California State Senator Scott Wiener, the frontrunner for former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s congressional seat, insisted on the Haaretz Podcast that his change of heart regarding whether Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute a genocide did not represent a political flip-flop.
In early January, Wiener faced an angry audience at a candidate’s forum, in which he debated his two rivals in the California Democratic primary to replace retiring Representative Pelosi. In a lightning round question, Wiener was asked to answer “yes” or “no” to the question of whether Israel was “committing genocide in Gaza.” His rivals answered “yes” while Wiener refused to respond, prompting boos and jeers. Shortly afterwards, he released a video in which he clarified that he did believe Israel’s actions in Gaza should be defined as genocide.
On the podcast, Wiener said that in the past, “I’ve used very, very stark language that, frankly, has not been particularly different from genocide. I chose not to use the word genocide for a variety of reasons, because, it has been weaponized against Israel and against Jews over time.”
Wiener also responded to the harsh backlash from the Jewish community following the release of the video. Wiener, the co-chair of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus, said he “respects and honors” why the Jewish community feels “hurt and betrayed” by his word choice. “I also believe that we have a responsibility to call this what I believe it is,” he said.
He pointed to the Quinnipiac poll published in August in which half of Americans defined Israel’s actions as a genocide and noted that it will likely be officially declared as such by the International Court of Justice. “The institutional Jewish community in this country has not grappled with that reality.”
The word genocide, he said, has “grown” beyond “a technical legal doctrine. It’s a descriptor that people use to describe extreme levels of massacre, death, of destruction.”