Jewish Democrats demand apology from Iowa’s Steve King

Some Jewish Democrats demand an apology from US Rep. Steve King of Iowa for saying that American Jews “can be Democrats first and Jews second.”

King, a conservative Republican who is important to his party’s potential presidential candidates — in part because of his influence in Iowa, the first caucus state — was asked Friday by Boston Herald Radio about Democrats who had boycotted the speech to Congress in early March by Netanyahu.

“I don’t understand how Jews in America can be Democrats first and Jewish second and support Israel along the line of just following their president,” he said.

The National Jewish Democratic Council “condemned” the remarks in a statement.

“For anyone, let alone an elected official, to actively belittle the hundreds of thousands of American Jews who vote for Democratic candidates is beyond the pale,” the council’s chairman, Greg Rosenbaum, says. “Rep. King is essentially stating that we aren’t Jewish enough for him. How dare he. We demand, and deserve, an apology at once.”

Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY), the highest-ranking Jewish Democrat in the House of Representatives, berates King in a Twitter post.

“I don’t need Congressman Steve King questioning my religion or my politics,” writes Israel, who has headed fundraising for congressional Democrats in the last two elections. “I demand an apology from him and repudiation from GOP.”

King replies, also on Twitter, that “real men make such requests face to face,” which prompted Israel to call King a “meshugeneh,” or crazy.

— JTA