A political earthquake shook New York City on Tuesday night, and it is about to reverberate throughout the entire Democratic Party. Democratic Socialist candidates won a trio of House primaries, each backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Senator Bernie Sanders. More than any other issue, these upstarts are united by their opposition to Israel and to U.S. support for the Jewish state. That position has quickly become a litmus test for Democratic candidates across the country.
How did a party that was recently open to the Israeli alliance turn so hard, and so fast? Below, Mark Halperin, a veteran political journalist and editor-in-chief of the live interactive video platform 2WAY, offers one of the best and most thorough answers we’ve heard to that confounding question.
—The Editors
Over the past three decades, a big part of my job has been to answer tough questions about America through the prism of politics. By talking to sources, citizens, officials, and leaders, and through research and analysis, I generally can provide a reasonable and reliable response.
But for the past several years, I have come up short on one question: How did opposition to Israel become the toxic litmus test in Democratic Party politics—so rapidly, so emotionally, and so completely?
Tuesday’s stunning House primary results in New York City are only the latest illustration of this reality. They do not make the mystery any easier to solve.
We could invite a thousand investigative reporters and a thousand social analysts with a thousand keyboards to a thousand Free Press Supper Club events, and I am not sure we would get to the bottom of it. But here is my best attempt.
The explanations fall into two categories: the structural and the visceral.
The structural factors are easier to identify and more comfortable to discuss in polite company.
