Democrats unite against Sydney terror - but Fetterman warns party's anti-Israel rift boiling over

Sunday's mass shooting at Sydney's Bondi Beach left at least 15 people dead and dozens wounded. Australian authorities labeled the shooting an act of terrorism targeting the Jewish community. It sparked swift condemnation from top party politicians, from the center to the left, as well as a chorus of calls by leading Democrats to combat antisemitism.

Fetterman's comments come as the attack is likely to intensify pressure on the party, which is already facing internal fractures over the Israel-Hamas conflict that could define its 2026 electoral messaging.

And House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., emphasized, "It is our collective responsibility to aggressively eradicate the poison of antisemitism whenever and wherever it is found."

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, another high-profile Democrat who may seek the White House in the next presidential election cycle, highlighted, "Antisemitism has no place in this world."

And Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Ken Martin, in a statement, said, "We must all vigorously condemn antisemitism and hate at every turn, and the perpetrators of these evil acts must be brought to justice."

While condemnation of the attacks was uniform among Democrats, the party has been anything but unified when it comes to bloodshed in Gaza, which was sparked by the bloody Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel.

Nearly 1,200 people in Israel were killed after Hamas ambushed them, with over 250 people taken hostage. In the more than two years since the attack, over 70,000 Palestinians, many of them women and children, were killed during Israel's military response, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza.

Tensions between Democrats over the fighting flared at the DNC's summer meeting in August, as a party committee voted on a symbolic resolution calling for an arms embargo and suspension of U.S. military aid to Israel, which has long been the top American ally in the Middle East.

The divide among Democrats has Fetterman befuddled.

Pointing to anti-Israel comments from some on the left, Fetterman said this weekend in an interview on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures," "I can't imagine why so many parts of people in my party continue to back away or to kind of deflect… condemning these kinds of horrific acts of terrorism."