ICAN Condemns Senator Wiener’s ‘Genocide’ Accusation Against Israel and Calls for Change in Jewish Caucus Leadership
Suspends Jewish Caucus Engagement Until Wiener Replaced as Co-Chair
[Take Action: Send a Letter to the California Legislative Jewish Caucus]
The Israeli-American Civic Action Network (ICAN) today condemned State Senator Scott Wiener’s accusation that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and called for his resignation as Co-Chair of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus.
On January 7, 2026, at a congressional candidates forum in San Francisco, Wiener was asked a yes-or-no question: “Is Israel committing genocide in Gaza?” His opponents, Supervisor Connie Chan and Saikat Chakrabarti, held up “Yes” signs. Wiener placed his sign in his lap and refused to answer. The audience booed and shouted, “Shame on you!”
Four days later, on January 11, Wiener posted a 90-second video reversing his position. He stated that “the Israeli government has tried to destroy Gaza and to push Palestinians out, and that qualifies as genocide.” He cited “genocidal statements by certain senior members of the Israeli government” but named none.
While Senator Wiener reversed his position on Israel within days of being booed, he remained silent on Iran’s ongoing brutal crackdown on protesters — a crackdown happening in real time as he deliberated over applause lines.
Since December 28, Iran’s regime has killed at least 500 protesters (some reports estimate higher), including children. Security forces fire live ammunition into crowds. The regime imposed a nationwide internet blackout on January 8 to hide the massacre. Foreign militias were imported to suppress dissent. Hospitals are overwhelmed with gunshot wounds.
Senator Wiener said nothing.
The Islamic Republic is doing what Wiener falsely accuses Israel of: using state power to destroy a civilian population. The Iranian regime is actually committing the acts Wiener imagines Israel commits — and he is silent.
This is not an isolated incident.
In 2025, Senator Wiener co-authored SCR 105 with Senator Aisha Wahab — a resolution that treats the State of Israel and Hamas as moral equivalents, calling on “all parties, including Hamas and Israel” to comply with international law as though a sovereign democracy and a designated terror organization occupy the same ethical plane. Twelve of eighteen Jewish Caucus members signed on to this misguided statement.
Wiener’s Caucus staff have derided and excluded pro-Israel organizations that do not align with far-left progressive positions, treating the broader community as unwelcome in the very caucus that claims to represent them.
Senator Wiener’s statement dehumanizes the Jewish State and the Israeli people. It reduces a democratic nation and its citizens to political objects—tokens to be bought and sold for electoral gain.
When Israeli lives can be weighed against applause and found wanting, they are no longer human to the person doing the weighing. They are political instruments.
“I’ve followed the career of Scott Wiener for over a decade. He has always seemed to be a transactional politician, doing the bidding of those who can help him quench his thirst for power,” said John Mirisch, ICAN Chief Policy Officer. Mirisch also serves on the Beverly Hills City Council.
“His telling silence on the Iranian people’s struggle for freedom and the fact that he would repeat racist anti-Israel blood libels for political gain are sad, if not surprising. To paraphrase Gore Vidal, Scott Wiener has given opportunism a bad name,” added Mirisch.
The facts do not support his accusation.
Genocide has a specific legal definition under the 1948 UN Convention: the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, or religious group. Israel’s military operations target Hamas infrastructure in response to the October 7th massacre. Since the war began, Israel has facilitated over 1.2 million tons of humanitarian aid into Gaza through coordinated convoys with international organizations. The IDF operates a deconfliction system that warns civilians before strikes, coordinates evacuation corridors, and maintains communication channels with aid agencies — measures documented by civilian authorities and international observers. These are not the actions of a nation committing genocide. They are the opposite.
California is home to the largest population of Israelis outside of Israel. Senator Wiener is supposed to represent them. Instead, he has adopted the central talking point of Hamas’s information war — designed to delegitimize Israel’s right to defend itself — and broadcast it from a position of Jewish political leadership.
ICAN will not engage with a caucus that selects such leadership.
We are suspending all engagement with the California Legislative Jewish Caucus unless and until its members choose leadership that does not dehumanize the Jewish State, spread terrorist disinformation, or treat Israeli lives as expendable political currency.
Senator Wiener does not speak for our communities. Neither does a caucus that would keep him as its leader.
We urge Jewish Caucus members to demand Senator Wiener’s resignation as Co-Chair. If they do not, they own his words.