The Warning Sign Israel Cannot Afford to Ignore
This article was originally published on Makor Rishon in June 2026.
Yesterday’s primary elections should alarm you. Several candidates aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America and backed by New York political star Zohran Mamdani won Democratic primaries in districts so overwhelmingly Democratic that they are headed to Congress. Among them is Darializa Avila Chevalier who emerged from a political movement that increasingly treats Zionism as a moral offense rather than the national liberation movement of the Jewish people.
These DSA victories are not the story. They are the symptom. Anti-Zionism and antisemitism describe the same evil hatred under different names. Israelis know better. Wordplay cannot hide the visceral animosity Israelis and Jews now face everywhere. Zionism is not a political party. It is not Benjamin Netanyahu. It is not a particular government policy. Zionism is the belief that the Jewish people have the right to govern themselves in their ancestral homeland. When activists deny that right to Jews while supporting it for virtually every other people on earth, we do not hear criticism of policy—we recognize a resurgent threat to our very existence.
That is why the emergence of candidates such as Avila Chevalier matters. Avila Chevalier attended a pro-Palestinian rally on October 8, 2023, while Israelis were still identifying bodies from the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. She later defended her attendance. During her campaign she faced criticism over her reluctance to unequivocally condemn Hamas in a manner that satisfied even some progressive organizations. A generation ago, these facts would have ended her congressional campaign. Today, Avila Chevalier’s statements are not just politically survivable—they earn votes. That should concern us.
Political change begins in culture before it reaches government. The anti-Zionist movement spent years building influence on university campuses. Then it spread through activist organizations. Then it found a home on social media. Now it is producing elected officials. Millions of young Americans receive their political education from online personalities rather than traditional institutions. Among the most influential is Hasan Piker, who once declared that “America deserved 9/11.” Shockingly, a man who publicly justified the greatest terrorist attack in American history commands an audience measured in the millions and exerts enormous influence over young progressive voters.
That influence does not end with America. The same worldview portrays Israel as a colonial enterprise, minimizes the threat posed by Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, excuses political violence when committed by favored groups, and teaches young people to view Zionism as uniquely illegitimate. The students who absorbed these ideas became activists. The activists became organizers.The organizers became campaign staff. The campaign staff became candidates. Now the candidates are becoming members of Congress.
American present supportive of Israel is not guaranteed tomorrow. The future leadership of one of America’s two major political parties increasingly views Israel with suspicion, Zionism with hostility, and Jewish national self-determination as something that requires justification. That reality should concern every Israeli. It should concern every American Jew. And it should motivate both communities to become politically active. The lesson from New York is not that Israel has already lost America. The lesson is that the fight for America’s future view of Israel is well underway, and Israel has some catching up to do.
