CENTER-LEFT VS. LEFT — In France last week, a center to left coalition succeeded in turning the far-right away from power. In England, a resurgent Labour party won a huge victory over the conservative Tories. And in the United States, the Democratic party is trying desperately to find its own way to hang on to power. All three countries are dealing with tremendously different political situations. But they all have at least one thing in common: center-left parties that are directly attacking the further left on Israel. Call it the anti-anti Israel coalition. It’s a double negative that doubles as a warning for members: Use more measured rhetoric regarding Israel, avoid trafficking in antisemitism, or risk your place in the party. Since incoming U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer took over the reins of the British Labour Party in April 2020, he has led a campaign of relentless moderation, much of it under the banner of rooting out antisemitism (notably different from a solely and directly anti-Israel stance) in the party. In July 2021, the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party voted to ban four far-left groups that had supported former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. By 2019, some 87 percent of British Jews believed that Corbyn himself was an antisemite, and in 2020 he was suspended by the Labour Party. Since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, though, the Labour Party has taken an even harder line on concerns about both antisemitic and anti-Israel statements. The party suspended Member of Parliament Kate Osamor after she said Israel’s actions in Gaza should be remembered as a genocide, and withdrew support for MP candidate Azhar Ali after he said Israel had “allowed” the Oct. 7 massacre “that gives them the green light to do whatever they bloody want.” The party also suspended former Labour MP Graham Jones, who was seeking re-election, after he said in leaked private comments, “I’m sure when [world leaders] go home, like me, pardon my French [they say] ‘f**king Israel’ again.” Starmer himself hasn’t been an unqualified supporter of Israel. He urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to halt attacks on the Gazan city of Rafah, and he has called for a “ceasefire that lasts.” But Starmer has insisted on militant message discipline with regard to the issue, especially as the party continues to get a moderate makeover under his leadership. In 2022, Starmer told Labour’s annual conference that he had to “rip antisemitism out [of the party] by its roots.” He doesn’t want to lose that hard work over the issue, and he’s thus been proactive in punishing members of his party who have colored outside of the lines on the issue. And his strategy has been electorally successful; Labour won 412 of the 650 seats in parliament, decimating their rivals. Across the English Channel in France, the war in Gaza has further exposed fault lines between the far-left and the center-left. But after the first round of France’s own snap parliamentary elections showed a surging far-right, everyone to their left — the center-right, center-left and far-left — agreed to ban together to stop Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party from taking control of government. Still, that hasn’t stopped the center-right and center-left in particular from hitting the far-left hard on Israel. Over the past six months, the mudslinging on the left became increasingly vicious. The parliamentary coalition between the two main leftist parties — the radical France Unbowed and center-left Socialist Party — collapsed over France Unbowed’s refusal to brand Hamas a “terrorist” organization. Opponents of far-left firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon of the France Unbowed party have consistently accused him of using antisemitic dogwhistles. Despite this rupture, both parties managed to put these differences aside to play their role in a broader leftwing coalition within a few days of President Emmanuel Macron’s shock decision to call snap elections. “To prevent the far right from coming to power, there comes a time when we have to look beyond our differences,” said former center-left President François Hollande, now running under the banner of a united left. But now, some French leaders are calling for a moderate government that excludes Mélenchon. French President Emmanual Macron himself is hoping that the center-left and far-left coalition won’t hold, partly because of his distaste for Mélenchon’s views on Israel and Jews. During a press conference earlier this month, Macron said social-democrats should not follow the Socialists into a partnership with the “extreme-left,” which, he said, “is guilty of antisemitism.” In the United States, meanwhile, party leadership is more diffuse and less able to mold their coalition in their image. With only two major parties, Democrats and interest groups have turned their attention inwards to the further left elements of their own party. Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) lost a primary challenge that largely turned into a referendum on his views on Israel, in large part thanks to outside spending that made it the most expensive House primary race ever. Prominent national Democrats took somewhat of a hands-off approach to Bowman’s race, with House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) endorsing the incumbent Bowman but doing only a cursory amount to help his campaign. Jeffries’ spokesperson took a shot at the Justice Democrats, an organization that’s c alled on the DNC to condemn Israeli occupation of Palestine — and who first recruited Bowman to run in 2020 and backed him through the primary — telling The New York Times, “They have failed miserably in every way. Is anyone surprised?” And even though the pro-Israel wing of the Democratic Party isn’t exactly able to expel members they don’t like, pro-Israel sentiment at the top of the party is more decisive than ever. “[Israel] is the one place where Biden has moved to the right of the Obama era’s policies,” Daniel Schlozman, a professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University and the co-author of a book about how American political parties have trouble performing basic functions, says. “Biden has tried very hard in a lot of domestic politics to appeal to elements of the [Bernie] Sanders and [Elizabeth] Warren left. Since Oct. 7, he has tried very little of that with regard to Israel.” Biden’s personal proclivities haven’t stopped Republicans from attacking him on the issue — during the June 27 debate, former President Donald Trump said Biden has “become like a Palestinian — but they don’t like him because he’s a very bad Palestinian, he’s a weak one,” while insisting Biden doesn’t want to “finish the job” against Hamas. Should Biden lose in November, according to Schlozman, the issue of Israel will play into a cycle of recriminations as well. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com. Or contact tonight’s authors at cmchugh@politico.com and vgourylaffont@politico.eu or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @calder_mchugh and @Victorglaf.
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