Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro talks about how Biden can win in 2024

Foreign conflicts hit home

Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the subsequent outbreak of war in the region have hit close to home for Shapiro, a self-described “proud American Jew” who said he and his wife have had to have a number of difficult discussions with their four children about both the war itself and an outbreak of antisemitism around the world. He has also sought to combat both antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents that have drawn attention across the commonwealth in recent weeks.

The war has split open a divide on the left between some progressives and activists and the majority of elected Democrats, including Biden, who have vociferously defended Israel’s right to retaliate after the October attack, in which 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 were taken hostage. In Gaza, health officials say, the death toll has eclipsed 13,000. Surveys find larger numbers of young voters rejecting Biden’s handling of the war while older generations are more likely to be supportive. (Israel and Hamas reached a deal Tuesday, which Biden helped broker, that included a temporary pause in fighting and the release of some hostages.)

The divide has hit home in Pennsylvania, too, where Democratic U.S. Sen. John Fetterman faces a backlash from pro-Palestinian activists and some former staffers for tightly hugging Israel. On Tuesday, a dozen Democratic state lawmakers wrote a letter to the state’s congressional delegation asking it to support calls for a cease-fire in Gaza.

Speaking to the generational divide over Israel, Shapiro said this war is unique in just how much “disturbing” imagery is being presented seemingly nonstop not just on TV but also on social media, and he doesn’t blame young people for being upset by what they’re seeing come out of Gaza.

“I don’t blame them for wanting to engage and speak out,” he said. “I think that’s really healthy. I think it’s incumbent upon them to know some history and not just enter the conversation in recent weeks but go back and understand what happened in the past. You can enter this conversation in biblical times; you can enter it in 1947 and 1967. You can also enter it on Oct. 7, if you want.”

For Shapiro, the question of how the war should be handled is “pretty cut and dry.”

“In this nation, I don’t know of another time where folks have sided with the hostage-takers over the hostages, and we’ve got 10 American hostages there,” he said. “So I stand with Israel having the right to defend itself. I stand on the side of the United States government in making sure we do everything we can to get our hostages home and free the other hostages, as well, and the belief that you cannot allow a terrorist group to not only live side by side with Israel but also to upset any prospects for peace in that region.”

Shapiro did describe Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “a terrible leader” who “has driven Israel to an extreme that has been bad for Israel and bad for the stability in the Middle East.” Had Netanyahu not been in power, Shapiro said, more progress would have been made on reaching a two-state solution, as well as on the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and some Arab countries.

“The nuance when it comes to ‘how do we create a two-state solution?’ is a conversation that needs to be had right now, led by the United States,” he said. “But there should be no nuance when it comes to good vs. evil. And in this case, Hamas is pure evil, pure terrorists. And Israel, a pluralistic democracy, even with its faulty leaders, has every right to defend itself. And I stand with them in their efforts to get their hostages home and rid that region of Hamas.”