In response to Zohran Mamdani’s decisive win, the mainstream media is finally beginning to acknowledge that Democratic voters have turned on Israel.

Despite his decisive primary victory and impressive campaign, many Democratic lawmakers are refusing to endorse Zohran Mamdani and are spreading baseless lies and smears in the process.

Many big-name Democrats continue to profess their admiration and support for Israel and its fascistic leaders despite the country’s cratering support among party voters.

A new report from Americans for Justice in Palestine Action documents that the “rightwing Zionist” lobby spent $70 million in 2022 to knock off critics of Israel, and warn politicians “to not object to Israel’s crimes.” That big money explains why Joe Biden and Kirsten Gillibrand gush over Benjamin Netanyahu in the runup to 2024 reelection campaigns.

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken visited Israel and things went exactly as one might expect. There were the usual public comments about the Biden administration’s ironclad support for the country, the standard denunciations of Palestine violence paired with tepid criticisms of Israeli state violence, and (of course) some references to the two-state solution. However, the context of the trip makes the same old song and dance seem a bit more ridiculous.

Democratic candidates for president love to criticize Netanyahu, but they don’t offer specifics on stopping him. Kirsten Gillibrand wants to hold Israel accountable for barring congresswomen from visiting, Bernie Sanders wants to leverage US aid “to end some of the racism that we have recently seen in Israel,” and Elizabeth Warren says, “Push hard.” But none of them has a plan.

Larry Wolf, a New York musician, got involved in Palestinian solidarity for the first time in his late 60s when he heard high school classmates justify the 2014 Israeli onslaught on Gaza because Palestinians were terrorists and monsters. Now he is an activist. “Palestinians need equal rights– that’s the whole purpose of my getting involved– and there’s still a strong feeling that Judaism is at risk of losing itself, if it hasn’t already,” he says.

Senate Republicans were able to stop an amendment that would have required President Trump to seek congressional approval for an attack on Iran, despite the fact that the majority of votes were cast in support of the measure. Then Republicans passed a measure assuring that Trump’s hands would not be tied, as Sen. Mitt Romney put it, in taking on Iran.

Democratic candidates assail Trump’s Iran policy, while Miriam Adelson hails it in biblical terms at an Israeli conference alongside Netanyahu. But journalists never ask Trump whether his biggest donors, the Adelsons, are pushing war because they fear it will stoke anti-Semitism.

Pete Buttigieg is the most critical of Israel in a NYT forum, saying, “Israel’s human rights record is problematic and moving in the wrong direction under the current right-wing government.” Most Dems bend over backwards not to criticize Israel. Elizabeth Warren is surprisingly supportive: “Israel is in a really tough neighborhood.”