‘AIPAC Radicalized Me’: Morris Katz and the Progressive Break With “Israel” Politics

By Mohamad Hammoud

How a Young Jewish Strategist Is Shaping Progressive Politics Around “Israel”

Zohran Mamdani’s upset victory in the New York City mayoral race has forced a reckoning inside the Democratic Party, exposing a generational break with traditional American attitudes toward “Israel.” At the center of that shift is Morris Katz, the 26-year-old Jewish strategist who helped turn Mamdani from a progressive underdog into a symbol of a new political moment.

Katz’s outlook—shaped by family history, campaign battles and a sharp critique of AIPAC—helps explain why Mamdani’s pro-Palestinian message resonated with young voters and why old accusations of antisemitism failed to stop him. In an interview with Haaretz, Katz says younger Jewish voters rejected the framing used by Mamdani’s rival, former governor Andrew Cuomo, who tried to cast the race as a referendum on Jewish loyalty.

Voters, Katz argues, could not be persuaded to ignore what they were seeing. “You cannot tell the general public who have seen what’s happening in Gaza not to believe what they’re seeing with their own eyes,” he tells Haaretz. He says Mamdani’s consistency—on Palestine, housing, policing, and social welfare—became a core source of trust. A candidate who refuses to sacrifice human dignity abroad, he argues, is someone voters believe will not betray them at home.

A Generation Rejects “Progressive Except Palestine”

For years, many Democrats embraced progressive domestic messages while avoiding the “Israeli”-Palestinian issue, a stance critics labeled “progressive except Palestine.” Katz says this approach is collapsing as younger Jewish voters demand moral clarity rather than cautious rhetoric. “Even folks who don’t have incredibly strong feelings about what’s happening know when they’re being lied to,” he tells Haaretz.

This shift turned positions once seen as political risks into defining strengths, helping Mamdani build a broad, durable coalition.

A Political Awakening—and the AIPAC Breaking Point

Katz’s own evolution began in Tribeca, where he grew up in a Jewish household shaped by Hebrew-school narratives presenting “Israel” as a project rooted in liberal values. Over time, exposure to historical realities forced him to question those narratives. “At whose expense? If we’re saying this represents our values, are these our values?” he recalls.

The decisive break came through direct experience with the American “Israel” Public Affairs Committee.

Katz describes AIPAC as “the main accelerator that radicalized me.” The turning point was the 2022 North Carolina congressional race, when AIPAC’s United Democracy Project super PAC spent $2.1 million supporting Don Davis and $335,000 attacking Erica Smith—whose campaign Katz managed. Those figures, reported by Haaretz and drawn from FEC filings, shocked progressive organizers.

To Katz, the spending strategy—flooding races with money while avoiding any explicit mention of “Israel”—revealed a deeper distortion of American democracy. He argues that AIPAC’s financial power allows it to shape elections in communities that lack the resources to fight back. AIPAC maintains that it is bipartisan and works with lawmakers across ideological lines. Katz dismisses that as a distraction from the group’s influence.

New Progressive Candidates Embrace the Fight

Katz is now advising Graham Platner, a Marine veteran and oyster farmer running for the US Senate in Maine. Platner openly criticizes US military aid to “Israel” and has aired ads attacking AIPAC—an approach once seen as politically dangerous.

Platner recently faced scrutiny over an old skull-and-bones tattoo some critics said resembled Nazi imagery. As reported by NPR and cited by Haaretz, Katz argued voters—not party insiders—should decide whether the tattoo is disqualifying. He says voters increasingly value authenticity over manufactured branding.

The 2026 Elections: A Referendum on Values

According to Haaretz, next year’s elections may be the first in which the “Israel”-Palestine conflict becomes a defining issue for young American voters. Economic pressures remain central, but foreign policy, human rights, and the Gaza war now shape political identity in new ways.

New York will be the clearest test. Several Democratic House primaries will show whether AIPAC’s endorsement is a sign of credibility or a liability. Progressive organizers say younger Jewish voters are rejecting old frameworks and insisting that Palestinian and “Israeli” lives carry equal moral weight.

Katz argues this shift represents not a break from Jewish values but a return to them. “Bad-faith critics try to interpret this as a betrayal of Jewish values,” he tells Haaretz. “But a younger generation sees it as a true embrace of Jewish values.”

Mamdani’s victory shows that this coalition is no longer operating on the margins. It is reshaping the debate—and forcing the political establishment to catch up.

Reporting based on original coverage published by Haaretz