -50.

Again as I’ve mentioned before, progressives sometimes talk about AIPAC as if its power comes from its money and its ability to bribe representatives. But this is not in fact how AIPAC’s power has worked in the past. The org has a lot of resources because there are a lot of rich people (many of them Republicans, by no means all of them Jewish) who find Zionism congenial. But those resources were so effective because Democratic primary voters wanted to elect pro-Israel candidates. AIPAC could run an ad identifying its preferred candidate, and that candidate would cruise to victory because when people knew who AIPAC supported, they wanted to support that candidate too.

Things are very different now after a 64-point swing. AIPAC support is now an anchor because people oppose its goal of funneling more weapons to Israel and fighting for Netanyahu. Democratic voters see Israel as opposed to principles of equality, freedom and antiracism which Democrats (however imperfectly) see as important to their party.

In desperation AIPAC has taken to trying to funnel money through deceptively-named PACS so people don’t realize its backing the candidates it’s backing. But this just makes voters even angrier when reporters unearth the connections (no one likes being played for a fool). And it doesn’t get at the underlying problem, which is not AIPAC itself, but the fact that advocating for unlimited arms so Israel can murder more Palestinians is extremely unpopular with a Democratic electorate that thinks racist mass murder is bad.

Israel is opposed to Democrats

It’s not just that Israel and AIPAC are opposed to the values of Democratic voters. Netanyahu and those who support him have made it increasingly clear that they also flat out oppose Democrats, want the party to lose, and want the US turned over to the fascists.

There was a time when AIPAC and Israel were very careful to avoid partisanship precisely because they wanted both parties onside and did not want Israel policy to be at the whims of the US electorate. Bipartisan advocacy has become more difficult though as the two parties have become more polarized on basically everything. So Netanyahu just shrugged and embraced the GOP.

In 2012 Netanyahu walked up to formally endorsing Mitt Romney; after Obama’s reelection he bypassed the president to lobby Congress against the Iran nuclear deal at the request of then House Speaker John Boehner. His relationship with Trump in his first term was famously enthusiastic. In contrast, he could barely bring himself to congratulate Joe Biden when Democrat’s most ardent Zionist won in 2020. In Trump’s second term, Netanyahu called his fellow fascist thug “the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House”—and then worked with him to start the incredibly ill-conceived and illegal Iran war, which is at 92% disapproval with Democrats.

Israel’s embrace of the fascist GOP doesn’t stop with Netanyahu. Trump is hated across the world, with Israel (at least before the Iran war loss) being just about the only exception—in February he had 76% approval there. And in the US, AIPAC draws huge amounts of funding from Republican sources. It is the biggest source of GOP money going into competitive GOP primaries.

AIPAC claims its nonpartisan and simply takes its donors money and hands them to people on both sides of the aisle who support Israel. But when those who support Israel include those who supported the January 6 insurrection, Democrats can reasonably ask, as many have, what the fuck?

The Republican party is currently attempting, with a good deal of success, to end democracy and impose a fascist authoritarian regime. AIPAC and Israel clearly prefer Republican governance and are trying to boost candidates who want to disenfranchise Democratic voters and end free and fair elections. When they pour money into Democratic primaries, is that really just supporting Israel? Or are they trying to advance their fascist agenda with ratfucking?

This isn’t some bizarre conspiracy theory. J.B. Pritzker, the Jewish billionaire governor of Illinois, used to be an AIPAC donor. But, he says, “It became an organization that was supporting Donald Trump and people who follow Donald Trump.” He added, “AIPAC really is not an organization that I think today I would want any part of.”

Normie Democrats vote left because the left seems like the normie D choice

So, to sum up, Israel is ruled by a far-right asshole who loves Donald Trump. Its populace supports Donald Trump. The group that lobbies for its interests in the US supports Donald Trump and his goons. And all of these—Trump, Israel, AIPAC—embrace a genocide that the Democratic base despises and a brutal illegal war which is the signature policy of the Republican administration. Which Democrats hate.

For normie Democrats who identify as Democrats, it is at this point very clear that supporting Israel means supporting Donald Trump. And normie Democrats absolutely fucking hate Donald Trump. When you, as a Democratic primary candidate, pop up and say you are taking money from Republican donors in order to advance the Israel policies of Donald Trump, Democratic primary voters are going to be pissed off. They are going to feel like you have betrayed them. Even if they support you on other issues, they are going to be tempted to support your opponent, because (again) you are aligning yourself with Donald Trump, and most Democratic primary voters believe (correctly) that Donald Trump is a corrupt genocidal fascist who wants to kill them.

Israel isn’t the only issue in Democratic primaries, obviously, nor is it the most important one. But Zionists in primaries often seem bafflingly eager to raise its salience. Stevens talks a lot about Israel and seems eager to attack El-Sayed on the issue and boast about taking AIPAC money, even though it’s an issue that at this point almost surely damages her.

Stevens does that, presumably, because she believes that the left wing of the party is hated by normie Democrats, and because she thinks that support for Israel is core to normie Democrat identity. Once that was true. But those days are long gone. Right now, normie Democrats think (correctly) that Israel is in league with Trump and Republicans. Normie Democrats vote for candidates opposed to AIPAC not because normie Democrats are committed socialist antizionists (most are not) but because they hate Trump and AIPAC is a partisan Republican org.

No Democrat would run in a Democratic primary touting support from the NRA and opposition to an assault weapon ban because that would be a way to lose. Similarly, support from AIPAC and for unrestricted military aid to Israel is now a serious problem for Democrats in primaries. Stevens and others may win despite this. But Democratic leaders would do well to listen to Demcratic voters, who are sick of being told they need to support the human rights atrocities of a government that has made it clear over and over again that it loves Trump and wants him to rule over us as a king.