California Governor Gavin Newsom said on Tuesday that he regrets using the word “apartheid" to describe the state of Israel, but added that he “deeply" opposes the leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Newsom made the controversial remarks during an interview with a political podcast earlier this month, suggesting that he agreed with claims that it is an “apartheid state" and questioning US military aid to the country.
During the conversation, while suggesting that Israel’s alleged influence over the US strikes in Iran was “pretty damn self-evident," Newsom took aim at Netanyahu.
“The issue of Bibi is interesting because he’s got his own domestic issues. He’s trying to stay out of jail, he’s got an election coming up, he’s potentially on the ropes, he’s got folks, the hard line, that want to annex the West Bank," said Newsom, adding that “others are talking about it appropriately as sort of an apartheid state."
When a host of the podcast asked Newsom whether he believed the United States should consider “rethinking our military support for Israel," the California governor replied, “It breaks my heart, because the current leadership in Israel is walking us down that path where I don’t think you have a choice."
However, in an interview with Politico on Tuesday, the California governor and potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate softened his remarks.
Asked whether he considers himself a Zionist, Newsom replied, “I revere the state of Israel. I’m proud to support the state of Israel. I deeply, deeply oppose Bibi Netanyahu’s leadership, his opposition to the two-state solution and deeply oppose how he is indulging the far-right as it relates to what’s going on in the West Bank."
He was then asked if he regrets using the word “apartheid" to describe Israel and replied, “I do in this context. I said it, and I referenced why I used it - a Tom Friedman article - in that same sentence where Tom used it in the context of the direction that Bibi is going."
Newsom was referring to an op-ed by Thomas Friedman of The New York Times, in which Friedman asserted that if the war in Iran enabled Netanyahu to win the country’s elections later this year, it would “be a major propellant to his efforts to annex the West Bank, cripple the Israeli Supreme Court and make Israel an apartheid state."
Newsom told Politico “that is a legitimate concern I have, that I share with Tom - that that direction, if that vision and that direction of the far right that Bibi is indulging, that if they see the full annexation of the West Bank, then that’s not something - that’s a word you may hear others use."