Washington Examiner senior columnist Guy Benson argued that the “litmus test” in the Democratic Party has become whether candidates will object to the existence of a Jewish state.
Benson explained on Fox Business’s Varney & Co. on Thursday that simply criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu isn’t enough to appease the core base of the Democratic Party, describing this move as “wishful thinking” for candidates.
“If they support the Jewish state they can say, ‘Oh, it’s Netanyahu,’ that’s their pivot [and] that’s their deflection to try to avoid the underlying issue, which is, it is becoming a litmus test with their base, not to object to Netanyahu, not to object to some kind of policy or military action that the Israelis have undertaken … the impurity test is to object to the Jewish state itself,” Benson said.
Part of this test, as Benson explained, is to “embrace” a firm pro-Palestinian stance.
“To basically embrace a hardcore so-called pro-Palestine view of the world,” Benson said, “in an obsessive, fixated sort of way.”
Benson argued that this is the new standard in the Democratic Party because the core base is in a “fanatically anti-Zionist mood.”
Nearly three-fourths of Democratic voters oppose the United States sending military aid to Israel, according to a New York Times/Siena poll conducted in May.
The poll also reflects a growing movement within the Democratic Party from progressive candidates and elected officials who hold anti-Israeli views, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
It also comes at a time when accepting campaign donations from AIPAC is becoming increasingly polarizing within the party, with many socialist and progressive candidates slamming their opponents for accepting money from its affiliated super PAC.
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Benson argued that Democratic candidates can no longer assume that criticizing Netanyahu is enough for voters in the party.
“I think some of these people are whistling past the graveyard, thinking they can criticize Netanyahu or any government as some sort of stand-in to scratch an itch that the base is feeling,” Benson said.