{"id":32107,"date":"2026-06-07T11:49:36","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T08:49:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/?p=32107"},"modified":"2026-06-07T11:51:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T08:51:13","slug":"the-dnc-autopsy-doesnt-mention-the-jewish-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/the-dnc-autopsy-doesnt-mention-the-jewish-state\/","title":{"rendered":"The DNC autopsy doesn\u2019t mention the Jewish state"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The postmortem seems to have raised more questions than it answered\u2014and the role of pro-Israel policy may only be one of them.<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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Perhaps it was much ado about nothing. After a torrent of calls to release the \u201cautopsy\u201d of the 2024 election, in late May, the Democratic National Committee finally published the unedited and unabridged report it had been sitting on for more than a year, which it had previously vowed it would not make public. While the abbreviated Harris campaign had visibly struggled in the 2024 presidential contest, the months of waiting for the DNC autopsy allowed for much unfounded speculation about the causes of her defeat. Increasingly, persistent rumors about pro-Israel policy alienating progressive voters became a central pillar of the interim, unofficial postmortem in the public square.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Yet when the autopsy finally arrived, the much-anticipated words (or even topics) \u201cGaza,\u201d \u201cIsrael\u201d or \u201cJews\u201d did not appear even once in the 192 pages of what \u201cPod Save America\u201d host Jon Favreau called \u201cgobbledygook.\u201d Finally, it seemed to some that transparency would distinguish legitimate policy debate from claims that unfairly assigned collective responsibility to Jewish or pro-Israel Democrats.<\/p>\n

However, rather than accept the data and analysis of the report, progressives pivoted again\u2014suggesting that the glaring exclusion of Gaza was suspect and that their suspicions about its role in 2024 remain.<\/p>\n

What can be made of these sins of (possible) omission, and where does this leave some Jewish Democrats who still feel singled out for blame at the ballot box?<\/p>\n

At very least, it was clear from the summer of 2024 that Gaza was emerging as a divisive issue in the campaign\u2014and therefore could be considered as part of a multi-causal analysis in the autopsy. After all, by the time Harris became the Democratic nominee without competing in a primary, she had distanced herself from then-President Joe Biden\u2019s handling of the Israel-Hamas war but didn\u2019t offer much in the way of her own alternative vision.<\/p>\n

The matter came to a head at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, when the \u201cUncommitted\u201d movement, primarily composed of Arab and Muslim voters, and progressive and campus activists, was not offered a speaking timeslot (although the Goldberg-Polin family was). Controversy also swirled over the vice-presidential selection process, including as Pennsylvania\u2019s Jewish Gov. Josh Shapiro later confirmed in his best-selling memoir,\u00a0Where We Keep the Light<\/i>:\u00a0Stories From a Life of Service,<\/i>\u00a0that he had been grilled by vetters asking whether he had ever worked as an agent of Israel.<\/p>\n

While Harris highlighted her family connection to the Jewish community, she offered few specific commitments on issues many Jewish and Zionist voters prioritized, and spent considerable energy appealing to other constituencies.<\/p>\n

After the election, progressive activists and Democratic-adjacent commentators leaned into the explanation that Gaza\u2014or, more broadly, Israel and the pro-Israel community\u2014was a decisive factor in the 2024 loss, and could endanger both the midterms and 2028. Several Democratic figures and candidates, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ro Khanna of California, and presidential hopefuls California Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, wondered aloud about allegations of genocide in Gaza, conditioning or cutting U.S. aid to Israel, and a reassessment of U.S. relations with Israel and the Palestinians.<\/p>\n

In her 2025 memoir\u00a0107 Days<\/i>, Harris criticized Biden\u2019s \u201cblank check to Netanyahu\u201d and \u201cinadequate and forced\u201d concern for Gazans as contributing to her loss. The DNC seemed to have engaged with the role of Gaza when it leaked to\u00a0Axios<\/i>\u00a0that it was working with the Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU) Policy Project, a pro-Palestinian advocacy organization, to investigate the issue, although IMEU later accused the DNC of burying their contribution. By spring, when Harris began gearing up for a renewed presidential push, she pointedly told donors that she wanted the autopsy released.<\/p>\n

Is the report\u2019s omission of Gaza suspect or simply not relevant? Certainly, it was a divisive issue, and a lack of data on voter attitudes and behavior in the report means that we can\u2019t know how determinative it was at the ballot box either way. Further, the fact that DNC chair Ken Martin suddenly reversed course in hastily publishing the report, with the caveat that he felt under pressure to release it and didn\u2019t \u201cendorse\u201d it, hasn\u2019t helped allay concerns about what it does and does not contain.<\/p>\n

Democratic analysts have also noted other striking omissions and incomplete sections, including discussions of Biden\u2019s age and health status, and Harris\u2019s rushed nomination. Was this a report that wasn\u2019t quite ready for primetime, though it generally contained the major explanatory points? Or was it an unfinished document that didn\u2019t follow through on its remit, by omission, commission or otherwise of topics that related to the 2024 defeat?<\/p>\n

The postmortem seems to have raised more questions than it answered\u2014and the role of pro-Israel policy may only be one of them.<\/p>\n

But acknowledging the odd and opaque circumstances surrounding the report does not justify saying that \u201cthe Zionists,\u201d Jewish donors, or pro-Israel Democrats cost Harris the election. The question is not whether Gaza and Israel matter to many Democrats. The answer is still that Gaza and Israel are unlikely to explain everything about the 2024 election.<\/p>\n

The Democrats have many lessons to learn about their failures for the midterms and the 2028 general election. But the most important should be that a blame game can\u2019t replace rigorous data and analysis-driven interrogation of the party\u2019s successes and failures at the ballot box, especially at the cost of its loyal Jewish and Zionist constituencies. If it takes a second autopsy to get to the truth, including about Gaza, so be it.<\/p>\n

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