The Israeli Lesson Democrats Ignore at Their Peril

What happens to democracy when a major political party loses its way and loses its connection with the electorate?

As an Israeli American and an independent U.S. voter, I’ve seen firsthand the damage that can be done in Israel, and now – if Democrats aren’t careful – in America. We can’t let the same mistakes happen here because a competitive party system is critical for a functioning democracy.

The Democratic Party is facing a serious challenge from the far left that mirrors the dynamics which drove the Israeli Labor Party from absolutely dominant to afterthought by the beginning of this century. The stark decline of Labor in Israel is a powerful lesson for the Democrats in how to misread, miscalculate, and ultimately miss the boat in speaking to an electorate with different needs, expectations, and worries.

Some history: From the early days of Israel’s establishment in the early 1900s, through the creation of the state in 1948 and through 1977, Labor (or its predecessors) fully controlled every Israeli government. Up until the late 1990s, Labor was competitive. Labor played as a center-left party, led in later years by Yitzhak Rabin as the last bastion of the Israeli founding fathers. He was seen as “Mr. Security” – a legendary leader of the military and minister of security and defense. Rabin sought peace through strength and governed from the mainstream. To counter the electoral power of the Labor Party, the opposition party, the Likud, played to the center (but not far) right.

After Rabin’s assassination, the dovish left wing seized its opportunity and took over. This wing of the party saw themselves as self-anointed visionaries and were far more socialist and dovish than the traditional leadership. While this group had always influenced the party, it had never been at the helm. Now it was different. The hard left celebrated its own enlightenment and success in finally “taking over” the leadership of the party and had a “we know better than you” attitude that was alienating to many voters.

Sound familiar?

Parties to Labor’s right took full advantage, running on platforms that made Labor appear increasingly out of touch with the security and economic concerns of the Israeli populace. Today, Labor holds just four of 120 seats in Israel’s parliament. The party is fully marginalized with no hope of a return to influence, much less to power. Instead, the Likud, once clearly right wing, has become “center.” Worse – to its right, ideologies that were once on the fringes have been normalized.

What should scare everyone is that Democrats are moving in a similar direction – a direction, as Israeli Labor has shown, that leads to becoming a non-factor in elections and will drive a hard-right realignment in American politics.

Look no further than the last few years to see how this is already happening in America. Donald Trump did not just win the elections. He did not only win all seven swing states. He also won the popular vote, and the Republicans – moving hard right – won both houses of Congress.

The leftward move in the Democratic Party was clearly out of touch in the 2024 election. Party leaders like Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her so-called Squad, among others, are highly vocal on issues that either alienate many voters or are just not important given today’s high prices and challenging economy for middle- and working-class families. Topics like transgender rights and defunding the police are off-putting and off base for many voters.

Trump’s 2024 win was resounding, even in places like New York City, which shifted dramatically rightward. And Republicans have been gaining in voter registration overall. Between 2020 and 2024, Democrats fell behind Republicans in all 30 states that maintain voter registration records by political party, with Republicans adding a net of 4.5 million voters in that period. Many of them are voters who feel the Democratic Party of today has left them behind.

What has the Democratic Party done in reaction? So far it seems that it has shifted even further to the left. AOC’s star is rising and gaining momentum, together with Bernie Sanders and the Squad. Mamdani and other extreme-left candidates are swarming. The Democrats even nominated the “AOC of Tennessee” for Congress in a recent special election and lost a potentially winnable race by presenting a hard-left candidate. There is a revolution happening in the Democratic Party and the center is clearly losing ground.

When we look at the Democrats today and the Labor Party’s story in Israel, history’s rhyme becomes louder and louder.

This shift to the left and the growing marginalization of the Democratic Party is bad for American democracy and should worry centrist Democrats and Republicans alike. I am looking at a party I once respected with anguish and despair. The 2024 election says I am not alone.

If there is hope for the Democrats, it lies in the outcome of the recent gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey, where centrist candidates won strong victories by focusing on core kitchen table economic issues – and by avoiding the woke rhetoric pushed by the party’s leftist cadres. Unlike the Israeli Labor Party, the Democrats must heed this message from the voters now – before it’s too late for the kind of democracy we expect in America.