How the Israel-Hamas war continues to divide California’s Democrats

WASHINGTON —  After leaving an off-the-record happy hour last week, I found myself stuck in a traffic jam on Capitol Hill. Protests — and blocked roads — are common in Washington, and one of them was the reason I was not moving that Wednesday evening.

When I looked out the window, I saw Palestinian flags and protesters’ black shirts that read “Cease Fire Now.” I could hear them chanting at President Biden, which was strange, since he was in California that day, meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

I was baffled, though, at the direction of the march. The protesters were headed away from the Capitol complex and the White House. Where were they going? Hours later, I saw that they had been headed to the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee. Later, Republican and Democratic lawmakers criticized the protesters for their volatile confrontation with police and their critiques of Israel.

Another anti-Israel protest, over the weekend in Sacramento, prompted organizers of the California Democratic Party convention to end official events earlier than expected and showed that Democrats remained divided on the most pivotal issues facing the party and the nation, Times writer Benjamin Oreskes reported.

Hello, friends. I’m Erin B. Logan, a reporter covering national politics for the L.A. Times. This week, we are going to discuss the Democratic Party’s response to critics of Israel.

Democrats divided

Hamas militants killed roughly 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 240 others hostage in an Oct. 7 attack on Israel, prompting a ferocious response from the Israeli military.

Israeli forces bombarded the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip before sending in ground troops. Since Israel began its invasion on the territory last month, more than 12,700 Palestinians, including almost 5,000 children, have been killed there, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry. An additional 4,000 are missing and believed buried in rubble.

Violence has also surged in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where attacks by Jewish settlers are on the rise and where more than 200 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war, mostly in gun battles spurred by Israeli military raids.

Most Democrats in Congress have followed the lead of President Biden, who has resisted calling for a cease-fire and instead pushed for Israel to institute brief “humanitarian pauses” to allow for hostages to be recovered.

On Tuesday, Israel and Hamas agreed to a temporary truce aimed at facilitating the release of hostages. Under the deal, Hamas will release 50 women and children its fighters kidnapped last month. In exchange, Israel will release around 150 Palestinian teenagers and women from its prisons.

Michigan Democrat Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian American in Congress, is one of a small but growing number of federal lawmakers who have called for a full cease-fire. In California, Reps. Mark DeSaulnier (D-Concord), John Garamendi (D-Walnut Grove), Sara Jacobs (D-San Diego), Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) and Barbara Lee (D-Oakland), who is running to fill the seat of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, have all endorsed versions of the idea.

But Tlaib herself has become controversial — even among California’s often united Democratic delegation to Congress.

In the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, Tlaib shared a video that chided Biden for his response to the conflict.

“Mr. President,” Tlaib said in the video, “the American people are not with you on this one.” The video, which showcased the wave of pro-Palestine demonstrations in cities across the country, also featured activists chanting the phrase “from the river to the sea.”

Republicans quickly launched the effort to censure Tlaib after she shared the video. The censure vote, which passed 234-188 earlier this month, broke down mostly along party lines. Many Democrats in Congress said that although they disagreed with Tlaib’s positions, they respected her right to free speech and opposed the move to censure her.

But 22 Democrats, including Rep. Jim Costa of Fresno, broke with their party.

A spokesman for Costa declined to make the lawmaker available for an interview but in a statement, the Californian said that though he is supportive of free speech, “it’s not appropriate to use inflammatory language and dangerous rhetoric that fuels Hamas’s narrative of disinformation and promotes videos containing chants,” like “from the river to the sea.” The chant, he said, is a “known rallying cry used by terrorists to call for the destruction of the Jewish state, Israel.”

Tlaib previously said she understands the chant as “an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate.”

Republicans rescuing a Democrat?

Just four Republicans — two of them Californians — voted against the effort to censure Tlaib. California Reps. Tom McClintock (R-Elk Grove) and John Duarte (R-Modesto) broke with the GOP on the vote.

McClintock’s spokesperson also declined to make the congressman available for an interview but the Californian in a statement made clear he voted against punishing Tlaib because it ran afoul of free speech. “Censure is to punish corrupt deeds or egregious breaches of decorum,” McClintock said. “It should never be used to stifle political speech, no matter how offensive and outrageous. Voters alone are entitled to hold members accountable for their opinions, words and votes.” A spokesperson for Duarte did not respond to a request for comment.

The latest from Trumpland

—The interview that aired Nov. 9 on Univision was noticeably warm, and Trump received little pushback as he gave false or misleading statements on border security and immigration policies he instituted as president, Times writers Hannah Wiley and Julia Wick reported. Backlash from certain corners of the Latino community was swift, including calls for more balanced reporting and an outright boycott of the television network ahead of the 2024 election.

—Donald Trump picked up the Texas governor’s endorsement Sunday during a visit to a U.S.-Mexico border town and promised that his hard-line immigration policies in a second presidential term would make Greg Abbott’s “job much easier,” the Associated Press reported.

—A Colorado judge has found that Trump engaged in insurrection during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol but rejected an effort to keep him off the state’s primary ballot because it’s unclear whether a Civil War-era constitutional amendment barring insurrectionists from public office applies to the presidency, the Associated Press reported.

The latest from the campaign trail

—Tony Cárdenas (D-Pacoima) will not seek reelection in 2024, setting up what could become a contested race for his heavily Democratic San Fernando Valley-based seat, Times writer Erin B. Logan (that’s me!) reported. He endorsed Luz Rivas, a state Assemblymember who told The Times she would run to replace him.

—Voters will see the Senate election twice on the March primary ballot: the regularly scheduled election for the six-year Senate term that begins in 2025, and a special election to select a replacement to serve out the remainder of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s term, which ends in January, Times writers Seema Mehta and Laura J. Nelson reported. In November, voters will be asked to choose between the top two candidates in both races.

—New polling in the 2024 White House contest shows that Latino voters in particular are less enthusiastic about Biden than they were four years ago and are supporting Trump in larger numbers, Times writers Seema Mehta and Faith E. Pinho reported. Florida in particular has Democrats worried.

The view from California

—Most politicians caught with their tail between their legs are voted out of office or run out of town, but not the mayor of Idyllwild, a small mountain community about 25 miles south of Banning, Times writers Mel Melcon and Kelvin Kuo reported. Here the top dog is an actual dog — a 1-year-old, full grown American purebred golden retriever with the legal name of Maximus Mighty-Dog Mueller III. People call him Mayor Max.

—A crucial stretch of the 10 Freeway south of downtown Los Angeles reopened Sunday night, earlier than previously expected and weeks ahead of original projections, Times writer Julia Wick reported. Gov. Gavin Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass stressed that it was the urgent action and collaboration of local, state and federal officials and construction crews that made it possible to get the freeway open so quickly.

The Associated Press contributed reporting. That’s it, friends! Sign up for our California Politics newsletter to get the best of The Times’ state politics reporting and to follow me on Instagram for the latest updates of my dear fur child, Kacey.