The Democrats’ rising star Gavin Newsom offers more of the same: Zionism and militarism.
Those who want to cast a vote against Israel’s war on Gaza in next year’s presidential election have no choices except Dr. Jill Stein and Dr. Cornel West . Biden is 1000% behind Israel, as are Trump and all his Republican competitors, and independent RFK Jr. may be the worst pro-Zionist contender among them. Biden’s seeming heir apparent, California Governor Gavin Newsom, had the colors of the Israeli flag projected on the state capitol building on October 9, then flew off to Israel to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog and grandstand about how personal Israeli anguish had become to him after meeting with survivors of the October 7 Hamas attack. His official statement said nothing about Gaza or Palestine.
In late November, Newsom chastised the Oakland City Council for passing a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza without condemning Hamas.
Several years back, when the California Department of Education (CDE) released a draft curriculum for high school ethnic studies classes in 2019, it mentioned BDS and activists like Linda Sarsour. Jewish groups then accused the CDE and the governor of anti-Semitism, after which Newsom assured Jewish News of Northern California that the draft “will never see the light of day” and called it “offensive in so many ways.” In the rewrite, there was no exploration of Palestine to be found.
Newsom’s rising star
With Biden’s health and faculties constantly in question, prominent op-eds demanding he step down, and a “Don’t Run, Joe” campaign buying television ads, Governor Newsom’s star is shining as brightly as the blue and white he had projected on the state capitol tower. He even took it upon himself to debate Florida Governor and presidential candidate Ron DeSantis on Fox News. With his good looks, smooth demeanor, and liberal Dem credentials, he’s all but sure to compete for the crown whether in 2024 or 2028. His term as California governor will end in 2027, just in time for him to launch a 2028 campaign.
Newsom’s Zionism goes way back
In March 2008, when he was the mayor of San Francisco, the Jewish Community Federation arranged Newsom’s all-expense paid junket to Israel to celebrate the 60th anniversary of its founding. While there he promised to “continue the narrative for another 600 years.”
The San Francisco Chronicle reported on the mayor’s trip , and to its credit, also ran a guest column by Palestinian refugee Ramiz Rafeedie , who pointed out that 2008 was also the 60th anniversary of al-Nakba, when two out of three Palestinians, nearly 700,000 people, were forced to flee their homes.
The goal of Newsom’s trip was to create connections between Bay Area and Israeli business leaders, and many executives, including Richard Blum, the late husband of the late US Senator Dianne Feinstein, went along.
As governor, Newsom has been even better suited to encourage collaboration between US and Israeli corporations like those promoted by the California Israel Chamber of Commerce. These include those with Lockheed Martin , the US military’s largest defense contractor, as described on the company’s “Lockheed Martin in Israel ” website:
In November 2004, Lockheed Martin completed its undertaking for industrial collaboration with Israeli companies and for offset acquisitions in Israel as part of the Peace Marble V program. Originally planned to deliver over the course of 12 years, the resulting work – at a volume of $1.45 billion – was delivered in less than five. Approximately 40 Israeli companies, mainly in defense, technology, venture capital and research and development, were positively impacted by this collaboration.
A decade later, as part of the F-35 program Lockheed Martin signed Industrial Participation agreements with additional Israeli defense companies. In early November 2014, a new production line for F-35 wing boxes was inaugurated at Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI). As part of the contract [with] Lockheed Martin, IAI will manufacture over 800 pairs of wing skins over the course of 15 years, at a total financial volume of approximately $2.5 billion. In addition, several agreements of industrial participation are already being conducted with additional Israeli companies, including Elbit Systems, Cyclone, Tadiran and others. The collaboration between Lockheed Martin and Israeli industries is expected to exceed $4 billion. According to the Ministry of Defense, by the end of 2016, US $933 million worth of agreements were signed.
Like most defense contractors, Lockheed Martin is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, but Lockheed Martin Aeronautics manufactures in Marietta, Georgia and Palmdale, California.
Zionist Militarist
“Zionist militarist” may seem like a redundant term, but Newsom’s militarism apart from his commitment to Israel is worth noting. In 2007, when I was living in San Francisco and Gavin Newsom was mayor, there was an ill-fated activist rebellion against the Blue Angels Air Show which comes to town every year with Fleet Week. San Francisco, like any other city in the US, can decide not to host Fleet Week or the Blue Angels—or the Air Force Thunderbirds, but despite multiple activist campaigns, none have ever martialled the will.
The Navy’s Blue Angels website says that a city must actually “request” an air show every year but without specifying a process, so I called then Senator Barbara Boxer to ask who’d requested that year’s air show, and within five minutes received a return call to say that Mayor Newsom had. I then submitted an FOIA to the mayor’s office requesting a copy of the request and was instead sent copies of Newsom’s correspondence with then Secretary of the Navy Donald C. Winter. Newsom said nothing about a request, so that had apparently been assumed, but he did reassure the secretary that he would “take care of Chris Daly,” the left-leaning supervisor who had agreed to bring the issue to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (the equivalent of a city council since San Francisco is both a city and a county.)
In 2005, during the Iraq War, the Board passed a resolution to fly the flag over City Hall at half-mast on a Saturday to commemorate all the Iraq War dead, including Iraqis, but Mayor Newsom overruled them , ordering that it not be lowered.
Last year, on 9/11/2023, he issued a proclamation that 9/11 would from then on be Patriot Day in California, with flags flown at half-mast for all those who died on 9/11 and the 7000 US soldiers who have died in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the broader War on Terror. He didn’t mention the other losses tallied by Brown University’s Costs of War Project —the $8 trillion cost, the 900,000 dead by bombs, bullets, or fire, the millions more killed by disease, displacement and loss of access to food or clean drinking water, or the tens of millions of refugees.
Ann Garrison is a Black Agenda Report Contributing Editor based in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2014, she received the Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza Democracy and Peace Prize for her reporting on conflict in the African Great Lakes region. She can be reached at ann(at)anngarrison.com.