An American politician considering a run for president recently leveled harsh criticism against Israel’s government while still supporting the U.S.-Israel alliance. Rahm Emanuel, the Jewish chief of staff for former President Barack Obama’s administration and a former mayor of Chicago, used a speech at Tel Aviv University to argue that American support of Israel should no longer be unconditional.
The reaction split sharply: Progressives welcomed his criticism; conservatives and other supporters of Israel condemned the audacity of an American lecturing Israelis on their own soil about leaders they democratically elect.
Emanuel’s speech comes as extremists in the Democratic and Republican parties are increasingly hostile toward the U.S.-Israel alliance. Too often, anti-Israel rhetoric crosses the line into anti-Jewish hatred.
That line is not hard to find. Criticizing a government’s policies is legitimate, and Israelis regularly disagree with their own leaders. Holding the Jewish people accountable for Israel’s actions or denying the country’s right to exist is not legitimate criticism. It is the world’s oldest hatred in a new disguise.
Political candidates call for imprisoning ‘Zionists’
Israel has become a litmus test in national, state and local elections. Some candidates are open about their real target: Jews.
Texas congressional candidate Maureen Galindo pledged to turn an immigration processing center into a “prison for American Zionists” and a “castration processing center for pedophiles, which will probably be most of the Zionists.”
A Zionist is anyone who supports Israel’s existence. Galindo won the most votes in the first round of the Democratic primary for a U.S. House seat that covers parts of San Antonio, but lost the runoff. She also claimed that Zionists are not real Jews.
In California, Republican gubernatorial candidate Alicia Lapp made a similar demand. She won just 0.1% of the primary vote after calling for the deportation of “every single Zionist.”
Members of the Democratic Socialists of America have made significant inroads into the Democratic Party, and condemning Israel is a major part of their platform. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is one of the most prominent DSA politicians in office.
In a 2017 rap video, he referenced “My love to the Holy Land Five,” convicted by a federal jury for sending $12 million to Hamas. He also repeatedly refused to condemn the phrase “Globalize the intifada” on “Meet the Press” last year when he was still a candidate. The intifada refers to repeated terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians, while globalizing it is a call to attack Jews around the world.
DSA candidates who share his views recently won Democratic primaries in long-held party strongholds from New York to Colorado. In New York, U.S. House candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier doubled down on her attendance at a pro-Hamas rally a day after the Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
The hostility is not confined to the DSA. In Michigan, progressive Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed branded Israel a “rogue state.”
In Colorado, Melat Kiros ousted a 15-term incumbent in a primary race for a U.S. House seat. She called Oct. 7 “inevitable.” A leading state Democrat criticized Kiros for refusing to call last summer’s deadly firebombing in Boulder on a group of people rallying to release Israeli hostages in Gaza antisemitic. Newly published research finds that American liberals are more tolerant of antisemitism when statements are framed as criticism of Israel.
The isolationist wing of the Republican Party is also a growing concern. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has long opposed all foreign aid, including to Israel, and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) was the lone vote cast against resolutions condemning antisemitism in 2022 and 2025.
Recently, Vice President JD Vance publicly warned Israeli leaders not to criticize the now-unraveling U.S.-Iran deal or risk losing American military aid. Some on the far right align with the “America Only” movement that blends isolationism, Christian nationalism and antisemitism.
Israelis constantly criticize their government
Israel is a vibrant democracy and many Israelis have strongly displayed their right to protest, filling the streets week after week in recent years to protest judicial overhaul; the fate of the hostages held in the Gaza Strip; and whether or not the current government should remain in power. Polls routinely show many Israelis are dissatisfied with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Israeli pundits and opposition politicians challenge his decisions daily.
That criticism does not stop at Israel’s borders. American officials across both parties, along with politicians in other countries, regularly fault specific Israeli policies—anti-terrorism measures, dialogue with Palestinians, judiciary changes—without treating it as an attack on Jews.
Many countries have agreed on where the line falls between criticism of Israel and antisemitism. The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism plainly states that “criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.” The definition has been adopted by 47 countries, in addition to hundreds of governments, cities and institutions around the world.
Both parties push back
The extremists are ascendant, but they are not going unanswered—and the pushback is coming from inside both parties. In New York, Democrat Rep. Ritchie Torres, a staunch defender of Israel, beat back primary challengers from the DSA’s slate with 72% of the vote.
Democratic leaders have begun to break their silence. Rep. Adam Smith (D-Washington), a senior House Democrat, told JNS that the far left uses “threats, harassment and intimidation” to force its socialist agenda on the party. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and New Jersey Rep. Josh Gottheimer have pressed their colleagues to condemn antisemitism in Democratic ranks. Emanuel, whose father fought in Israel’s 1948 War of Independence, has harshly criticized the Israeli government, though firmly defended the country’s right to exist.
The political right has its own reckoning. A new organization aligned with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was launched to confront antisemitism on the political right. Its task grew harder with the recent passing of Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, one of Israel’s most steadfast defenders in Congress. His sudden death silences a leading voice for the U.S.-Israel alliance just as the isolationist wing is gaining ground.
The response is real, but so is the threat. The litmus test is spreading, and each election brings new candidates willing to challenge Israel’s right to exist.
Points to consider:
1. Criticizing any government is legitimate.
Every democracy demands debate, and Israel is no exception. Israelis protest their own leaders in the street and online. Many Democratic and Republican politicians routinely find fault with specific Israeli policies without anyone calling it bigotry, while also making clear their strong support for the U.S.-Israel alliance and Israel’s right to defend itself. Disagreeing with a government’s policy decisions is normal political dispute, not hatred.
2. Anti-Jewish hatred is being disguised as hatred of Israel.
Far-left candidates have called to imprison “Zionists” and denied Israel’s right to exist. The far right, “America Only” fringe spreads open conspiracies about Jewish power. Both use “Israel” or “Zionist” as cover for the oldest hatred. When “Zionist” becomes a slur for “Jew,” the target is no longer a government; it is a people. When someone attacks Israel’s policies and then reaches for slurs against Jews, the mask slips and bigotry is exposed for the world to see.
3. No grievance with a government justifies dehumanizing a people.
No anger at any country’s actions can excuse vilifying an entire people. This is as true for Israel and Jewish Americans as it is true for Palestinians and Palestinian Americans, Russia and Russian Americans, or any other group. Anyone who answers a political grievance by dehumanizing a whole people should be condemned for it without exception.
4. Israel is judged by a double standard like no other nation.
Israel’s loudest critics hold it to a standard they apply nowhere else. The same activists and candidates who brand Israel a “rogue state” say nothing of Turkey’s 52-year occupation of northern Cyprus, China’s mass detention of Uyghur Muslims or a war in Sudan that has killed as many as 400,000 people. A recent New York Times editorial noted that Sudan’s catastrophe draws a fraction of the attention paid to Israel. Reserving outrage for the world’s one Jewish state while ignoring atrocities elsewhere is not principle but prejudice.
5. More political voices are needed to counter extremists.
Extremists are loud, organized and increasingly willing to test candidates on Israel. Leaders in both parties have begun to answer—from Democrats condemning antisemitism in their ranks to a new conservative effort against anti-Jewish hate on the right. The defeat of extremist primary candidates and the recent loss of longtime Israel ally Lindsey Graham make those voices more necessary than ever.
