Politico reports:

Pete Buttigieg once had a ready answer about the U.S.-Israel relationship, likening it to a “friendship” in which you “try to guide them to a better place.” It’s a line that used to go over well with the “Pod Save America” guys, who once clapped for and nodded along with it on stage back in 2019.

But this week they no longer did.

The politics of the Israel-Hamas conflict — and its center of gravity — have changed. And Democrats are searching for solid ground. Across the party’s still-inchoate 2028 presidential field, ambitious Democrats like Buttigieg are reevaluating their positions and staking out their territory.

Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) said his position is “evolving.” Governors like Wes Moore of Maryland and Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, both staunch defenders of Israel, are keeping their powder dry and declining to engage on nuts and bolts policy questions. Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who carried the nomination in 2024, did not comment for this story through a spokesperson.

“Democrats — like all Americans, but certainly Democrats — are sickened by what’s happening and trying to hold several things in mind at the same time, all of which can be true: that what has to happen next is the killing has to end,” the former transportation secretary told POLITICO in an interview Wednesday. “The hostages have to come home. And the people of Gaza need aid unimpeded, and all of that should be happening immediately.”

It was a sharper response than his interview with “Pod Save America” host Jon Favreau — when he received swift blowback for a nonanswer.

“When your friend kills 60,000 people and starves an entire population for months at a time, shouldn’t the question be: Why the fuck am I friends with this guy?” said a Democratic strategist who was in the room with Buttigieg back in 2019 and whose positions have changed since then. The strategist is unaligned among the current crop of potential candidates.

“I get it,” Buttigieg said of the criticism of his podcast interview. “It’s important to be clear about something this enormous and this painful. It’s just that it’s so enormous and it’s so painful that sometimes words can fail.”

The response to Buttigieg, normally one of the Democratic Party’s most skilled communicators, was telling. Democrats have recalibrated on Israel, and that’s already reverberating across the shadow campaign trail as the U.S. relationship with Israel is fast becoming a key litmus test ahead of the 2028 Democratic primary. The Democratic National Committee is weighing two different resolutions on the matter, with progressives pushing for elected Democrats to endorse an arms embargo on Israel and recognize a Palestinian state.

Buttigieg said he would have signed on to Sen. Bernie Sanders’ proposed arms embargo against Israel, would recognize Palestine as part of a two-state solution and thought the U.S. should not pass another 10-year agreement between the U.S. and Israel on foreign military aid carte blanche.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif), who hit Buttigieg’s original answer on “Pod Save America,” said in an interview that “it’s going to be a defining issue in the Democratic Party in the midterms and for 2028.”

“Israel is not acting like an ally now, defying our presidents, violating our values and compromising our interests in the Middle East,” said Khanna, who is calling for the U.S. to recognize a Palestinian state and arguing America should stop sending weapons that kill civilians to Israel. [Continue reading…]