<\/p>\n
Maricela Alvarado and Sandra Prince listen to speakers during the Texas Democratic Convention at the Hilliard Center in Corpus Christi on Friday, June 26, 2026.<\/p>\n
Katina Zentz\/San Antonio Express-News<\/p>\n
Jewish Democrats found themselves on defense at the Texas Democratic Convention in Corpus Christi last week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While some\u00a0party delegates were pushing in the platform to condemn Israel and accuse the nation of genocide in Gaza, the final version of the document approved on Saturday struck a more nuanced tone, recognizing Israel\u2019s right to exist, condemning Hamas and calling for support for a Palestinian state.<\/p>\n
While many Texas Jewish Democrats have also been critical of Israeli political leadership, they have worried the tone can alienate Jewish voters and, at its worst, feel anti-Semitic. Some said they felt disrespected at times during the platform fight, but ultimately were pleased to see the final version lose most of the most divisive language.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cI\u2019m relieved,\u201d said Arthur Pronin, president of the Meyerland-area Democrats.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The final platform closely mirrors the one adopted during the party’s 2024 convention in El Paso. But Democrats added a key line that seemed aimed at reducing the tension, by saying the party recognizes \u201cthat criticizing the policies, laws, or actions of a specific regime should never be treated as an indictment of the citizens, many of whom may lack political power, hold differing views, or suffer under those\u00a0exact same policies.\u201d<\/p>\n
The party also added a line that would have been unheard of just a few years ago, jabbing \u2014 by name \u2014 at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which has long been one of the most prolific fundraising arms in U.S. politics.<\/p>\n
The platform now calls for more accountability in campaign finance and to “eliminate and reject the influence and contributions of foreign-interest PACs and lobbying organizations,\u00a0including AIPAC, on campaigns.\u201d<\/p>\n
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It’s a shocking statement compared to just a few years ago, when the safest position for Democrats was to express unconditional support of Israel and take donations from AIPAC. But primary elections in New York City last week showed the shifting political ground.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n Progressives, who ran hard against the war in Gaza and used\u00a0AIPAC contributions as a weapon against incumbents, swept a trio of congressional primaries in America\u2019s most heavily Jewish city. The also openly accused Israel of\u00a0genocide, a characterization that more Democratic\u00a0candidates\u00a0have been leaning into, particularly those with heavily liberal bases.<\/p>\n An NBC News poll from earlier this year found that 57% of Democrats\u00a0nationwide had a negative view of Israel, up from 35% in 2023. Two-thirds of Democrats said their sympathies were more with Palestinians than with Israelis in the Middle East.<\/p>\n At the Texas Democratic Convention, many delegates wore scarves to symbolize their support for Palestinians.<\/p>\n The changing nature of Democrats’ views toward the Israeli government and AIPAC was on full display at the event during\u00a0a Friday speech delivered by U.S. Sen. Cory Booker,\u00a0D-N.J.. Once an ardent supporter of Israel and major recipient of AIPAC funding, Booker told Texas delegates\u00a0he\u2019s no longer taking money from AIPAC and earlier this month, he voted for a resolution to block arms sales to Israel<\/a>.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Booker, who ran for president in 2020, was repeatedly interrupted by pro-Palestine protesters during his speech. Afterward, in an interview for the Texas Take Podcast, he acknowledged\u00a0the issue had presented challenges for Democrats, but he pushed back against \u201cthe premise this is tearing our party apart.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere are definitely people who have strong views on this, but the number one thing people are bringing up to me is \u2018I cannot afford health care, I cannot afford housing,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maricela Alvarado and Sandra Prince listen to speakers during the Texas Democratic Convention at the Hilliard Center in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-355639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}