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In my Facebook newsfeed, I noticed Gavin Newsom – the California governor and likely 2028 presidential candidate – was coming to Rock Hill, SC: a popular stop for White House hopefuls just south of my home in Charlotte, NC.
He was visiting as part of the promotional tour for his new book, Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery. I assumed the $49 ticket (hardcover included) would mean an “intimate” crowd – and a chance to chat with Gavin Newsom about Palestine‑Israel. I RSVP’d on Eventbrite and saved the event on my calendar.
On the day of the event, I hoped to stop work early to write up what I wanted to cover with the governor, but I had a busy day, so I quickly typed up a short speech/question. In it, I let Newsom know I’m the publisher of The Progressive Jew on Substack and a Jewish Voice for Peace member; I called defense of Israel a “political loser” for the eventual 2028 Democratic nominee; I urged him to oppose arms and other aid to Israel, not just for political reasons, but because groups like B’Tselem, the acclaimed Israeli human rights organization, have concluded that Israel is committing genocide; and I added that arming a genocide is illegal, which ought to matter in the United States. I said the stakes are enormous and asked if we could count on him.
With that brief address stuffed into my front pocket, I skipped through the double doors of McGirt Auditorium at 6:34 p.m. for the 6:30 event and was surprised to find a packed house of at least 750 Newsom fans. After the governor engaged in a fascinating conversation with former DNC chair Jaime Harrison for 90 minutes, he walked offstage – without taking any questions.
As I was putting on my jacket to leave, I noticed cell phones being hoisted next to the front‑left corner of the stage and suspected it was either Harrison … or Newsom.
SubscribedFace‑to‑Face With Gavin Newsom
It was the latter. I flashed my “Cal State Northridge” sweatshirt under my jacket for the California governor. Displaying my alma mater’s name seemed to build some initial rapport. I told Newsom who I was and asked if I could read an important question I’d hoped to ask. He told me to go ahead. But as soon as I started, he half‑listened while carrying on another conversation.
Unaccustomed to that behavior, I stopped and asked if he could hear me. Newsom said he could. Just then, a staffer told me to hand her the written question, and another tapped me on the shoulder and asked me to type my cell number into his phone. He instantly texted me to let me know I’d be getting a response.
That response hasn’t appeared on my iPhone just yet. This made me wonder if Team Newsom is adept at brushing aside anti‑Zionist Jews and other Free Palestine advocates during his public appearances.
I concluded that I should offer more guidance to Newsom and other potential 2028 presidential candidates on Palestine‑Israel right here, in The Progressive Jew. After all, politicians like Newsom certainly hear from more than enough Zionists, right?
A New Poll Makes Israel Officially Toxic for Democrats
Generations of Democratic politicians believed they had a very good reason to “StandWith” Israel: polls suggested Democratic voters were firmly on Israel’s side. Well, as you can see, that’s no longer the case.
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Twenty‑eight months into Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Democratic support has flipped. According to recent Gallup polling, 65% of Democrats sympathize more with Palestinians, and just 17% sympathize more with Israelis. That’s the whole Democratic Party, friends – not just the party’s progressive wing.
And get this: the Gallup poll was taken before the illegal, immoral, and highly unpopular war of aggression by Israel and the U.S. in Iran began.
I imagine right about now, some Zionist readers may be saying things like, “How many Democrats actually care about Palestinians?” At a time when the two major parties remain fairly evenly divided, Palestine‑Israel is absolutely a vote‑moving issue capable of tilting elections.
Just look at recent history.
The Autopsy of the 2024 Election the DNC Didn’t Want You to See
Last month, Axios revealed that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) discreetly conducted research on how a twice‑impeached authoritarian and convicted felon who led an insurrection after losing the 2020 election managed to receive 77 million votes in the 2024 election and return to the Oval Office.
Axios said: “Top Democratic officials who worked on the party’s still‑secret autopsy of the 2024 election concluded that Kamala Harris lost significant support because of the Biden administration’s approach to the war in Gaza.”
Not once during the campaign did Harris refer to Israeli apartheid as apartheid. Even worse, while Israel was committing a genocide in Gaza with U.S. arms, she never explicitly condemned Israeli atrocities. After meeting with Netanyahu, the then‑VP said, “We cannot turn a blind eye to the heartbreaking images of dead children and desperate families … we must not become numb to the suffering, and I will not be silent.”
It was a cautious political response rather than a moral one – and, given the stakes, it was inexcusable.
As an attorney, the #2 official in the Biden administration, and the Democratic standard‑bearer, Harris obviously wanted her comments on the genocide to be measured. She understood that Israel had been plausibly accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the case was moving through The Hague, but she continued to describe the carnage as if it were a natural disaster.
With the approval of her boss (Joe Biden), she could have said something like: “Israel is responsible for these disgusting attacks on the people, property, and infrastructure in Gaza, and we have to be honest about that. The allegations against Israeli leaders and the Israeli government are gravely serious, and we must be clear that the United States cannot continue supplying weapons – especially while these attacks on the people of Gaza continue and these charges of potential genocide are under international review at the ICJ.”
That wouldn’t have brought every progressive to Harris’s side, but it would likely have enabled her to keep much of the party’s progressive base while leading with integrity. Instead, she calibrated her comments on the genocide to please the Israel lobby – including a circle of Zionist mega‑donors.
You know the rest of the story.
Gavin Newsom Really, Truly Used the “A”-Word
Eight days after our encounter in Rock Hill, during the Los Angeles stop on his tour, Gavin Newsom was asked by Pod Save America host Jon Favreau: “Do you think, looking down the road, that the United States should consider maybe, you know, rethinking our military support for Israel?” Newsom answered: “It breaks my heart, because the current leadership in Israel is walking us down that path where I don’t think you have a choice about that consideration.”
In the same exchange, while discussing the Israeli apartheid leader and war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu, Newsom dropped a bombshell when he said of Israel: “Some are talking about it appropriately as sort of an apartheid state.”
Let’s ponder this for a moment. That guy is the governor of America’s most populous state – a man at or near the top of early polling for the 2028 Democratic nomination – and he hinted, on the record, that he’s considering not arming Israel if he wins the big prize. And by attaching the “A”-word to Israel, Gavin Newsom did something Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and Bill Clinton have never done in public: refer to Israel as an apartheid state.
Those Democratic leaders absolutely knew about the West Bank’s prison walls, guard towers, checkpoints, and other hideous elements of Israeli apartheid. Then why were they unwilling to call it what it was? Traditionally, Democrats and Republicans were convinced that utterances like that would prompt the Israel lobby to destroy another political career by calling a supporter of equal rights a Jew‑hater. Newsom understood the risks, but he stood on the side of basic decency anyway.
It wasn’t the first time.
A Straight Mayor Courageously Championed Same‑Sex Marriage
On February 12, 2004 – more than a decade before the Supreme Court’s marriage‑equality ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges – San Francisco’s 36‑year‑old heterosexual mayor began marrying LGBTQIA couples.
During what came to be known as the “Winter of Love,” Gavin Newsom was responsible for about 4,000 same‑sex marriages in that city.
Newsom framed it as a civil rights decision – one worth risking his career for. Just as the Black freedom struggle led by Dr. King, the global movement to end South African apartheid, and the LGBTQIA rights movement he helped advance all captured the world’s conscience, so has the Palestinian liberation movement.
A Social Justice Movement Winning Hearts and Minds Everywhere
Free Palestine is the social justice movement of our time, and Gavin Newsom may soon have a chance to help end 78 years of Israeli oppression. Or he can resemble politicians like Josh Shapiro, who’s still playing tired Zionist games by recently asking Josh Greene if Israel has a “right to exist,” acting as if the problem is largely confined to “Bibi,” and claiming to support a “two‑state solution” in another 78 or 780 years.
Someone should tell Shapiro that Israel exists, but it has no right to oppress a people based on religion and ethnicity to maintain an ethnostate with exclusive rights for members of one faith.
Palestinians have a right to exist and not keep being subjected to ethnic cleansing, ghettoization, erasure, occupation, apartheid, and genocide. Palestinians deserve equal rights in their homeland – whether Zionists like it or not.
What Gavin Newsom Shouldn’t and Should Do Next
While speaking with Zionists, Newsom shouldn’t keep repeating what he told Ben Shapiro six weeks before his Pod Save America appearance: that Israel “is not committing a genocide.” Nor should he lapse into Kushner‑esque code about Palestinians “living in dignity” while Israel maintains a system of Jewish supremacy.
As a presidential candidate, he should honor his recent pledge and not accept donations from the Israel lobby.
Newsom likes to joke that he’s a flawed man with gelled hair. The question now is whether that self-described, far-from-perfect politician is willing to be the rare leader who boldly breaks with Zionist orthodoxy and stands openly for Palestinian freedom.
The governor should live by the Golden Rule, which is also a quintessentially Jewish thing to do, and demand freedom, equality, and justice for long‑suffering Palestinians. He should publicly support the right of refugees ethnically cleansed by Zionists to return to their homeland and reject the racist Zionist belief that Jews from Brooklyn with no traceable connection to that land should have a “right of return” while Palestinians holding deeds to homes confiscated by Israel with zero compensation should not.
Gavin should tell Republicans on the fence about the MAGA movement that “America First” doesn’t mean sending Israel roughly $18 billion in military aid in the last year, in addition to a standing $3.8 billion per year commitment. He should remind independent voters that Israel has universal healthcare, paid maternity leave, and a national child allowance – and the U.S. doesn’t.
For the perceived crime of supporting Palestinian equality, Newsom will no doubt be called an “antisemite” by Zionists (it’s what they do to Israel’s critics – religiously). But if Newsom stands with Palestinian victims of Israeli oppression, progressive Jews will remind those Zionists that Jews are supposed to stand with the oppressed and never with an oppressor. In short, they’ll call bullshit.
In 2028, ending Trumpian fascism in America and Israeli oppression in Palestine must be priorities – not catering to the selfish demands of the Israel lobby and once again failing a hugely important moral test.
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