Democrats are heading for a clash over Israel.

Prior to winning a historic election Tuesday night that drew her to national attention, Minnesota Democrat Ilhan Omar was forced to reject an allegation of anti-Semitism based on 2012 tweet in which she accused Israel of "hypnotizing the world" and "doing evil". Omar defended the tweet this year stating, "To draw attention to the Israeli apartheid regime is far from hating Jews."

Omar is one of many candidates who won Tuesday as they criticized Israel for terms that are not usually heard in traditional American political speech. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, who, along with Omar, will be one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, lost her support for the pro-Israel, pro-peace Liberal lobby group, J Street, in August after it became apparent that she had not done so. support a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine. (She also promised to work to reduce US military aid to Israel.) And Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York decried the murder Palestinian protesters by the Israeli armed forces as a "massacre" in May, and then stumbled when it was insisted to explain his position in an interview with PBS, claiming that she was not one " expert in geopolitics on this issue ".

Candidates like Omar, Tlaib and Ocasio-Cortez – young women of color who have run and won as fervent progressives or even socialists – are considered as personifications of the future of the democratic base. This may also be the case when the Democratic Party takes a slightly different stance, which may create tension when the new class of progressives meet the old moderates on the hill.

A Pew poll released in January revealed that the proportion of Democrats who sympathize more with Israel than Palestinians has dropped from 38% to 27% since 2001. Republicans have shown much stronger support for Israel over the same period. An Economist / YouGov poll last month revealed that, as Haaretz said, "US support for Israel is directly related to gender, age, economic status and political perspectives. It is the strongest among senior white men, conservative and conservative and the weakest among young people, liberals, minorities and women. Only 25 percent of 18-29-year-olds see Israel as an ally, barely 29 percent of women. and only 19% of African-Americans.

The criticism of Israel by the left is not new, but it remains largely outside the halls of power. This new generation of candidates could convey to Capitol Hill the long-standing views expressed by activist communities – and reflected in them – in a way that we have never seen before. A related change has helped move this process forward: during the period that included clashes between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Barack Obama over the Iranian nuclear deal and the relocation of the US embassy in Trump in Jerusalem, Israel supporter rather than religious or cultural problem for the Americans. The growing identification of Israel as a "Republican" rather than a Jewish issue has left some room for traditional Liberal Democrats to be a little more critical, and those on the Left, much more critical.

It should be noted that this trend in polls and in elected positions has not alienated Jewish Democrats. Despite the warm embrace of Netanyahu's government by Donald Trump and the increasingly bold criticism of some left-wing candidates against the Jewish state, Jews voted for Democrats in greater numbers than any other religious group on Tuesday night.

But while the Democratic base, including many of its young Jews, are increasingly comfortable criticizing Israel, this is certainly not yet the case for party leaders on foreign policy issues. Representative Eliot Engel, who after last night is running for the presidency of the foreign affairs committee of the House, supported Trump's decision in Jerusalem and opposed the Iranian agreement under Obama. The same is true for the newly-re-elected Engel Senate Committee member Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Chuck Schumer, the leader of the Senate minority. A clash between a new generation of progressives and their more conservative leaders seems inevitable.