Democrats’ big tent includes most Jewish and Muslim Americans

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Israel’s response to the October 7 Hamas terror attacks exposes a long-festering divide inside the preferred political party of the majority of Jewish and Muslim Americans.

President Joe Biden self-describes as a Zionist and made a show of flying to Israel last month to embrace the controversial Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Hillary Clinton, Democrats’ former standard bearer who took part in peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians as secretary of state under then-President Barack Obama, last week rejected the idea of a ceasefire for humanitarian reasons because she said it would be a “gift to Hamas,” allowing the terrorist group to rearm.

But the party’s left flank is more and more loudly raising concerns about the plight of Palestinians in Gaza. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York described the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a notably conservative, pro-Israel group, as “an extremist organization that destabilizes US democracy” on Tuesday after it criticized a Republican who voted with nine Democrats against a recent House resolution supporting Israel.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan – the first Palestinian American woman to serve in Congress and who, like Ocasio-Cortez, is a member of the so-called “Squad” of young, progressive lawmakers of color – issued a warning to Biden last month at a rally where she called for a ceasefire in Gaza.

“President Biden, not all of America is with you on this one, and you need to wake up and understand that,” she said, before using the term “genocide” to describe civilian casualties caused by Israel’s military strikes.

International law defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a…