Israel, American Jews, and the Left

How we start to bridge the gap

Welcome to my substack newsletter, a place where I will be writing about Israel, the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, the Middle East, the American Jewish Community, U.S. foreign policy, Antisemitism, and other issues as they come up. This is all still very much a work in progress so please bear with me. But in my first piece, I wanted to share my assessment based on my experience as the National Jewish Outreach Director on the Harris-Walz campaign, about the growing gap on Israel issues between the American Jewish Community and the political left and how over time we can start bridging some differences.

For Israelis, Palestinians, Jewish Americans, Arab Americans, Muslim Americans and anyone who cares deeply about Israelis and Palestinians, the last fifteen months have been deeply traumatizing. The last week has brought some relief with the return of Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher, and Emily Damari, and a ceasefire in Gaza with trucks of aid flowing in and people beginning to return to their ruined homes. My hope is that this is the beginning of the end. The return of all the hostages and the end of the war. But let’s not fool ourselves. The months ahead will be trying. Every weekend will bring new anxiety. Will the hostages be released? Will the ceasefire hold? And as we come up on the six week deadline, the situation will become even more fraught. Will ALL of the hostages come out? Will the war truly end? I am optimistic that the answer to these questions is yes (I’ll write about that later this week). But I am far from sure, and it will be touch and go before we get there.

All of us who care deeply about these issues have experienced them differently and will be grappling with October 7th and the war in Gaza for years to come. I experienced the past 15 months first as Vice President Kamala Harris’s Middle East Advisor on October 7th. I spent ten months after that horrible day as part of the team at the White House responding to the crisis. From there in August, I moved over to the Harris-Walz campaign as the National Director for Jewish Outreach, where my job became to be the face of the campaign speaking to an American Jewish community deeply upset by October 7th and questioning if it still had a place in the American political left and in the Democratic Party given the surge in antisemitism in the United States.

Today, the American Jewish community finds itself increasingly isolated. Most American Jews have their political home on the left with more than 70% voting for the Democratic Presidential candidate in every recent election - including 2024 (I’m personally very proud of that number and we worked very hard to hold the Jewish community). On domestic issues such as reproductive rights, income inequality, the environment, and preserving democratic institutions, the preponderance of American Jews associate with the Democratic Party and the American Left.

However, in recent years a gap has grown between American Jews and their progressive allies on the issue of Israel. Jews who as a minority that have long experienced antisemitism and only two generations ago went through the horrors of the holocaust, remain strongly supportive of Israel and believe it must exist as a Jewish state. Many others on the American left, have become increasingly concerned about Palestinian rights, and see the Israel-Palestinian conflict through a civil rights lens with Israel as the oppressor. Prior to October 7th, this gap could be bridged or at least papered over.

In the aftermath of October 7th, the gap has become a chasm. Many of the loudest voices on the left have gone beyond legitimate criticism of Israel's response to October 7. They have ignored the horrors of the October 7th attacks, the plight of Israeli hostages, and Hamas’s role in causing the suffering in Gaza. In many instances they have veered into antisemitism, targeted American Jews for the Israeli government’s actions, called for the destruction of the state of Israel, expressed support for Hamas, and excluded Jews from progressive spaces that they have long been part of. Nowhere has this phenomenon been more apparent than on college campuses.

Meanwhile, the loudest voices in the Jewish community have doubled down on support for an extreme right wing Israeli government and for policies in the West Bank and Gaza that are often inconsistent with liberal Jewish and liberal Zionist values. They have failed to acknowledge that Israel bears much of the responsibility for Palestinian suffering in Gaza. They have equated any criticism of Israel with antisemitism, shutting down legitimate debate. In that process they have also ignored or normalized growing antisemitism on the right as we saw earlier this week with the near-defeaening silence in response to Elon Musk’s Nazi salute.

If these trends continue, most American Jews will find themselves increasingly isolated politically in the United States with a home on neither the left nor the right and facing higher levels of antisemitism from both.

The good news is that what I found through my experience on the campaign and over the past year is that, when you start having real conversations with most American Jews and most people who care about these issues - especially on the left - they quickly begin to acknowledge the complexities and contradictions. I cannot tell you how many times I heard, “ I don’t like Bibi but we must support Israel” or “ What is happening to Palestinian civilians in Gaza is awful but Israel must be safe.” This is where I believe the overwhelming majority of pro-Israel, pro-Palestinian rights, pro-democracy Americans are, both in the Jewish community and more broadly.

What is necessary today is a concerted effort to rebuild a unified vision on the American center-left that can bridge the growing gap between American Jews and their traditional political allies. A vision that can support Israel’s right to exist as a secure Jewish democratic state while also ensuring Palestinian rights. A vision that acknowledges the horrors of October 7th and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. A vision that supports free speech on college campuses, and lays down a clear red line when it comes to antisemitism. If the ceasefire and hostage deal hold, the moment is ripe to begin building this consensus. I hope this space along with my writings for the Contrarian can contribute to the dialogue.

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