Gavin Newsom called Israel "sort of an apartheid state" three weeks ago during a book tour event. This week, after facing backlash from pro-Israel lobby groups and Democratic allies like Josh Shapiro and John Fetterman, he went back to Politico to clarify that he actually meant it as a future possibility, not a present reality. He now says he "regrets" using the term "in this context" and was simply referencing a Tom Friedman column about the direction Netanyahu is heading.
This is what political cowardice looks like in real time. Newsom said something that 41% of Americans already agree with, according to Gallup's own polling, which found that more Americans now sympathize with Palestinians than Israelis for the first time in the history of the poll. He said something that Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the UN have all documented extensively. He said something that South Africa, a country that actually lived under apartheid, has affirmed at the International Court of Justice. And the moment a handful of lobby groups pushed back, he folded.
The backtrack is the tell. Newsom is widely expected to run for president in 2028, and this is him calculating in public. He is not walking back the statement because it was wrong. He is walking it back because he thinks it will cost him something. That calculation tells you everything about who Democratic politicians believe they answer to, and it is not the growing majority of Americans who are watching Israel burn children alive in designated safe zones with weapons paid for by their tax dollars.