FIRST PERSON

V IT WAS perhaps inevitable that any major flare-up of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians would ignite long-simmering tensions in the Democratic party over its historically close relationship with the Jewish state.

Last week, as Israel continued to come under a barrage of Hamas rocket attacks, its Democrat supporters and critics openly sparred both on social media and in Congress.

Many of the party’s big beasts, such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, echoed President Joe Biden’s line that “Israel has a right to defend itself when you have thousands of rockets flying into your territory.”

Others were more forceful: “No one here should make excuses for a terrorist organisation,” New Jersey’s Josh Gottheimer pointedly suggested in a debate in the House of Representatives. “Who is the next target of their sympathy? ISIS? Al Qaeda? Hezbollah? Even though we may not always agree about Israel’s policies, we should be very clear that nothing — nothing — justifies a terrorist organisation firing rockets at our ally.”

But some on the party’s left, such as Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar, were equally forthright in their attacks on Israel, accusing it of “blatant crimes against humanity and human rights abuses”.

As Omar’s remarks indicated, with the party edging to the left since 2016, the Democrats are no longer as reflexively or solidly supportive of the Jewish state as they have traditionally been.