California Gov. Gavin Newsom regrets calling Israel 'an apartheid state'

Lia Russell, The Sacramento Bee on Mar 25, 2026

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he regretted calling Israel an “apartheid state,” weeks after criticizing the country’s attacks on Palestinians in the ongoing war with Gaza.

Newsom previously said while promoting his memoir in Los Angeles that the U.S. should rethink its relationship with Israeli while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in charge.

The governor called Netanyahu a hard-liner for his incursions into the West Bank, and referenced critics of the Israeli military who have referred to the country “appropriately as sort of an apartheid state.”

Newsom told Politico in an interview published Tuesday that he regretted using those words “in this context,” and said he “revered” and was “proud to support” Israel when asked if he considered himself a Zionist.

He pointed to a recent New York Times column in which columnist Thomas Friedman posited that if Netanyahu won reelection “it will be a major propellant to his efforts to annex the West Bank, cripple the Israeli Supreme Court and make Israel an apartheid state, which would be a major blow to American interests in the region beyond Iran.”

Newsom went on to say that he “deeply, deeply opposed” Netanyahu’s leadership, “his opposition to the two-state solution and deeply oppose(s) how he is indulging the far-right as it relates to what’s going on in the West Bank.”

The governor’s backtracking comes as other Democrats are rethinking the party’s support for Israel as public opinion has dropped off amid Israel’s ongoing attacks against Gaza.

Newsom, who is termed out of office after November and cannot run again for governor, is believed to be considering a run for president in 2028.

Newsom visited Israel shortly after Hamas militants had attacked, killed 1,200 and taken 250 hostages in October 2023, and later sent pallets of supplies to the West Bank after Israel cut off aid.

Months later, Newsom said he opposed students’ demands that the University of California and California State University systems divest from investments tied to Israel. Last year, he also signed a pair of bills to combat antisemitism on school campuses despite educators’ concerns that it would chill free speech on Israel-Palestine.

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