I agree with Hillary Clinton. Yup, I said it.

Anti-Zionist sentiment is running rampant on the Democratic Party’s left. Hillary Clinton says they don't know their history. What's happened to the Democrats?

Hillary Clinton and I have had a tortured relationship up to now—listening to her, for me, was torture. For much of our admittedly one-sided relationship we have disagreed. Before Thursday morning I would have though it more likely I’d win the billion dollar Powerball, but here I am, unabashedly singing Hillary’s praises.

What you are about to hear —well read—is something I NEVER thought I’d say—so here goes: Hillary you are RIGHT! OK, not “right,” like the political right, but “correct.”

Standing up for Israel these days, as well as to the many clueless college campus protesters chanting ignorant (and if not ignorant, then antisemitic) slogans like “From the River to the Sea,” or “By Any Means Necessary,” threatens to make one a pariah of the new left. It has left many left-leaning political and social leaders looking for ways to stand down, rather than stand up, for Israel.

During an interview Thursday with Joe Scarborough of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Clinton scolded college campus protestors, saying they “don’t know very much” about the history of the Middle East. “I have had many conversations, as you have had, with a lot of young people over the last many months now,” she told Scarborough. “They don’t know very much at all about the history of the Middle East, or frankly about history, in many areas of the world, including in our own country.”

So a shout-out to her—despite our many differences—for pointing out that ignorance is fueling much of the anti-Israeli protest movement, as well as the failure of college leaders to step in when protests got out of hand.

Hillary should know—she teaches at Columbia University. Back in November, according to the New York Times, about 30 students (out of a class of 300) walked out of her class in protest “saying the Israeli government bore responsibility for the war.” She’s also had a front-row seat to much of the modern Israeli-Palestinian conflict, both as Secretary of State and from inside the White House itself.

Her husband—you might remember him, former President Bill Clinton—was the force behind the Camp David Summit in 2000, which for the briefest of moments produced an agreement that encompassed both Israeli acceptance of a Palestinian state and Palestinian acceptance of a Jewish one. Ultimately, the agreement fizzled when Yasir Arafat, the then leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (not the Prime Minister of Israel as some students believe), reneged on the deal because, according to Hillary Clinton, he thought he’d be killed by Hamas extremists.

The collapse of the Camp David Summit, according to the former Secretary of State, was "one of the great tragedies of history,” pointing out that if Arafat and the PLO had stuck to the deal a Palestinian state would have now existed for decades.

Not surprisingly few major media outlets initially picked up the Clinton story, though predictably there was backlash from the left, especially on social media. Her comments revealed a significant fracture, if not an all out break, within the Democratic Party over Zionism—leaving some to suggest that Democrats are abandoning the Jews.

Pushback to Clinton’s comments didn’t just come from social media. During an appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation” this Sunday morning, US Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, called Clinton’s comments “dismissive” of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and opined that an overwhelming majority of students “do understand” what’s happening “with respect to civilian casualties.”

But Van Hollen misrepresented—or misunderstood—Clinton’s remarks. She was not saying, nor implying, that students don’t understand the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. She WAS saying that by equating Zionism with genocide—or rejecting Zionism altogether—they are uniformed, perhaps intentionally, about the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Once Upon a Time, in the Democratic Party…

Once upon a time the Democratic Party was THE party of Jewish causes like Zionism and antisemitism. What’s happened to the Democrats?

Many of the Israeli-Palestinian peace initiatives have been spearheaded by Democrat Presidents. For example, the 1978 Egypt-Israel peace agreement, brokered by Jimmy Carter, where Egypt recognized Israel’s right to exist. Or the 1994 and 1996 Oslo Accords, pursued by Bill Clinton, where the PLO pledged to recognize the Jewish state in return for Israel’s acceptance of a two-state solution—as well as the just mentioned failed Camp David Summit in 2000.

At the very moment that Hamas was invading Israel, the Biden Administration was sponsoring negotiations between Israel and Saudi Arabia to normalize diplomatic relations between the two powerful Middle Eastern nations—negotiations which have since collapsed in the wake of the war. Many have speculated that the timing of the Hamas invasion was meant to derail any rapprochement between the Saudis and Israelis.

Normalized relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, and with it the explicit recognition of Israel, would likely have sent Israeli and Arab history on a very different course, a trajectory towards a wider peace in the Middle East that Hamas (and its sponsor Iran) rejects.

Is the "Right" right for American Jews?

According to the Pew Research Center, “Jews are among the most consistently liberal and Democratic groups in the U.S. population. Seven-in-ten Jewish adults identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party, and half describe their political views as liberal.”

Yet despite decades of Jewish voters supporting Democratic candidates, some Democrats—particularly young Democrats—led by the party’s far left, are abandoning Zionism and are instead embracing anti-Zionist slogans like “From the River to the Sea,” or calling Israelis “occupiers” and Israel an “apartheid” state. Some see this as heretofore latent antisemitism among younger, progressive, Americans. A recent Gallup poll reports that “Young adults show the biggest decline in ratings of Israel, dropping from 64% favorable among 18- to 34-year-olds in 2023 to 38%.”

But it’s not just the youngest progressives. Back in November 2023, in the still raw aftermath of the Hamas invasion, former President Barack Obama referred to Jewish Israelis as “occupiers.” Squad members Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Jamaal Bowman and Rashida Tlaib, among others, have been harshly critical of Israel and of the Israeli response to Hamas’ brutal invasion.

Ironically for Jewish voters, Pew reports, in a survey released in August 2023, “Republicans and Republican-leaning independents were more likely than Democrats and Democratic leaners to have a positive view of Israel (71% vs. 44%). Conservative Republicans were especially likely to express favor (75%).” Republicans have historically been the most supportive of Israel, despite most American Jews being Democrats.

“Progressive Jews who have spent years supporting racial equity, gay and transgender rights, abortion rights and other causes on the American left—including opposing Israeli policies in Gaza and the West Bank,” wrote Jennifer Medina and Lisa Lerer in the New York Times in their article titled On Israel, Progressive Jews Feel Abandoned by Their Left-Wing Allies, “are suddenly feeling abandoned by those who they long thought of as allies. This wartime shift represents a fundamental break within a liberal coalition that has long powered the Democratic Party.”

It's a bit unfair, however, to say that all young Democrats have bailed on Israel. A recent New York Times headline captured the tone of the intra-party conflict. Two Young Democratic Stars Collide Over Israel and Their Party’s Future the headline proclaimed, as the Times contrasted millennials Ocasio-Cortez and fellow NYC Democrat Richie Torres’ “sharply divergent positions in the Israel-Hamas war.”

Ocasio-Cortez has often referred to Israel’s “oppression” of Palestinians and called Israel an “apartheid” state. Torres, a staunch defender of Israel and of Israelis, disagrees. “I do worry that the next generation is increasingly indoctrinated with anti-Israel hate so virulent,” Torres told the Times, “that it renders them indifferent to the coldblooded murder of Jews in Israel.”

Clinton is not the only high-ranking Democrat to take protesting students, and coddling college leaders, to task for not knowing their history. “Our colleges, in many cases, are failing young people,” Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, a Democrat and observant Jew, said in an interview with the New York Times this week. “Failing to teach information that is necessary to form thoughtful perspectives. They are willing to let certain forms of hate pass by and condemn others more strongly.”

Is the Party over for Jewish Democrats?

Sympathy for Israelis, according to Gallup, has been declining among all generational groups since 2017, mostly due to the collapse of Democrat support—but especially among Millennials. This past year is the first year since Gallup has been measuring attitudes towards Israelis that more Millennials sympathize with Palestinians than Israelis. But why now? What’s behind all this progressive outrage at Israel?

My theory? Much of it has to do with projected, and misplaced, anger towards Donald Trump, and by extension, the right-leaning coalition government of Benjamin Netanyahu. If Trump is for it, they’re against it. Same goes for Netanyahu.

It’s likely no coincidence that the decline in “sympathy” towards Israel coincided with the election and Presidency of Donald Trump. During his Presidency, Trump was seen as close to Netanyahu. For example, Trump moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv—a symbolic gesture meant to demonstrate American support for Netanyahu and Israel that angered Palestinians.

After Netanyahu and Israel’s political right supported legislation last year to limit the authority of Israel’s highest court to declare laws unconstitutional, support for Israel among American progressives, especially younger progressives, plummeted. At the time, President Biden demanded Netanyahu “walk away” from the reforms and uphold our “shared democratic values,” warning that Israel “cannot continue down this road.” Reports of large-scale protests in Israel against the Netanyahu led coalition were widely reported in the US.

A political paradox.

So here we are, trapped in a political paradox. Jews support Democrats, but many Democrats don’t support Israel, while Republicans strongly support Israel, but most American Jews don’t support Republicans.

Hillary Clinton is right. Yup, I said it AGAIN. And while we will likely go back to disagreeing on just about everything else, kudos to her for calling out those who prefer to remain ignorant of history while, at the same time, trying to shape it.

Which leaves me with a question: As the younger generation of Democrats pull away from supporting Israel—will Jewish Americans pull away from Democratic Party?