State Sen. Scott Wiener’s video statement calling Israel’s war in Gaza a “genocide” garnered intense reactions on social media as soon as he posted it Sunday afternoon. The following day, he was harshly criticized by leaders of prominent Jewish organizations, including the Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area and the American Jewish Committee.
Some of Wiener’s longtime Bay Area Jewish supporters were shell-shocked, with one describing his invoking of genocide as a “gut-punch.” The Israeli-American Civic Action Network launched a petition calling on Wiener to resign as co-chair of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus.
Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat who is running to fill Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s seat, posted his statement days after he was confronted with the issue at a Jan. 7 debate. In a “lightning round,” when the three candidates were asked if Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza, Wiener was the only one not to answer. The other two candidates immediately responded yes.
RELATED STORY: Wiener explains his ‘painful’ decision to call Israel’s war a genocide
Wiener spoke with J. at length Monday to explain why days later he decided to change course on a word that has polarized the world. It was a shift that seemed sudden to many after two years in which he sharply criticized Israel’s conduct but never described it as genocide. (In an Atlantic interview published Sunday, Wiener said he objected to using the word “genocide” on principle.)
Wiener recounted to J. how his views on Israel’s actions changed over the course of the Israel-Hamas war and addressed the viral moment at the debate. He also discussed the broad range of reactions from the Jewish community since Sunday and his message for people who are angry with him.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Your statement on genocide — is this a new position for you? Or have you felt this way for a while?
It’s a new way of describing it. If you look at the language that I’ve used, I started opposing Israel’s escalation in Gaza on Oct. 13, 2023. That was the first time I posted, when they ordered a million Palestinians living in the northern half of Gaza to relocate to the southern half.
Israel really matters to me as a Jew — it’s home to half of all Jews on the planet. It matters to Jews globally, and that’s why it has been so painful to see the attacks on democracy by Netanyahu within Israel, the attempted rollbacks of civil rights within Israel, and then this, the absolute destruction in Gaza, in addition to their attempted dismemberment of the West Bank by empowering settler violence. They’re now doing this massive settlement expansion that will make it pretty much physically impossible to have a contiguous Palestinian state in the West Bank.
So I’ve been intensely critical. I’ve referred to Netanyahu as a cancer. I use terms like “cratering an entire population,” “absolute destruction.” I’ve referred to Israel’s actions in Gaza as a “moral stain,” as a “shanda.” So I’ve used words and terms that are if not the same as genocide, then approaching it.
Early on after Oct. 7, I absolutely did not agree with the claims of genocide. At some point, even though I wasn’t using the word genocide, I was no longer critical of the many people I knew who did.
But then you got the question at the candidate debate.
The morning after the debate, I got calls from more than one friend saying, why didn’t you answer yes? You’ve already said genocide. And I’m like, no, I’ve actually never used that word. I had chosen not to because of the extreme sensitivity and trauma within the Jewish community.
What was that moment at the debate like for you?
I was certainly not going to answer “yes” and use the word for the first time in a yes-no, raise-the-sign lightning round. And also there was no way I was going to answer “no” because of the horror of what happened. So it created this viral moment that totally gave an impression like I somehow didn’t take it seriously.
They had asked no questions about Israel the entire debate. That’s not a criticism. It’s hard to put together a debate. There was a big LGBTQ focus, which is great.
If you look at my many statements over the last two years, I’ve been so vocal against the scale of what Israel has done in Gaza. And so it was just a really very tragic situation to have that clip out there, and have people who may not have seen what I’ve said, or the video that I recorded back in mid-December, where I laid out all of my views. I’d say, can you please watch the video I posted in December? You can at least just see where my heart is.
What was your process like in the days leading up to Sunday’s post?
I anguished over it. I talked to so many people in the Jewish community and outside the Jewish community, and it just made sense for me to do it.
There’s obviously a huge diversity of opinion. I’ve had a large number of Jewish people, mostly younger, who have come to me since this and quietly said, “I fully agree with you. You have given voice to what I believe, that I have not felt comfortable saying.”
Also, there are people in the Jewish community whom I deeply admire, people I have worked with for decades, who are very hurt by what I said and very angry with me. They have been incredibly graceful in expressing that disappointment and that hurt to me, and I am grateful that they have felt comfortable enough to talk to me about that.
And some people are just quite angry. I know what I said is a very significant statement by an elected Jewish leader. I understand that when a well-known elected Jewish leader says that word, “genocide,” it reverberates. And I get that, and I respect that there are people who are really upset with me right now. I hope that over time, we can move past it and talk about it. All I ask is for people to also remember the work that I’ve done for many, many years for the Jewish community and the many hits I’ve taken for this community over the last 2½ years.
One clarifying question: Does this mean that you do or do not support continuing to aid Israel?
I’ve been very clear from the beginning of this campaign what my stance is. I support funding for Israel’s defense, Iron Dome, David’s Sling, etc. I continue to support that. I do not support selling offensive arms to a government not committed to peace. So I’m not going to support U.S. funding for the destruction of Palestinian communities.
I hope that in the future, we have a government in Israel that is committed to peace and democracy. I also know that Israel is surrounded by forces that want to destroy it. Israel faces danger, and I want Israel to be able to defend itself, but we have a government in Israel that is completely out of control. And it’s not just Netanyahu. Other senior officials in the Netanyahu government make statements about ethnic cleansing.
Is that what you were referring to in the video when you said “we all have ears”?
Yes. [National Security Minister Itamar] Ben-Gvir and [Finance Minister Bezalel] Smotrich have made various quotes that can only be described as genocidal and ethnic cleansing. Some people would say, OK, just because a senior official says that, it doesn’t mean it’s government policy. But when the world sees the moonscape in Gaza, when the world sees the level of death and amputations and children dying and people struggling for food, and then you hear two of the most senior members of the Israeli government making genocidal and ethnic cleansing statements, what on earth do you expect people to conclude?
The other thing I want to say in terms of the word genocide, it’s traditionally been a very technical legal term under the Geneva Convention, a legal analysis, and some people say the International Court of Justice is adjudicating it and will make a decision. But for so many, the word is not just a technical legal term. It is a descriptor for an extreme level of devastation of a people. It’s a heartfelt descriptor that so many Americans use, and you can agree or disagree with that, but that’s the reality.
You had meetings with Jewish leaders and non-Jews as well, leading up to Sunday’s post.
And since.
You gave people a chance to discuss it with you. Do you want to share anything that came up in those conversations?
There was a range of reactions, from intense opposition to strong support, to everything in between. Between last Monday night and today, I’m really glad that we no longer pay for cellphone usage by the minute, because I would have a really, really, really big bill.