Eleven days after Hamas terrorists poured into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing at least 1,400 people and kidnapping more than 230, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul arrived in Israel with a photo of a Long Island native in hand to give to the president of the besieged country.
Hochul, the Democratic governor of a state that has the largest Jewish population in the world outside of Israel, told the media in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack that she wanted to “bear witness” to the tragedy, show New York’s “unwavering” support of Israel and make sure that missing New Yorkers such as Omer Neutra — an Israeli tank commander believed to be one of the people taken captive by the Islamic extremist group that controls Gaza — are not forgotten.
“I needed to comfort a nation,” she told MSNBC after she returned, describing the harrowing, bloody sights of a kibbutz that had been attacked. She had walked the streets of the community in a flak jacket, surrounded by Israeli security forces.
“There are so many people that I know that are suffering,” she added. “Everybody knew somebody. Everybody experienced real pain, and I needed to go over there to let people know that we stand with Israel.”
Governors across the country have shown overwhelming support for Israel following this month’s Hamas attack, during which terrorists murdered mostly civilians, targeting them at a music festival and in their homes. Responses have ranged from strongly worded statements, to lowering flags to half-staff, to lighting state capitols in blue and white in honor of the Israeli flag, to attending rallies for Jewish groups, to spending millions on Israel Bonds, to chartering flights from Israel to the U.S., to visiting Israel itself.
Rarely do governors of both parties almost universally agree. But supporting Israel is popular among Americans in both parties — and historically it has been a prerequisite for any governor with presidential ambitions.
While governors hold limited international power and have little ability to shape American foreign policy, they do speak on behalf of an entire state’s population, said Chris Tuttle, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonpartisan think tank. For foreign leaders, forging ties with a U.S. elected leader who represents millions of voices can be an asset. For governors, such relationships can boost their domestic political standing, he said.
“For a lot of governors, this is not their final chapter,” he said. “And it’s tough for governors to say, ‘I have foreign policy street cred,’ in a presidential election. So, this is definitely an investment in their potential political future.”
For most governors, supporting Israel is a relatively noncontroversial stand to take: Seventy-one percent of Americans, including a large majority of both Democrats and Republicans, think protecting Israel should be a very important or somewhat important goal of U.S. foreign policy, according to an Economist/YouGov poll taken after the Oct. 7 terrorist attack.
Evidence of the atrocities committed in the attack, including the murder and kidnapping of children, young women and Holocaust survivors — much of it filmed by the terrorists and shared on social media — elicited a visceral reaction from many politicians. In an emotional speech in Tel Aviv, President Joe Biden called the attacks “unadulterated evil.”
But the quick and firm support for Israel by governors has left many of their Muslim constituents feeling abandoned. They say their state leaders are ignoring the growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza and giving short shrift to the thousands of people, including many children, who have been killed in the airstrikes Israel launched in preparation for a ground invasion to crush Hamas. Meanwhile, many younger Democrats and those in the party’s left wing are increasingly critical of Israel’s response.
Playing an international role
Hochul met with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog, toured Jerusalem, prayed at the Western Wall and visited hospital victims.
It was her first international trip as governor — a “solidarity mission,” as Hochul called it, that was celebrated by many of her Jewish constituents back home.
Traveling to Israel, meeting with victims and hearing their stories to share with Americans back home was “very powerful,” said Noam Gilboord, interim CEO of the nonprofit Jewish Community Relations Council of New York. Hochul’s decision to visit Israel showed Jewish New Yorkers that she cares about them, especially as they feel the threat of potential violence in their own communities, he said.
“It’s personal for us,” he said in an interview with Stateline. “This show of solidarity, the show of leadership was very important.”
But some in New York were hurt by Hochul’s initial message to Palestinian Americans after Israel declared war on Hamas and started its bombardment of Gaza. Hochul called on “law-abiding Palestinians to reject Hamas” but did not offer sympathy to constituents who may have relatives or friends who died in Gaza or who are experiencing the humanitarian crisis there.
Democratic Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani said Hochul’s statements — and trip to Israel —were “dehumanizing,” “willfully ignorant” and “disgusting.”
“For her, these constituents, their concerns, they don’t matter,” Mamdani said in an interview with Stateline. “To know the deep pain that has caused so many in this state, not just Palestinian Americans, but the many New Yorkers of conscience for whom any civilian life is one to be mourned and whose death is to be condemned.”
Many Muslim New Yorkers, he added, have reached out to him to say they doubted whether they could vote for Hochul again.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a potential 2028 Democratic presidential hopeful whose state also has a large Jewish population, took a wide detour from a previously scheduled trip to China this month to visit Israel to show “solidarity and support.” There, he met with Netanyahu, Herzog and victims of the terrorist attack with California connections.
Newsom also announced an additional $20 million in state funding to pay for security at nonprofit institutions, including synagogues and mosques, in his state. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, both Republicans, also have announced millions in new grant funding to pay for security measures at houses of worship.
By contrast, Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis — a current presidential candidate who has declared himself to be the most pro-Israel governor in America — has refrained from taking a trip to Israel, saying it would not be “ productive.” However, DeSantis has chartered flights to bring Americans out of Israel at no cost to them and has sent two cargo planes filled with supplies to Israel.
At first, the DeSantis administration said the cargo planes were filled with donated medical supplies, clothing, hygiene products and children’s toys. Last week his spokesperson said the flights also carried drones, body armor and helmets and that the state had worked with private groups to supply weapons and ammunition as well. However, Israel’s consul general in Miami said DeSantis only helped expedite paperwork for a previously arranged shipment of “rifle parts.”
Since the 1950s, governors have traveled abroad, primarily to establish trade partnerships. But when it comes to an event like the generation-defining terrorist attack earlier this month, governors are going to feel motivated to respond further, said Lucas McMillan, a professor of political science at South Carolina’s Lander University.
“People don’t like to stay in their lanes,” said McMillan, who authored a book on the involvement of state governments in U.S. foreign relations. “Voters in this globalized world do expect the governor to represent the state, and the state’s interests are now not locked into the state’s borders.”
The economic ties can reverberate personally when foreign partners are in trouble. Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who has prioritized an economic partnership with Israel during his time in office, told Forbes the Oct. 7 attack affected him personally because he had gotten to know people who live there. After the attack, he instructed the state treasurer to buy $10 million in Israel Bonds, which the Israeli government issues to investors to raise money.
Illinois made a similar investment in recent weeks, building on Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker’s outspoken support for Israel since the attack. Pritzker said after the attack that Illinois “unequivocally” supported Israel. He also saluted “peace-loving Palestinians.”
Jewish leaders praised Pritzker for his support.
“It was important for those who elected him to know exactly where he stood, and he stood on the side of the angels in this case,” said Dan Goldwin, the executive director of the Chicago-based Jewish United Fund, which hosted the communal gathering where the governor spoke.
Muslim concerns
Since Oct. 7, there have been 312 antisemitic incidents across the U.S., up 388% compared with the same period last year, according to the Anti-Defamation League, a civil rights group that fights antisemitism and bias. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil liberties organization, has reported a similar spike: The group said there have been 774 anti-Muslim incidents since the Hamas attack, the largest wave of complaints it has received since December 2015, when presidential candidate Donald Trump declared his intention to ban Muslim immigrants.
In the Chicago area earlier this month, a man stabbed the 6-year-old son of his Palestinian American tenants to death, piercing him 26 times. The boy’s mother also was stabbed but survived the attack. Pritzker, the Arab American Bar Association of Illinois and Jewish groups condemned the rise in hate and violence.
While gubernatorial support has been a comfort to Jewish Americans, many Muslim Americans feel abandoned and slighted by what they see as a muted official reaction to the Palestinian deaths in Gaza.
Imad Hamad, executive director of the American Human Rights Council, a civil rights group based in Dearborn, Michigan, said he was frustrated by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s statement that she is “unequivocally supportive of Israel.” Dearborn has one of the nation’s largest concentrations of Muslim residents.
Whitmer’s original statement after the Oct. 7 attack was criticized by Jewish leaders for not being strong enough in supporting Israel. She quickly changed course — a path that diverged from many local Democratic and Muslim leaders in her state. Her first international trip as governor was to Israel in 2019.
“This bloodshed, unfortunately, is tagged with our American signatures,” Hamad said. “The governors should be considerate and sensitive to their constituents. They cannot be biased.
