California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, told Politico on Tuesday that he regrets his use of the word “apartheid” to describe Israel.
Newsom was asked if he sees himself as a Zionist. “I revere the state of Israel. I’m proud to support the state of Israel,” he said. “I deeply, deeply oppose Bibi Netanyahu’s leadership, his opposition to the two-state solution and deeply oppose how he is indulging the far-right as it relates to what’s going on in the West Bank.”
Jonathan Martin, of Politico, asked if he regretted using the word “apartheid” in describing Israel.
“I do in this context,” the governor said.
He had said at an event promoting his book that some observers have described Israel “appropriately as sort of an apartheid state” over hardliners in Netanyahu’s coalition wanting to annex Judea and Samaria.
Newsom told Politico that he was referring to a New York Times op-ed by Thomas Friedman expressing concern over the direction of the Israeli government.
“Not the current state?” Martin asked.
“Correct,” Newsom said.
“That is a legitimate concern I have, that I share with Tom—that that direction, if that vision and that direction of the far right that Bibi is indulging, that if they see the full annexation of the West Bank, then that’s not something—that’s a word you may hear others use,” the governor said.
