For the last few decades, California has been an almost perfect indicator of where the national politics of the Democratic Party is heading.
The party’s extreme left-wing turn is the direct product of the experimental political farm more commonly known as the Golden State. The reason is not that the majority of Californians are die-hard left-wingers, though there are quite a number of those in San Francisco, the Bay Area, and Los Angeles. Yet the vast majority are not.
What enables this political adventurism, adapting the dangerous and extreme ideas, is the nearly complete capture of California’s political process by the Democratic Party. The party, and that is exactly how many refer to it, has captured the state’s power structures, and, most importantly, its educational institutions.
The process culminated during the COVID-19 lockdowns, and the school system produced kids brainwashed by left-wing propaganda. The poison absorbed by this new cohort of citizens contains: anti-Westernism, anti-capitalism, and, of course, antisemitism.
The old hatred of the Jews is back in vogue, presented in the “intellectual” wrapping of anti-Zionism. Elected officials recognize the trend. Representative Ro Khanna, an astute political animal, is, as always, in the vanguard in detecting where the low-hanging fruit of popularity hangs. The Jews are hanging low and must be picked.
Khanna has always been on the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. But being a progressive had, for years, been a rather broad political moniker. That wing included individuals like Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ro Khanna, and until recently, at least when it came to Israel, the difference was wide.
Khanna’s district is in the very heart of Silicon Valley. It is rich in technology, innovation, and affluence. It is also rich in Jews – rich Jews, and he has benefited tremendously from both.
Yes, he has never accepted any funds from AIPAC. However, Jewish individuals with very pro-Israel stands, along with the many organizations they funded and represented, have contributed lavishly to Khanna’s successful electoral campaigns.
On the subject of Israel, he has always maintained that morally dubious but common public position of recognizing “Israel’s right to exist.” This allowed Khanna, as well as many in the same political class, to be not offensive to Jews without actually being their friend. It provided an alibi to his fellow progressives and a reason for Jews to contribute (Jews love to vote for “it could be worse” types).
Khanna drifts to the far Left after Oct. 7
The political calculus changed dramatically following the October 7 massacre. The public opinion after the Hamas attack quickly shifted against Israel, and Khanna’s anti-Israel drift began. He aligned himself with the most extreme anti-Israel positions.
In 2025, he endorsed the genocide charge. He publicly agreed with a bogus, one-sided, and antisemitic in its intent United Nations commission’s finding that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza, making him one of the few members of Congress to explicitly support it. Few sane people supported the “findings” of this charge.
Khanna’s criticism of Israel has become a very vocal part of his public message, culminating in April 20, 2024, in voting against the Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act (part of a larger $95 billion foreign aid package for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan). He explained that he could not vote for “offensive military aid.”
In September 2025, he endorsed the Block the Bombs Act. This legislation was intended to prohibit the transfer of various offensive weapons, such as 1,000-pound bombs, that had been used in the war against Hamas.
In April 2026, together with Ocasio-Cortez and J Street, Khanna announced that he opposes US financial subsidies for the Iron Dome, which is known to be a technology of pure defensive nature. This decision marked a shift in his position.
There has not been a single anti-Israel position that Khanna has not supported, from the genocide blood libel to the Iron Dome financial aid. He still supports Israel’s right to exist, but only in a comatose state and maybe on life support.
If, for most progressives, being anti-Israel is part and parcel of their Bolshevik light anti-imperialism worldview, for Khanna, it is a well-thought-out strategic move. He is clearly thinking of his next move, perhaps running for the White House. That undertaking is a much different business than commanding the votes of Silicon Valley’s useful idiots.
With the White House run, Khanna will need much broader support. His latest outreach to the personalities on the fringe right, such as Marjorie Taylor Greene and Steve Bannon, shows he understands that the opposite far corners of the political spectrum do eventually link together.
If there is one definite, clear linkage between those two groups, it is their antisemitism presented as anti-Zionism. Khanna dismisses any charges of anti-Jewish bias as an absurd libel because of his humble South Asian background. That retort reminds one of the old Soviet claim that neither a farmer nor a factory worker can be antisemitic because of class solidarity.
Khanna is not antisemitic. He does not hate Jews. He just does not mind using their plight in a moment of peril to his immediate political advantage.
But if history provides us with any lesson, then Khanna should take notice: betting against Jews is not a good bet.
The author lives and works in Silicon Valley, California. He is a founding member of San Francisco Voice for Israel.