The midterm elections are here. And the battle for the Jewish vote, as well as the anti-Israel vote, has created new political fault lines within the Democrat Party. Scott Thuman reports on an old conflict, and accusations of antisemitism, that have surfaced front and center.

The following is a transcript of a report from “Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson.”
Watch the video by clicking the link at the end of the page.

There’s a growing divide in American politics. But this one isn’t between Republicans and Democrats. It’s within the Democratic Party itself. Democratic Socialists, including some pro-Palestinian activists, on one side. Traditional pro-Israel Democrats on the other. A split on full display outside the United Nations General Assembly this September, and one raising real concerns about the party’s future.

Joel Rubin is a former State Department official under Democratic President Barack Obama and served as Jewish outreach director for Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign. We met with him at his home, just outside of D.C.

Joel Rubin: It is a war inside the Democratic Party. It’s a real shift and it’s been very quick.

A divide that has deepened since the war in Gaza. It began with the brutal October 7th, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas, the U.S.-designated terrorist group that controls the Palestinian territory bordering Israel, home to millions. Two years of deadly Israeli military operations followed, deepening divisions among Democrats over the party’s longstanding support for Israel, U.S. military aid and Israel’s military actions.

Surveys shows approximately 70-75% of Jewish voters typically vote for Democratic candidates in national elections, but that may be shifting.

Joel Rubin: This issue runs the risk of splintering the party. There’s a big discussion right now in the American Jewish community about whether or not this is a safe home for us.

And the political fight is unfolding at a time of growing concern about antisemitism and violence against Jews.

FBI data show more than 1,500 anti-Jewish hate crime incidents in 2025, accounting for 63% of all religion-based hate crimes that year.

Among the attacks, two Israeli embassy staffers shot dead outside a Washington, D.C., museum in May of 2025.

Antisemitic rhetoric has also surfaced in midterm campaigns.

Florida Republican Dan Bilzerian repeatedly used inflammatory language, calling his opponent, Representative Randy Fine, a “fat Jew.”

And Texas Democratic candidate Maureen Galindo proposed turning an ICE detention center into a prison for Americans who support the existence of a Jewish state in Israel.

For Democrats, Rubin says, opposing Israel has moved to the top of progressive activists’ priorities, putting pressure on candidates seeking their support.

Joel Rubin: Israel-Palestine, we’ll use that for shorthand, was always on the list, but at the bottom of the list. And what we’ve seen now in recent years is it’s jumped to the top of the list. And so then candidates, if they want to get the support of the grassroots to win a primary election, they need to say, “I don’t support that aid. I’m opposed or I want to put extreme conditions on Israel.”

Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman, a Democrat, has even threatened to leave the party over it.

Sen. John Fetterman (D), Pennsylvania: That’s my red line. If Democratic Party becomes official anti-Israel, then that’s when it would force me out.

In Michigan, Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed drew criticism after suggesting a deadly Israeli airstrike in Lebanon helped explain why a man attacked a Detroit-area synagogue in March.

Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan Democratic Senate Nominee: Violence always begets violence. Only peace can extinguish that. Because hurt people hurt people.

He later apologized to the party’s Jewish Caucus, then addressed his remarks publicly.

Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan Democratic Senate Nominee: To anybody who feels my comments may have been hurtful, I’m really sorry. That was not my intention.

Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt, founder of a national network of rabbis encouraging support of Israel, says antisemitic rhetoric that was once fringe has become almost normalized in some circles.

Rabbi Weinblatt: It’s something I had not expected to see in my lifetime. Those ideas have now moved from the extreme fringe into the mainstream.

Scott Thuman: Things have changed.

Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt: Things have changed today. Yes, very much so. There’s a sense of a weakening of that traditional commitment to the state of Israel. Many leaders of the Democratic Party as well as members of the Democratic Party have come to question that alliance, that relationship.

A 2026 poll found half of Jewish Americans now view the Democratic Party unfavorably.

But Weinblatt’s concern goes beyond politics. He sees a warning for society itself.

Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt: Jews often are a barometer. We often have been described as the canary in the coal mine. And when a society begins to turn on its Jewish people, more often than not, the result is, and it’s the first indication of a cancer and a sickness within that society.

Just how much damage may have been done could become clear at the ballot box in just two days. Scott Thuman, Full Measure.

Watch the video here.

The post (WATCH) Antisemitism in Politics appeared first on Sharyl Attkisson.

 

IPAK-EDU is grateful to Sharyl Attkisson as this piece was originally published there and is included in this news feed with mutual agreement. Read More