{"id":324679,"date":"2026-03-06T08:42:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T08:42:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/324679\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T08:42:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T08:42:15","slug":"gavin-newsom-likens-israel-to-an-apartheid-state-and-decries-war-on-iran-gavin-newsom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/324679\/","title":{"rendered":"Gavin Newsom likens Israel to \u2018an apartheid state\u2019 and decries war on Iran | Gavin Newsom"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gavin Newsom<\/a>, the Democratic California<\/a> governor, likened Israel to \u201can apartheid state\u201d on Tuesday in comments sharply critical of the country\u2019s joint war with the US against Iran.<\/p>\n

Newsom, seen as a frontrunner for his party\u2019s presidential nomination in 2028, made the comment during an appearance in Los Angeles to promote his book, Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery. He was asked if the US should rethink its military partnership with Israel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt breaks my heart, because the current leadership in Israel is walking us down that path, where I don\u2019t think you have a choice about that consideration,\u201d Newsom said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo say this in America\u2019s interest at a time when affordability is at crisis levels, where you have an administration that literally got elected saying this is exactly opposite of what they would ever consider doing, the fact that we are in this regional war [with] all these proxies, all the grift and the corruption that also marks a huge part of this, that\u2019s a real conversation we need to have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newsom made the \u201capartheid\u201d comment when he was asked by the event\u2019s moderator, Pod Save America host Jon Favreau, about the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, known as Bibi. The governor cited New York Times opinion writer Thomas Friedman, who wrote on Tuesday<\/a> that the war could propel Netanyahu to an election victory that would fuel even more extremism in Israel, against US interests.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe issue of Bibi is interesting because he\u2019s got his own domestic issues,\u201d Newsom said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s trying to stay out of jail<\/a>. He\u2019s got an election coming up. He\u2019s potentially on the ropes. He\u2019s got folks on the hardline that want to annex the West Bank. Friedman and others are talking about it appropriately, [as] sort of an apartheid state.\u201d<\/p>\n

His comments come amid declining support for Israel among the general public, and Democrats in particular, who see the issue increasingly as a vote loser as the midterm elections approach.<\/p>\n

A Gallup poll<\/a> last month revealed that 41% of Americans now sympathize more with Palestinians than Israelis over the situation in the Middle East. In no previous poll over 25 years have Israelis, now at 36%, trailed in general support.<\/p>\n

Among Democratic voters, the divide is much wider. Gallup found 65% sympathize more with Palestinians, and only 17% for Israelis.<\/p>\n

It is also not the first time Newsom has been critical of Netanyahu, or Donald Trump\u2019s decision to partner with Israel to attack Iran, during his book tour. On Saturday, he accused the president<\/a> of \u201cdoubling down on stupid\u201d during his State of the Union address to Congress, and said Trump\u2019s eagerness to engage the US military in Iran stemmed from \u201cweakness masquerading as strength\u201d.<\/p>\n

In a January conversation<\/a> with conservative podcaster Ben Shapiro, Newsom said he was \u201ccrystal clear in my love for Israel, and my condemnation of Bibi, and there\u2019s a distinction\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said he could understand why people thought, from images of Israel\u2019s war in Gaza, that Israel had committed genocide there, but did not share the opinion, even though he said Israel\u2019s military action was \u201cdisproportionate\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI have a lot of issues with the way Bibi ultimately conducted the war. I didn\u2019t like the way he talked about the Palestinian people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gavin Newsom, the Democratic California governor, likened Israel to \u201can apartheid state\u201d on Tuesday in comments sharply critical…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-324679","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}