American supporters of Israel, alarmed over recent Democratic Socialists of America electoral victories in New York City, Los Angeles, and Denver, are tarring DSA and progressive candidates as antisemites for their criticisms of Israeli government policies. Despite the overheated rhetoric, the candidates’ statements that are being attacked are not antisemitic. Generally speaking, they are not even inaccurate.

The Editorial Board of the California Post–counterpart to the New York Post, both owned by News Corp –says that Los Angeles City Council member Nithya Raman, a DSA member, has “brought anti-Israel hatred to the race for mayor.” California Post opinion editor Joel Pollak even writes that Raman “shares the genocidal intent of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, which is to destroy the Jewish state and murder its inhabitants.” Did Los Angeles coffee shops run out of decaf?

Raman, who finished a strong second in a field of 14 and could become LA’s next mayor, is under fire for telling a podcatser that she agreed that Israel has committed “genocide” in Gaza.

Agree or disagree, it is by no means a baseless term. A February 2025 study of deaths due to traumatic injury in the Gaza Strip between Oct 7, 2023, and June 30, 2024 found the “annualised crude death rate was 39.3 per 1000 people, representing a rate ratio of 14 [times as many] compared with all-cause mortality in 2022, even when ignoring non-injury excess mortality.” 

The study, published in Lancet, found that women, children under 18, and men aged 65 or older accounted for nearly 60% of the deaths for which age and sex data were available. 

Moreover, numerous Israeli and international human rights groups have called Israel’s actions in Gaza a “genocide”–somehow Raman has what Pollak calls “truly irrational hatred” for Israel simply because she agrees with them.

Israel’s supporters are similarly criticizing prominent DSAers like New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and recent........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)