How Israel's wars are reshaping the Democratic Party

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WBUR podcasts, Boston.

**Benjamin Oreskes** (0:22)
Well, in these races where it's a left versus a more left candidate, it's one of the defining issues.

**Chris Bentley** (0:29)
Israel's wars in the Middle East could sway primary elections in New York. It's Monday, June 22nd, and this is Here and Now Anytime from NPR and WBUR. I'm Chris Bentley.
A little later, we'll hear how a war of words between President Trump and Italy's Prime Minister could rupture the US relationship with Trump's closest European ally.

**Federica Bindi** (0:54)
The support for Meloni in this case was unanimous, left and right. Of course, the left also underlined that this is the result of Meloni being subsurgent to Trump.

**Chris Bentley** (1:07)
But first, primary elections continue across the country tomorrow, and lots of eyes are on New York City, where Israel's wars in the Middle East have become a major campaign issue. Representative Dan Goldman of the 10th District is facing a primary challenger in Brad Lander, and Ben Oreskes of the New York Times tells Lisa Mullins, it's a test of how the issue might play out across the country.

**Benjamin Oreskes** (1:30)
Yeah, it has become this axis or cleaving force in many races both at the congressional level and even at the state legislative level, where you have candidates with frankly pretty similar views on a lot of issues and the dividing line is their fidelity towards Israel or the interests supporting the country. And by that I mean APAC and groups like APAC. So specifically in the Lander race, you have Brad Lander running against Dan Goldman. Brad Lander ran for mayor last year, had been the city controller, a mainstay of New York City politics, had been on the city council. And in Dan Goldman, you have someone who won a seat in a very close primary, spent a lot of his own money, and has been a long time supporter of Israel. Both of them are Jewish.
And last year, we saw Brad Lander come very close to becoming mayor and forged this very close alliance with the current mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, who has made a lot of noise for his criticisms of Israel. But in this race, which is one where Mamdani encouraged Lander to run, we have seen two men, both of whom are proud Zionists, actually, sort of try to find ways to differentiate each other from one another on this issue.

**Lisa Mullins** (2:52)
And are there differences, faint differences? I mean, do they basically have the same line or no?

**Benjamin Oreskes** (2:56)
Yeah, I mean, neither of them is saying, I don't believe that there should be a Jewish state, which again is the sort of most significant red line for a lot of people right now.
But unlike his opponent, Brad Lander has not been reluctant to call Israel's war in Gaza a genocide. And in Dan Goldman, someone who's more reluctant to use that term has been critical of the Israeli government led by Benjamin Netanyahu. Both of them have been. And then, you know, as you get deeper into policy, you start to see small differences. At the same time, there is this part of it that is about vibes. And Brad Lander was an enthusiastic supporter of the mayor, who has been very critical of Israel and its prosecution of a war in the aftermath of October 7th and the terrorist attack that occurred in Israel. And Dan Goldman was not someone who backed the mayor. It was someone who was very resistant to doing that all the way up until election day.
And even then, he wouldn't back him. And so with that difference, you know, we have seen this coalescing of support behind Lander and all the polling to this point suggests that Lander is winning by a wide margin. So it's an interesting case study in how we're seeing an issue that obviously excites people, angers them, sort of define a race in one of the most Jewish districts in America, I would add, as well.

**Lisa Mullins** (4:21)
You mentioned several times, Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor who backs Brad Lander, the candidate. Mamdani has had a tense relationship with parts of the Jewish community.
Would you say that he is testing the strength of his political brand as a progressive kingmaker in this race, along with some of the races in New York City where Israel has become such a flashpoint?