Gavin Newsom likens Israel to ‘an apartheid state’ while decrying war on Iran
Gavin Newsom, the Democratic California governor, likened Israel to “an apartheid state” on Tuesday in comments sharply critical of the country’s joint war with the US against Iran.
Newsom, seen as a frontrunner for his party’s 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.
“It breaks my heart, because the current leadership in Israel is walking us down that path, where I don’t think you have a choice about that consideration,” Newsom said.
“To say this in America’s 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’s a real conversation we need to have.”
Newsom made the “apartheid” comment when he was asked by the event’s 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 that the war could propel Netanyahu to an election victory that would fuel even more extremism in Israel, against US interests. [Continue reading…]