What’s Behind the Democrats’ Sudden Pivot on Hamas and Antisemitism?
By the time New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) posted, “Hamas is a terrorist organization that calls for the genocide of Jews,” it was clear that a hard pivot among Democrats was taking place.
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas militants carried out one of the most depraved acts of violence in modern memory. Their surprise assault on Israeli civilians left roughly 1,200 people dead and some 250 taken hostage. Even more chilling was the perpetrators’ evident glee: terrorists filmed and live-streamed their brutality, broadcasting scenes of barbarism across social media in real time.
Americans initially responded to the attacks with shock. In the days that followed, however, as Israel launched counterstrikes against Hamas in Gaza, Democrats’ early expressions of solidarity with the Jewish people began to give way to a more pronounced emphasis on the Palestinian cause — even as many Palestinians, according to polling and public displays, were affiliated with or expressed support for Hamas.
In the more than two years since the Oct. 7 massacre, Democrats have shown a growing and barely veiled contempt for the Jewish people. That’s why the sudden public expressions of concern about antisemitism from several Democratic leaders over the past few days have come as such a jolt.
Consider last week’s incident outside a synagogue in Queens, New York, where pro-Hamas protesters chanted, “Say it loud, say it clear, we support Hamas here.” In response, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) — who has long identified herself as pro-Palestinian — posted on social media: “Hey so marching into a predominantly Jewish neighborhood and leading with a chant saying ‘we support Hamas’ is a disgusting and antisemitic thing to do.”
Hey so marching into a predominantly Jewish neighborhood and leading with a chant saying “we support Hamas” is a disgusting and antisemitic thing to do.
Pretty basic! https://t.co/Zx4wJPCPfP
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 10, 2026
A reporter asked New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to comment on the antisemitic protesters on Friday, the same Mamdani who refused to condemn the slogan “Globalize the intifada” during his campaign. The mayor said that language “has no place in New York City” and is “wrong.”
NEW: @ZohranKMamdani responds to my question about the "We support Hamas" protest in Queens. Says the language "has no place in NYC" and is "wrong."
His brief condemnation offers a look into the first of many tests Mamdani will face on antisemitism → https://t.co/L1TQhYHHoA pic.twitter.com/PwmnM55H2e
— Jason Beeferman (@JasonBeeferman) January 9, 2026
Mamdani followed up with a social media post on the subject. He wrote: “As I said earlier today, chants in support of a terrorist organization have no place in our city. We will continue to ensure New Yorkers’ safety entering and exiting houses of worship as well as the constitutional right to protest.”
As I said earlier today, chants in support of a terrorist organization have no place in our city. We will continue to ensure New Yorkers’ safety entering and exiting houses of worship as well as the constitutional right to protest. pic.twitter.com/0J4GXWigiv
— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) January 9, 2026
More shocking still was a post on X from Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D), who shared a photo of himself shaking the hand of a young Jewish boy with the caption, “Shabbat Shalom, Illinois.”
By the time New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) posted, “Hamas is a terrorist organization that calls for the genocide of Jews,” it was clear that a hard pivot among Democrats was taking place.
As the commenter on X notes below, “Something is going on. Messaging has been delivered, and messaging is driven by polling.”
You have AOC and Mamdani coming out condemning Hamas and then Pritzker tweeting this out. Something is going on. Messaging has been delivered and messaging is driven by polling. https://t.co/eHGhRDRR3o
— Aristonkle (@ParanoidPol) January 10, 2026
For over two years, these same politicians embraced anti-Israel activism wherever it surfaced — on college campuses and beyond. Now, in near lockstep, they have changed direction entirely.
This is no accident; it is coordinated messaging — and we have seen this movie before. Word has come down from party leadership that a pivot away from the Democratic Party’s antisemitic excesses toward a more Israel-friendly posture is politically necessary if Democrats hope to win back the House in November. Party leaders have likely concluded, based on focus groups, polling, and donor sentiment, that the majority of Americans continue to support Israel and unequivocally condemn the terrorist organizations that seek its destruction.
The talking points just dropped.
Now they’re condemning Hamas.
The Democrats are pure phonies. pic.twitter.com/TUzc1ocsAJ
— Gina Milan (@ginamilan_) January 10, 2026
Another theory is that Democrats, closely monitoring events in Iran, the primary sponsor of Hamas, believe the regional balance may be nearing a decisive moment — and are scrambling to ensure they are aligned with the side that ultimately prevails.
But there may be more to the party’s sharp reversal on this issue than meets the eye. Some observers speculate that Democrats intend to capitalize on the antisemitic drift of certain prominent Republicans — Tucker Carlson comes to mind — to cast the party as a whole as hostile to Jews. As implausible as that may sound at first, it may be precisely the strategy now taking shape.
This theory has fueled debate on social media throughout the day.
The Left sees the grip Tucker has on the Right, on TPUSA, on Heritage, on our VP. They see number of our former heroes who've gone all in on anti-Zionism and Jew hatred. They see the push to mainstream Nick Fuentes. And they see the rise in deadly violence against Jews worldwide.… https://t.co/RsY5XpGBBc
— Abby Libby (@abbythelibb_) January 10, 2026
Despite the fact that he has undermined the administration at every turn they keep embracing him. There's more to the story of his continuing access than we know. https://t.co/Y82xok5U1w
— William A. Jacobson (@wajacobson) January 9, 2026
Now that Islamic cheerleaders like Tucker. Megyn, Matt Gaetz and others are driving away Republicans, the Democrats pretend to hate Hamas. https://t.co/mH282pqYqX
— Sloan Rachmuth (@SloanRachmuth) January 10, 2026
This reversal is real, and it is deliberate. And the strategy behind it — who it is meant to shield, who it is meant to target, and how it will be deployed — will come into sharper focus in the weeks ahead.
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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Comments
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
A verse that John says is addressed to “the Jews”, and that historically has been a major cause of and support for antisemitism. Thousands of Jews have died because of this verse and how it has historically been understood. While Christian apologists say it’s not aimed at Jews in general but only at some Jews, it’s still not a great idea to cite it in the context of this post. Tucker Carlson certainly understands it as Christians have historically done, as aimed at all Jews.
Jesus was obviously talking to a subset of the Jews. He was a Jew and his 12 disciples and other close followers were Jews, and only 1 of the 12 fit that description (the betrayer).
But I agree that this passage is one of many that has been taken out of context for an evil agenda.
As a Jew, I understand how Peter Moss is using this verse. He is appropriately directing it at the subjects of the article above. No harm done.
These Democrat leaders are also counting on the fact that Big Media will take pains to keep this pivot secret: “Oceania has always been at war with Hamas”.
This is the same Big Media that muted “drive baby drive.” They can be fully relied on to perform whatever pivot is considered necessary.
The question is not how many Democrat voters will immediately believe we have ALWAYS been at was with EastAsia… the question is, how many of their Jews will accept it?
All of them. They’ve been raised from childhood on the idea that Republicans are all antisemites, and accordingly their baby steps towards voting Republican have been very cautious. They see Carlson and Owens as the norm, and Trump as the exception, and will be only too happy to have their prejudices confirmed. They’ll eat it up.
This sudden shift in policy is very similar to the sudden shift in stopping illegal immigration by the democrats that started late summer of 2024 and continued for 4 or 5 months until Trump’s inaguration. Though it rapidly shifted back to protecting the illegal immigrants.
I think it might have had something to do with an upcoming election. Pure guess on my part.
What a wicked unsettling time we live in
I remember when Trump
Won the second (3) times, I could t stop smiling for a week
It’s been a long long time
Tucker needs to go, he’s very tight with Vance and that worries me
Oceania has always been at war with
EastasiaEurasia.It is an even numbered year
Exactly.
They’re all disgusting. A pox on all of them!
Democrat=leftist=liar.
The vile, stupid and evil Dhimmi-crats are disciples of Satan, the Father of Lies. Nothing that these pieces of excrement state, on any given day, can be trusted or believed, either in terms of its intrinsic meaning, or, in terms of the speakers’ motives.
“Democrats intend to capitalize on the antisemitic drift of certain prominent Republicans to cast the party as a whole as hostile to Jews.”
That makes more sense than any other of the theories I’ve heard. The polls haven’t changed recently, they’ve always shown the Dems support for Hamas to be very unpopular. It was clear that Iran’s ability to support Hamas had been extremely degraded after Israel kneecapped them months ago.
I’d say it’s more like they’ve concocted a strategy whereby their PR arm will start harping on every antisemitic thing ever uttered by Carlson and Fuentes et. al. while the dems pretend like they’ve been anti Islamist all along.
And there’s a chance it will work. They don’t have to fool us, they only have to fool some of the low information voters in the squishy middle; so I can’t fault it as a strategy.
Being Jewish in 3026: global pawns in everyone’s reindeer games. One second we are pariahs, the next scapegoats , the third toxic white people , the fourth the most evil white peoples ever and finally now victims. We are none of those things Democrats and many of us ( not all ) see through your shit.
Whoops 2026 oh well I won’t make it to 3026 !!!!
What’s going on is called “Taqiyya”. It is the muslim way of lying about something that is going to hurt Islam. Mamdani and his cult know that Muslims all over America are going to do some terrible things and this is their cheap way of countering it. What is so stupid, as Islam is, is that it is like an old oater where we know who the bad guys are at the beginning but the move pretends like we don’t. We know that if given the chance at power the left and Isalm would go to any extreme to maintain it. After the J6 inquisition, we know they would not have any second thoughts about lying and creating false narratives to get their way.
Agreed. They may look the same, but there is a huge difference between a hard pivot and a head fake.
Points for using the word “oater” in a sentence. 🙂
It is Dezhinformasia.
Subotai Bahadur
It’s for a midterm push of course.
Jewish voting blocs SHOULD be smarter than this but I don’t think they need much convincing just to keep trending the same way.
Many Jews in America are non-Jewish Jews, who don’t give a damn about Jewish issues. Jewish Jews have an 80+ percent support for Trump.
So which perspective is the “true” Dem side – the pro-Jew or pro-Hamas side? They bend with the political wind. It’s impossible to know which of their beliefs is core and which are manufactured for political advantage. Do they have a “true” side other than a willingness to misrepresent themselves (as standing for anything) in order to win elections? We think of them as commies and socialists, but wouldn’t they be capitalists and conservatives tomorrow if they thought they could ride such a representation of themselves into a position of perpetual power? Is communism and socialism their “core” or is this a mirage, a skin they’ve worn in the belief it will get them to where they want to be?
They have no true side.
Milhouse:
I find myself shocked to agree with everything you’ve said in this thread.
The collectivist/statist/authoritarians that actually run the Dem-wing have no set system of values, which means that they have no ethics, morals, or standards. What they DO have is their continuous drive for power and control over other people and the certainty that their ends completely justify their means. In my estimation this faked dumping of the Islamic-faction of their fascism comes from multiple reasons:
– The normies really don’t understand how the Dem-wing can support killing all the Jews (and it’s not being said, kill anybody who isn’t Muslim…and then kill all of the WRONG kind of Muslims). The Dem-wingers are afraid that they’re going to lose votes that they’d otherwise get if they DON’T distance themselves from the Islamo-whackos.
– The upper-crust of the Dem-wing run by Soros and the other billionaires are looking at the global situation, and deciding that since their supporters have the ephemeral attention span of a Mayfly that they can simply temporarily change their position now, and then change it back again.
– The lunatic anti-Semites in the Rep-wing (Tucker Carlson being the shining example of a fanatic) have already completely eliminated the possibility of American Jews deciding that the Dem-wing (as positioned by Tlaib, Omar, et cetera) don’t REALLY mean what they say when they’re told that they’re going to be wiped out. So they’re going to continue to vote as their red-diaper background tells them to without bothering to see where it might lead.
“We think of them as commies and socialists, but wouldn’t they be capitalists and conservatives tomorrow if they thought they could ride such a representation of themselves into a position of perpetual power?”
This is like asking whether locusts would abandon raiding and take up farming if it meant they would eat better. It’s meaningless, as they are incapable of it. Power in a capitalistic system derives from merit and competence, In a socialistic system, it derives from confidence games and guns.
Perhaps the Dem leadership realizes that a whole lot of illegal Muzzy voters are going away and that their anti-semitizm to garner those votes is going to be fully exposed in the next few election cycles.
It is really impressive to see how quickly the Dem mouthpieces change their tune. It’s almost as if they take directions from one place.
Probably it is inside the d/prog tent angst among donor class, some outside the tent bad polling numbers and an awareness that the ‘from the river to the sea’ slogan shouting in favor of Hamas/Hezbollah/ISIS is for a losing team. Add in the Iranian Gov’t bringing in these goons to try and suppress their own widespread protests. It’s a level of cognitive dissonance and obvious hypocrisy the d/prog are trying to avoid. I saw somewhere a very good question; how many of these d/prog wokiestas shouting ‘free Palestine’ are also shouting ‘free Iran’?
Nothing about Democrats is organic, spontaneous or authentic. Everything is manufactured. And because Democrats don’t stand for actually anything everything HAS to be manufactured.
Remember that the greatest genocide in history was the Mandami genocide in India killing 400 million Hindus and Buddhists. Never trust a word Mandami says.
There is no evidence for any “Mamdani genocide”.
Don’t make shit up.
He’s referring to an alleged genocide of Hindus by the Mughals and their predecessors, from the 11th through the 18th centuries. I’ve seen claims that the Moslems killed ten million a year, and kept it up for centuries. But there’s little or no evidence for it. And I don’t know what the name Mamdani is supposed to have to do with it. As far as I know there has never been a Mamdani kingdom or empire.
That softening of rhetoric before voting season.
All to rake in the bucks from understandably nervous Jewish (JINO) donors,
This so called “softening” is really just the Dem leadership whispering
“Too soon.”
Actions not recent words matter ultimately and actions by many democrats show their are antisemitic in addition to being anti-western, anti-white, anti-men, anti-women, anti-US, and just anti in general.
Three counters to this move that Mr. Trump and his team have to make —
1) the easy one. Sideline the Tucker Carlson types and others who are promoting antisemitism on the far right, This can be done without discouraging the core MAGA vote.
2) the almost as easy one. Ensure Iran becomes free. Hamas and Hezbollah either go away or become much less of a problem. Israel and the U.S. benefit substantially. Trump and his team make sure every Jewish organization and leader here know who did it and why.
3) the hard one. Genuine, legit, positive outreach to the Jewish communities. That’s pleural; as with Christian communities, there’s more than one. Some folks you won’t reach, some you will. But you have to make the effort, and it has to be sustained.
I’m comfortably certain that Trump is one of the few Pubs who can do this; I’m not certain if he’ll do #3.