A rift called Israel within the American left

John Fetterman, a senator from Pennsylvania, met with the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who was visiting the United States, and everyone said: the senator’s departure from the Democratic Party is inevitable; he will become an independent. This prediction stems from the fact that the American left is becoming increasingly divided over the Israeli Prime Minister – the current star, New York Mayor Zorhan Mamdami, would like to arrest Netanyahu, rather than proudly converse with him – and over Israel, in a rift that is growing ever deeper and, according to some, irreparable. What is surprising is that Senator Fetterman is precisely the embodiment of the radical left, which today selects its candidates partly on the basis of their views on Israel. This is a recent development, as demonstrated by the fact that Fetterman’s election campaign was organised and run by Morris Katz, the young political consultancy prodigy who contributed to Mamdani’s success.

Today, Fetterman would probably not be on the list of potential candidates, even though on every other issue – the things that matter to Americans’ lives: we are talking about representatives of the people – he continues to be in line with the most radical candidates and their gurus. The same thing happened in the race for mayor of Los Angeles: Nithya Raman had close ties with the Democratic Socialists active in the city and across California, and championed common causes, but then she accepted funding from AIPAC, America’s leading Jewish lobby, and was expelled from the group. Next week, primaries will be held in the complex and fickle states of the American Midwest, such as Michigan and Missouri, and it is striking to watch their debates in the run-up to the vote: there is more talk of Israel, Gaza and AIPAC than of anything else: this is where the new test of political purity lies, and it is bound to cause further headaches for a party that nevertheless wants to stand up to the Trump supporters in the mid-term elections in November.