Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic former House speaker, has criticized two of her party’s most prominent progressives — Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York City and Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Michigan — over their views on Israel.
Asked in a podcast interview released Thursday about their refusal to endorse Israel as a Jewish state, Ms. Pelosi said the two men were “wrong.”
Her comments reflected how Israel’s war in Gaza and the American-Israeli war against Iran have fractured Democrats. The United States’ military support of Israel has divided both parties, although the skepticism is far more widespread among Democrats.
Both Mr. Mamdani and Dr. El-Sayed, Muslim politicians who belong to the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, have faced pushback from some rabbis and Jewish organizations for declining to endorse Israel as a Jewish state. The men have said that their criticism is aimed at the Israeli government and that they respect the Jewish community.
Mr. Mamdani has long criticized Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, which was set off by the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, that killed about 1,200 people in Israel. The Israeli war in Gaza has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians, according to Gazan health officials.
Mr. Mamdani has said he supports Israel “as a state with equal rights” but not one that is based on privileging one religion.
Dr. El-Sayed has disputed any country’s right to be organized around an ethnic, racial or religious group. He has also opposed U.S. military support to foreign nations. “An ally that takes your money to push you into wars you shouldn’t be fighting is not an ally,” he said of Israel in a recent television interview.
Ms. Pelosi’s comments came on the “On Brand” podcast hosted by Donny Deutsch, an advertising executive and former cable news personality. Mr. Deutsch said it was “upsetting,” as a lifelong Democrat and a Jewish man, to see such leaders in the party appear to abandon their support for Israel.
“When you say Israel doesn’t have the right to be a Jewish state, that’s antisemitic, as far as I’m concerned,” Mr. Deutsch said.
“Who says that?” Ms. Pelosi asked. Mr. Deutsch named Mr. Mamdani and Dr. El-Sayed, adding that their views were “concerning.”
“It’s more than concerning: It’s wrong,” Ms. Pelosi said. “And it isn’t a reflection of the Democrats in Congress.”
She also said that Democrats needed to win in next Tuesday’s midterm elections, and that it was necessary to distinguish individual politicians’ views from the party’s broader consensus. Dr. El-Sayed is locked in a close Senate race in Michigan whose outcome could help determine which party controls the chamber.
“We have to win big, so that doesn’t really matter,” Ms. Pelosi said. “People represent their districts, and we have to respect that,” she said. She later added that “that doesn’t mean it has an impact on the consensus of the Democratic Party.”
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