Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, a Democrat widely seen as a likely 2028 presidential candidate, said in a newly published interview that he regretted describing Israel as an apartheid state, just weeks after using the term.
In his earlier comments, made during an interview promoting his recently published memoir, Mr. Newsom had suggested that the United States should reconsider its military support for Israel and that some were “talking about it appropriately as sort of an apartheid state.” Israel has long denied such accusations.
But in an interview published on Tuesday in Politico, Mr. Newsom said that he regretted using the word “apartheid” to describe Israel “in this context,” and suggested that had meant to refer to the potential future direction of Israel, not its current policies.
Mr. Newsom said he had been referring to an opinion essay by Thomas L. Friedman, a columnist for The New York Times. In the essay, Mr. Friedman had written that if the war in Iran enabled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to win the country’s elections planned for this year, it would “be a major propellant to his efforts to annex the West Bank, cripple the Israeli Supreme Court and make Israel an apartheid state.”
Mr. Newsom said in the Politico interview “that is a legitimate concern I have, that I share with Tom — that that direction, if that vision and that direction of the far right that Bibi is indulging, that if they see the full annexation of the West Bank, then that’s not something — that’s a word you may hear others use.”
At another point, when asked if he considered himself a Zionist, Mr. Newsom repeated the question before saying, “I revere the state of Israel.”
“I’m proud to support the state of Israel,” he added. “I deeply, deeply oppose Bibi Netanyahu’s leadership, his opposition to the two-state solution and deeply oppose how he is indulging the far right as it relates to what’s going on in the West Bank.”
Mr. Newsom has long been a supporter of Israel. He traveled there in the aftermath of the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, and met families of those who were kidnapped or killed.
But more recently, he has emphasized his criticism of the country’s right-wing government and its supporters. This year, he said he “never will” accept money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobbying group that has fiercely divided Democrats.
Some Jewish groups had criticized Mr. Newsom’s earlier remarks and urged him to clarify his comments.
Democrats are deeply divided over the United States’ support for Israel. While some party leaders still staunchly back the country and American military aid for it, polls show that Democratic voters have grown more skeptical of Israel and more sympathetic to Palestinians. The issue has already split candidates and voters in some of this year’s congressional primary elections, and is likely to play a role in the 2028 presidential primary contest.
Jennifer Medina is a Los Angeles-based political reporter for The Times, focused on political attitudes and demographic change.
The post Newsom Says He Regrets Remarks Comparing Israel to ‘Apartheid State’ appeared first on New York Times.
