SACROMENTO – The Democratic division over the ongoing bloody conflict in the Middle East was on display this week as it pitched to politically active Jewish Californians.
Five candidates running on behalf of Gov. Gavin Newsom, who cannot run in 2026 due to restrictions in 2026, overwhelmingly agreed on the horrors of Hamas attacks on Israelis on October 7, 2023, mourning the deaths of thousands of Palestinians, possibly women and children.
However, there were differences in views on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s response to the terrorist attacks. Jewish state authorities have said it has caused about 1,200 deaths and 251 have been hostages, including American citizens. Israeli efforts have resulted in the deaths of more than 52,000 Gazan, according to the local health ministry that does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigoza raised the most directly terrorist attacks against Israel when he spoke with the Jewish Public Relations Committee, which gathers in the state’s capital on Tuesday.
“For me, October 7th was the day I live in me and was burned in my memory,” he told hundreds of participants. “The elderly, unarmed people were killed in front of their families to see women and children becoming cruel.”
He said in a subsequent interview that he is not a Netanyahu supporter, but he does not believe Israel’s response has gone too far.
“Look, I know very well what Hamas is doing. Hamas has ammunition in the hospital. They put rockets under the apartment. They have infrastructure in the place and boldly attacked the Israelis. “No one sees the number of innocent people killed. But I put it mostly in Hamas.”
At the meeting, former MP Katie Porter spoke about the rise in anti-Semitism in the country.
“So we need to be honest and say that we’re scared for now to become Jews. In many cases, it’s Americans who see the heightened hatred, especially because hatred is being targeted, especially in Jewish and Jewish systems.
Porter, a law professor at UC Irvine, prioritizes protecting freedom of speech, but when the speech puts people at risk, she added, “There are lines above.”
The governor has not developed a foreign policy, but California’s voices are influential due to the large number of Jewish and Muslim residents living here.
Furthermore, conflict and US Israeli support have struck democratic politics across the nation and across the country, not only among members of the two religious organizations, but also among young and liberal voters.
A few weeks after the terrorist attack, around 1,000 protesters closed the California Democratic treaty in Sacramento, calling then-President Biden “genocide jaws.” The incident comes days after protesters clashed with police outside the Democratic National Commission’s headquarters.
The administration’s response led to some Democrats opposed the party in the 2024 presidential election. Almost 70% of voters in Dearborn, Michigan, have traditionally been a democratic hub home to the nation’s largest Muslim concentration, and voted for President Trump or Green Party candidate Jill Stein last year.
The gap could reappear at the State Democratic Treaty held in Anaheim later this month.
According to Brandeis University, this week’s appearances by five governor candidates point to the importance of Jewish voters who tend to vote at a higher rate than the average American. Each spoke about their relationship with the Jewish community.
Betty Yi, a former state controller whose husband is rabbi, said she believes the California governor can help build bridges between the state’s diverse communities.
“I just talk about it as someone who cares about our shared humanity. As a humanitarian, I can’t be mad at what happened,” she said in an interview.
Her husband’s experience led to inter-fiction dialogue and became more challenging in the aftermath of the attack.
“October 7 really put a lot of strain on those relationships. It’s now finally coming, moving forward together, and starting to come to understand who is the enemy,” she said. “Well, the enemy is someone who is only for pointless killing.”
State Supt. Tony Turmond, a family member who turned Hebrew Pentecostalism as a child, said his agency must intervene in several K-12 districts about discussing the conflict and its impact on students.
“Teachers and educators at the end of the day must refrain from communicating their personal views to students and how they should feel.
He said that current events should be an easy-to-teach moment.
“We have a history of social science frameworks that we say should be used as an opportunity to teach life events around the world,” Thurmond said. “But the moment everyone starts to convey their personal views to any side, it goes too far, and what led them was the experience of Jewish students feeling isolated from their targets.
Former Health and Human Services Director Xavier Beterra maintained the Jewish community as a paragon for what the nation should strive for in a challenging time.
“When we visit communities across the state, we hear very familiar concerns that our politics is too broken, our systems are too slow, and our future is too uncertain. “We can’t choose the challenges of the times, but we can choose how we respond to them. The California Jewish community has answered that question again and again, with advocacy and with sincerity.”
Villa Raigoza discussed her childhood at Boyle Heights, where she grew up with Latino, Jewish and Asian Americans, and talked about the powerful support she received from Jewish Angeleno during her campaign. Porter touched on his relationship with the Orange County Jewish community.
Governor Eleni Kunarakis was scheduled to appear at the meeting, but there was a schedule dispute due to family issues.
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