This past weekend, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee held its annual policy conference in D.C. As usual, foreign leaders, prominent senators from both parties, and top administration officials headlined the event. But unlike past years, many of the most prominent Democratic presidential nominee contenders declined to attend. Their informal and undeclared boycott illustrated the leftward, anti-Israel wave reverberating through the Democratic Party right now.

There has also been ample anger among Democratic policy advisers and officials about the Trump administration’s recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a mountain region separating Israel and Syria and looking down upon both. Israel took the Golan in 1967 and then retook it after the surprise 1973 Syrian invasion of the country. For security reasons, successive Israeli governments have held the sparsely populated territory, especially after 1990s-era peace talks between Israel and Syria went nowhere.