Do you condemn Israel?

Last month, as the moderators of the final debate in New York City’s Democratic primary began a section asking candidates about antisemitism, I was reading the breaking news that the Trump administration, using Israeli intelligence (that our government doubted) had just bombed Iran. It was a familiar dissonance.

In the world around me, there were plenty of debatable consequences from our tight partnership with Israel. In Democratic politics, the assumption was that questioning the relationship—responding to these events—was tantamount to hate.

Over the past two years, voters have seen the US’s lonstanding alliance with Israel lead to the US aiding indiscriminate bombings and killing in Gaza; mostly silence on apartheid enforced by settler violence in the West Bank; and, now, the implementation of mass starvation—children, emaciated, dying in their mother’s arms—created by an Israeli blockade on aid and a US-backed humitarian firm. Horrified, Democrats look up. And they watch on TV their party, still seemingly living in another era of politics, ask its candidates: Do you condemn Hamas?

Years of this has been disorienting. But the tone, it seems, is changing.

Since Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic primary in New York City, and as the famine in Gaza becomes more acute, there has been a shift. “Between the carnage in Gaza and the apartheid in the West Bank, it is virtually impossible to exist firmly on the American left,” Ross Barkan wrote in New York and argue Israel’s actions are “defensible.”

Even some moderates are finally critiquing Israel. Former President Barack Obama called for the “cessation of Israel’s military operations.” Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-New York), an arch defender of the Jewish state, has begun to speak about the suffering of Palestinians. In perhaps the clearest sign of a potential shift, on Wednesday, 27 Democrats voted for Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) resolution to block the sale of thousands of guns to Israel. This included swing-state politicians up for re-election in 2026.

This is not a full-blown evolution. One should not expect to see the Democratic Party suddenly shed its past. It was not even a year ago when a Palestinian speaker, who was eager to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris, was disallowed from speaking at the DNC. And it is impossible to forget just how fiercely President Joe Biden backed Israel—both in the White House and before that as a senator.

But it does seem that, even among centrists, some memo has come down to change course. Suddenly, one can see a flock of insiders in the party eager to say that what is happening in Gaza is wrong. (Their ability to blame Israel for this horror? Well…)

If liberal American sentiment continues to rapidly change at this pace, it is not impossible to imagine that the Democratic Party, especially in its most left-leaning races, would litmus test its candidates in the exact opposite manner as it has in the past. “Do you condemn Israel’s genocide in Gaza?” a moderator may ask. Or, more pointedly for the 2028 presidential primary, “Do you believe Palestine has a right to exist?” Canada, France, and the United Kingdom have all taken steps to recognize a state. Would you? Will you?

It is worth stopping a moment to realize how radical a shift that is from the past. The Democrats are catching up with the reality of the past few yers. Somehow, finally, even politicians cannot deny death.

Still, I would not hold out for such a massive upheaval of norms. The dissonance of the base demanding something from Democrats and the party half-listening before shifting to election year doom (we must band together to stop Republicans, pipe down and get in line—but only our moderate line, we won’t change!) is still the standard. I am sure there is a way to make statements of anger at children’s deaths—18,000 of them—without condemning Israel. But, then again, for how long? The truth is beating back. And, as Democrats ask about antisemitism alienating voters on TV, many are looking down at their phone to show many more Palestinians have died.