In an interview with the New York Times editorial board Amy Klobuchar also cited her strong record of pro-Israel votes in the Senate. “I still think that they are in a really tough neighborhood in a really dangerous position,” she explained, “And made worse by what Trump just did with Syria because now Iran has a foothold there.”

After the Trump administration killed Democratic Iran’s top general Qassem Suleimani in a targeted drone strike, the Democratic presidential candidates rushed to condemn the action. However, nearly every statement reiterated Trump’s justification for the strike: that Suleimani was an evil terrorist and murderer.

As he becomes a mainstream contender, Pete Buttigieg has shifted on the Israel Palestine issue. After saying directly that he would seek to condition aid to Israel if the country moves toward annexing the West Bank, the South Bend Mayor dodged this question entirely at the last debate, offering platitudes about the need for U.S. “leadership” in the world. 

Takeaway from the latest Democratic debate: the Israel brand is not so popular in the Democratic Party. The embraces were lukewarm. Bernie Sanders said Benjamin Netanyahu is a racist and if elected, Sanders would have an even-handed policy, including being “pro-Palestinian.” Joe Biden was the only candidate to laud the “Jewish state” but he said Netanyahu’s actions in the West Bank are “outrageous.”

Critics are starting to smear Bernie Sanders as antisemitic in the same manner that Jeremy Corbyn was attacked in the U.K. Shelby Shoup says we have to learn from Labour’s failure to categorically reject the conflation of antisemitism and anti-Zionism (or even mere criticism of Israel) or we are doomed to repeat their mistakes and succumb to the smear campaign. We cannot shy away from centering Palestinian freedom in our movement.

“In terms of Bernie and others who talk about dealing with Zionism, I strongly support Israel as an independent Jewish state,” said Biden, “The idea that I’d withdraw military aid, as others have suggested, from Israel, is bizarre. I would not do that. It’s like saying to France, ’Because you don’t agree with us, we’re going to kick you out of NATO.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is facing a primary challenge from New York City Councilman Fernando Cabrera, a centrist who was a registered Republican up until 2008. In an interview, Cabrera says he was inspired to run in response to Ocasio-Cortez’s “embrace of socialism” and her views towards Israel. “Even more than specific issues, like BDS, it’s the culture that she’s trying to shape that I think would be detrimental to the Jewish community,” said Cabrera.

Numerous polls suggest that support for Israel is weakening among Democratic voters. Among Democrats, sympathy for Israel is weaker than it was before Mr. Netanyahu took office in 2009. A Gallup poll from earlier this year asked voters whether they were inclined to support Israel or Palestine and found that just 43% of Democrats are partial to Israel. That’s the lowest number in 14 years. A recent Data for Progress poll found that 65% of Democratic voters support conditioning military aid to Israel in response to its human rights record. An October report from the centrist Center for American Progress ended up with an even higher number when they posed the question: 71% of Democratic voters support such a move.

Bernie Sanders’s call for reciprocity for Palestinians and Israelis in understanding the others’ narrative actually erases the Palestinian experience of Zionism and imposes a Zionist frame on the history of the conflict, Joseph Levine writes. Sanders’s concern for the “just claims” of Israeli Jews turns the moral and historical facts of the case upside down and show the incompatibility of his democratic Socialism and his Zionism.

Former Massachusetts Governor (and managing director of private equity firm Bain Capital) Deval Patrick is running for president. While Patrick’s connections to the financial industry will presumably anger left-leaning voters, his foreign policy record should also rankle progressives.