Israel divide grows in Democratic Party after New York primaries

Campaign Israel divide grows in Democratic Party after New York primaries Comments: by Sarah Fortinsky - 06/28/26 6:00 AM ET Comments: Link copied by Sarah Fortinsky - 06/28/26 6:00 AM ET Comments: Link copied

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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.

“There’s no doubt that this issue is roiling the party right now,” he added.

In several primary races, Israel became a litmus test for Democrats, as insurgent campaigns sought to capitalize on progressive voters’ frustration with the war in Gaza.

In New York’s 10th Congressional District, former New York City comptroller Brad Lander made Israel a defining issue of his campaign, repeatedly calling on incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) to label Israel’s military action in Gaza a “genocide.”

But Goldman, who has otherwise been critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, refused to do so.

“If I lose because of that, then so be it,” Goldman told CNN’s Laura Coates before the results came in. “I’ll wake up on Wednesday morning, and I will proudly look myself in the mirror and know that I stood with my values and my morals, and that I still have my integrity, and that’s much more important to me.”

Goldman used his concession speech Tuesday night to address antisemitism and urge his party to remain united, telling his supporters, “The Democratic Party has always been at its strongest when it has welcomed a broad coalition of voices.”

Elsewhere in New York City, Mamdani endorsed two other democratic socialist candidates with critical views of Israel.

Community organizer Darializa Avila Chevalier successfully ousted Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.), the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. New York Assembly member Claire Valdez, meanwhile, won an open primary to succeed retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.), who backed a different candidate in the race.

Mamdani did not make endorsements in any other races, prompting questions about the reach of his political influence and what the results say about the direction of the Democratic Party.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), who backed the incumbent candidates Mamdani helped unseat, sought to tamp down on concerns that the popularity of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) candidates in New York reflects a broader shift within the party.

“There are 215 members of the House,” Jeffries said earlier this week. “A handful of primaries that go in one direction or the other in a given state or two aren’t going to reshape who we are as House Democrats.”

Jeffries also acknowledged sharp disagreements with Mamdani over the endorsements, saying the two New Yorkers “strongly disagree about some of his endorsements, and he’s got work to do in terms of the conversations that he’s going to have with members of Congress moving forward.”

Still, the results exposed a widening divide within the Democratic Party over Israel and the direction of the party.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) on Thursday said he has “profound differences” with Avila Chevalier, while Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) called the candidates “outrageous” and referred to them as a “pro-Hamas wing … just declaring a war on just regular Democrats.”

Longtime Democratic strategist James Carville went so far as to say Avila Chevalier should not be seated in the Democratic caucus because “her views are totally against anything that any Democrat has.”

On the other side, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) praised Valdez for having “a clear moral vision on foreign policy,” saying the “progressive movement is on the ascendancy.”

Some say the results should serve as a wake-up call for Democrats.

“I think that it’s becoming a bigger issue that the party needs to deal with more comprehensively than, like, ‘If I don’t talk about it, it doesn’t happen,’ because it’s a corporate issue with all these PACs pouring in a lot of money. That’s giving people a really bad taste in their mouth,” Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.) told The Hill.

Moderate Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) argued Democrats opposed to the DSA movement have failed to organize as effectively as the left.

“People who do not support the Democratic Socialists of America wring their hands at cocktail parties while the DSA is organizing. It’s time to wake up,” Suozzi told CNN’s Dana Bash this week.

“It’s time for a great deal of hard work to out-organize the extremists on the right and the left,” he added.

Veteran Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf agreed that the DSA candidates “ran much better campaigns,” but said Israel still played a clear role in the New York primaries.

“The fact that Israel, a country the size of New Jersey 5,000 miles away, has become the centerpiece of the socialist obsession… is pretty significant,” Sheinkopf told The Hill.

Jeffries and other Democratic leaders stressed the need for the party to come together and focus on winning in November.

Asked about the role Israel might have played in the New York primaries, Jeffries told MS NOW’s Jen Psaki, “I think for us, as House Democrats, we’re just hopeful that everybody recognizes once we get through this primary season, that the enemy is Donald Trump and MAGA extremism.”

Morris Katz, top adviser to Mamdani and other Democratic candidates, framed the New York City wins as confirmation that people want to “turn the page on a politics of big money and small ideas” and embrace an affordability message.

“If other Democrats don’t want to take lessons away from that, that’s up to them. But I think it follows a pattern we’re seeing across the country of a deep hunger for outsider candidates who are going to challenge the status quo, who are going to challenge a broken establishment, and who are not just going to take the fight to Donald Trump,” Katz told CNN this week.

Katz also insisted that DSA candidates do not just resist money from AIPAC-aligned groups but from all big money groups, including those connected to cryptocurrency and private equity. He said the shift in the electorate “is less driven by a unilateral focus on Israel and more focused on them picking up on the dishonesty of the politics that comes with it.”

Compared to Mamdani’s campaign, however, strategists note that Israel appeared more frequently in the recent primaries. Mamdani faced criticism for his stance on Israel but led a disciplined campaign with a message focused on affordability and cost of living.

“The question of what was decisive for the voters that put the DSA people over the top I think is a little trickier than it might have been. It’s not a broad-based ideological battle,” Bennett said. ”[Israel] was kind of a signpost for a lot of these voters about where they ought to go.”

“They were chanting ‘River to the Sea’ at the victory parties for these people,” he added, referring to an anti-Israel chant. “When they chant that at your victory, you can be pretty sure that your most fervent supporters care about that above all else.”