Sacramento, California - California Governor Gavin Newsom compared Israel under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to an "apartheid state" during an appearance alongside the hosts of Pod Save America.

Newsom on Tuesday night blamed Netanyahu for President Donald Trump's decision over the weekend to launch a war on Iran and said that the US should seriously reconsider its relationship with Israel.

"The issue of Bibi [Netanyahu] is interesting, because he's got his own domestic issues – he's trying to stay out of jail, he's got an election coming up, he's potentially on the ropes," Newsom said.

"He's got folks so hard-line that they want to annex the West Bank. I mean, Friedman and others are talking appropriately about it as a sort of apartheid state," he continued.

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Newsom's use of the term "apartheid" is unusual for the Democratic politician, who has largely avoided criticizing Israel despite its devastating violence in Gaza being declared a genocide by the UN Human Rights Commission last year.

"In so many ways, that influence in the context of the conversation of where Trump ultimately landed on this is pretty damn self-evident," Newsom said of Netanyahu's influence on Trump's decision to go to war with Iran.

"I mean, we're talking about regime change? For two years, they haven't even been able to solve the Hamas question in Israel."

"It breaks my heart, because the current leadership in Israel is walking us down that path where I don't think you have a choice," he said when asked if the US should re-evaluate its allyship with Israel.

"You've got to reconsider the whole thing; you just have to, and, you know, that's a stubborn place, I didn't expect to be in that place."