After the terrorist attacks by Hamas against Israeli civilians began earlier this month, there was condemnation across the political spectrum in the United States Congress for what amounted to an act of war.
Some Congressional Democrats, however, took a blame-the-victim approach, with Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) saying peace could not happen in the region until the U.S. ended “government support for Israeli military occupation and apartheid.”
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), whose parents are Palestinian immigrants, said, “As long as our country provides billions in unconditional funding to support the apartheid government, this heartbreaking cycle of violence will continue.”
The approach taken by North Carolina Democrats has also led to questions about just how divided they are as a party on the issue of support for Israel in response to the brutal attacks from Hamas which saw hostages taken, women raped and paraded naked through the streets, and infants murdered — with some of them being beheaded.
Gov. Roy Cooper has expressed “strong support and solidarity with the Israeli people” and ordered flags at half-staff, and Attorney General Josh Stein, a 2024 gubernatorial candidate, tweeted “I stand with Israel.”
But if you look at the North Carolina Democratic Party’s Twitter and Facebook pages, as of this writing you see not one post written even addressing the conflict in the Middle East, much less expressing support for Israel.
On the Twitter page of NC Dem Party chair Anderson Clayton, there was a whole lot of self-promotion, some tweets about supporting labor unions, a couple of acknowledgments about “Indigenous Peoples’ Day,” and mentions of the lawsuit Democrats are filing over SB 747, which they have predictably described as a “voter suppression bill.”
The lone mention of the Israel-Hamas war was a retweet she did of Cooper’s original statement.
Meanwhile, 12 state House Democrats decided to stage a walkout last week during the vote on a resolution in support of Israel.
As North State Journal reported, the “12 Democrat members” who walked out were Reps. John Autry (Mecklenburg County), Amber Baker (Forsyth), Gloristine Brown (Pitt) Kanika Brown (Forsyth), Maria Cervania (Wake), Terence Everitt (Wake), Pricey Harrison (Guilford), Nasif Majeed (Mecklenburg), Marcia Morey (Durham), Renee Price (Orange), Diamond Staton-Williams (Cabarrus), and Julie von Haefen (Wake).
On the Senate side, four Democrats refused to sign on to a statement of support for Israel. They were Sens. Julie Mayfield (D-Buncombe), Graig Meyer (D-Orange), Mujtaba Mohammed (D-Mecklenburg), and Natalie Murdock (D-Durham).
The North Carolina Democratic Party has in recent years been gripped by an increasing strain of anti-Israelism within its ranks, as evidenced by a series of resolutions they adopted in 2022, one of which alleged without evidence that Israel was engaging in “apartheid” against the Palestinian people.
Similar resolutions were attempted this year but the most controversial ones were dropped from consideration after heated debate.
Several of the Democrats in the House and Senate who turned their backs on showing support for Israel issued statements to the media explaining why they chose to do so, including some who suggested that they didn’t feel like it was a responsibility of the state legislature to weigh in on foreign policy.
Rest assured, however, had the shoe been on the other foot and had Israel been the one who was the aggressor, those same Democrats would be singing a much different tune.
The NC Democratic Party, much like the national party, has at the very least an anti-Israel problem and at worst an anti-Semitism problem. And unless it gets fixed, rank-and-file Democrat voters who support Israel but who have also remained loyal to the party despite this growing problem should ask themselves if it is worth it to continue to be affiliated with people who seem to be so conflicted over how and even if to take a stand.
North Carolina native Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym Sister Toldjah and is a media analyst and regular contributor to RedState and Legal Insurrection.
