Iran attack widens rift between activist left and Dem moderates

Moments after Iran launched an attack on Israel, around 400 pro-Palestinian protesters in Chicago broke out in chants of “Hands off Iran!” The head of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights organization, claimed Iran “is responding in self-defense.”

And the young pro-Palestinian group IfNotNow called both Iran and Israel “authoritarian governments” that were putting citizens in danger, adding that “further escalation only serves these warmongering, corrupt politicians' interests.”

In the immediate aftermath of Iran’s attack on Israel, the positions of progressive and pro-Palestinian groups are only hardening and further widening the rift between the activist base and moderates in the Democratic Party just seven months before the election. The response from the pro-Palestinian left suggests the latest flashpoint in the conflict is doing little to reorient the debate at home.

Yet for all the activist rage directed at Israel, most elected Democrats were overwhelmingly supportive of Israel in the face of Iranian attacks.

While Israel faced a global rebuke after the recent killings of World Central Kitchen aid workers — including from President Joe Biden — the largely unsuccessful Iran drone strikes has the potential to undermine any political gains the left has made in pressuring Israel to halt military operations.

Fatima Iqbal-Zubair, chair of the California Democratic Party’s Progressive Caucus, over the weekend criticized establishment party leaders for prioritizing lives based on skin color, accusing them of showing more concern for the plight of white Jews over that of brown Palestinians.

“It shouldn’t be a one-sided thing. Really, be empathetic toward all lives,” she added.

Since the attack by the militant group Hamas on Israel in October — and Israel’s resulting offensive in the Gaza Strip — the Democratic Party has been riven by escalating tensions over the war. For months, especially on college campuses, liberal activists have protested the Israeli government’s support for settlement expansion in the West Bank and, as the war unfolded, Israel’s offensive in Gaza.

The calls became especially pitched after the Israeli airstrike that killed aid workers in Gaza, including an American, earlier this month and continued into Monday when pro-Palestinian protesters stopped traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge.

According to a POLITICO-Morning Consult poll published on Sunday, based on data collected before the Iranian strike on Israel, fully one-third of Democratic voters felt Biden was “not tough enough on Israel.” Twenty-two percent of Democrats said they’re more sympathetic toward Palestinians in the conflict than Israelis.

The drone strikes on Israel on Saturday night don’t appear to have changed the larger dynamic and the divide is continuing to play out in Democratic races across the nation.

New York progressive Rep. Jamaal Bowman, who is facing a staunchly pro-Israel challenger, on Sunday condemned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “warmongering” and called for further de-escalation of violence while his opponent, George Latimer, the Westchester County executive, called for unity with Israel.

“With reports that Iran has launched drone attacks on Israel, it is important that the US stand with our ally and all the people of Israel,” Latimer posted on X.

Shortly after the attack, Latimer joined several other moderate lawmakers in the region — Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams among them — who issued messages of unequivocal support for Israel.

Rep. Barbara Lee, a California progressive who began calling for a cease-fire immediately after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, condemned both Iran and Israel for their escalating actions, a reference to Israel’s previous strike that killed Iranian commanders at the country’s embassy in Syria.

“We must resist the US becoming embroiled in another costly conflict abroad, but rather lead toward peace and security in the region,” Lee posted on social media.

Establishment Democratic leaders across California, however, were quick over the weekend to condemn Iran’s attack on Israel. In recent months, though, mainstream Democratic officials in California, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, have warmed up to supporting calls for cease-fire in Israel’s war with Hamas, albeit with conditions, as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza worsens.

New York State Democratic Party Chair Jay Jacobs downplayed the fissure during an interview on Sunday, saying that the party’s positions are more aligned with Biden and others in leadership.

“Both parties have their more extreme factions, and those factions, I believe, don’t dictate the overall governing policy of, at least, the Democratic Party,” he said.

In Chicago, however, hundreds gathered in downtown on Saturday for a day-long conference focused on organizing and fundraising ahead of the Democratic National Convention scheduled for August. While many at the event were focused on supporting abortion and immigrant rights as well as labor issues, the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict was one of the main focuses of the gathering. Hundreds cheered for support of Iran after it launched drone attacks against Israel.

“We don’t want the U.S. government to spend any more resources causing and escalating wars in the Middle East,” said Kobi Guillory, a spokesperson for the group, Coalition to March on the DNC.

Nihad Awad, CAIR’s executive director and co-founder, also urged the Biden administration to reject what he called Israel’s “transparent” attempt to distract from the Israel-Hamas war that’s killed 33,000 people in Gaza and warned that the president will lose support of American Muslim and Arab communities – and even a “growing movement of Jewish Americans and others, including young people.”

But at the same time, Republicans will likely continue to use the rift within the party over Israel to paint Democrats as extreme, much like they did during the widespread protests in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police several years ago.

GOP Florida Sen. Marco Rubio on CNN Sunday, for example, called demonstrators who were cheering Iran’s attack over the weekend antisemitic, anti-Israel, and pro-terrorist.

“They are not peace activists. Peace activists do not cheer massive attacks against other countries, which is what they were doing yesterday.”

Emily Ngo and Brittany Gibson contributed to this story.