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Members of the Democratic Party were quick to condemn the horrific Hanukkah attack in Australia, but one senator says their response clashes with years of anti-Israel rhetoric inside the party.
Sunday’s mass shooting at Sydney’s Bondi Beach left at least 15 people dead and dozens wounded. Australian authorities labeled the shooting an act of terrorism targeting the Jewish community. It sparked swift condemnation from top party politicians, from the center to the left, as well as a chorus of calls by leading Democrats to combat antisemitism.
But Democratic Sen. John Fetterman, a fierce supporter of Israel, warned of consequences for his party’s discord over the more than two years of fighting between the Jewish State and Hamas in Gaza. The senator criticized fellow Democrats for embracing what he called openly hostile, anti-Israel rhetoric that he said is now “becoming more and more part of my party’s platform.”
Fetterman’s comments come as the attack is likely to intensify pressure on the party, which is already facing internal fractures over the Israel–Hamas conflict that could define its 2026 electoral messaging.
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In the hours after this weekend’s mass shooting in Australia, Democrats instantly joined Republicans in raising warnings about the rising tide of antisemitism.
“As I have warned repeatedly, antisemitism is a scourge around the world that must be condemned loudly and fought vigorously at every turn,” Senate Democratic Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, who is Jewish, wrote.
And House Democratic Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York emphasized, “It is our collective responsibility to aggressively eradicate the poison of antisemitism whenever and wherever it is found.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is considered a potential top-tier contender for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, wrote that “we stand with the Jewish community worldwide against a rising tide of antisemitic violence and hate.”
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Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, another high-profile Democrat who may seek the White House in the next presidential election cycle, highlighted, “Antisemitism has no place in this world.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, a progressive champion who could potentially run for president in 2028, said she was “horrified by the attack on a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, Australia. My thoughts are with the victims and our Jewish communities in NYC mourning. As antisemitism rises across the world, we have a moral obligation to stamp it out everywhere it exists.”
And Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Ken Martin, in a statement, said, “We must all vigorously condemn antisemitism and hate at every turn, and the perpetrators of these evil acts must be brought to justice.”
While condemnation of the attacks was uniform among Democrats, the party has been anything but unified when it comes to bloodshed in Gaza, which was sparked by the bloody Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel.
Nearly 1,200 people in Israel were killed after Hamas ambushed them, with over 250 people taken hostage. In the more than two years since the attack, over 70,000 Palestinians, many of them women and children, were killed during Israel’s military response, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza.
Tensions between Democrats over the fighting flared at the DNC’s summer meeting in August, as a party committee voted on a symbolic resolution calling for an arms embargo and suspension of U.S. military aid to Israel, which has long been the top American ally in the Middle East.
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The divide among Democrats has Fetterman befuddled.
Pointing to anti-Israel comments from some on the left, Fetterman said this weekend in an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures, “I can’t imagine why so many parts of people in my party continue to back away or to kind of deflect… condemning these kinds of horrific acts of terrorism.”
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