Will 2020 Democratic Platform Trash Israel?
Trump has not made Israel a wedge issue in politics; the Democrats have been actively doing that themselves since Obama.
In the aftermath of Israel barring entry of two far left-wing anti-Israel members of Congress, Democratic politicians began to worry that Israel was becoming a wedge issue rather than an issue with bipartisan support.
Staunch pro-Israel Congressman Eliot Engel (D-NY) said “refusing entry to members of Congress looks like Israel [is] closing itself off to criticism and dialogue. This decision will only strengthen the anti-Israel movements and arguments many of us find so troubling, further politicize support for Israel in the United States and ultimately play right into the hands of Israel’s enemies.” (Emphasis added.)
Engel has been a member of Congress since 1989 and knows better. He has seen his own Democratic party moving away from Israel since President Barack Obama made deliberate efforts to create daylight between Israel and the United States in his outreach to the Muslim world.
If one were to look at the 2008 Democratic Platform, it would be hard to see much of a difference from the Republican Platform regarding Israel. Both parties considered Israel a strong ally and backed Israeli positions.
But Obama made a strategic pivot away from Israel running as an incumbent in 2012. With the blessing of left-wing groups like J Street, the Democratic Party officially changed courseon several key issues:
- Refugees. Until 2012, the Democrats agreed with Republicans that Palestinian refugees would find a home in a new state of Palestine, not Israel.
- Hamas. Until 2012, Democrats agreed that Hamas should be isolated until it renounced terror and recognized Israel’s basic right to exist.
- Borders. Until Obama, Democrats agreed with Republicans that a new Palestinian state would NOT be established along the 1949 Armistice Lines, but reflect current realities and need to ensure Israel’s security.
- Jerusalem. Until Obama, the Democrats and Republicans agreed that Jerusalem would remain a united city and the capital of Israel.
Those points – with the exception of Jerusalem which was bitterly contested on the convention floor – would disappear from the 2012 Democratic platform.
Years before Donald Trump considered running for president and the rise of the alt-left, the Democratic Party pulled back from supporting Israel’s position regarding establishing peace with the Arab world.
The pro-Arab camp would gather steam with the presidential aspirations of Democratic Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders in the 2016 election season. In an effort to placate the Sanders camp when Hillary Clinton became the official party nominee, the Democrats allowed the Sanders team to help craft the official platform. Sanders chose anti-Israel figures to help draft the language, including Cornel West who calls Israel an “apartheid state,” Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) and James Zogby who back the boycott of Israel movement.
In the end, the Clinton camp killed the Sanders’ team proposed language “aimed at criticizing the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, demanding ‘an end to illegal settlements’ and supporting the re-building of the Gaza Strip.” But the anti-Israel movement inside the Democratic party had taken yet another step, moving from pro-Israel (until 2012) to neutral (2012) to critical (almost in 2016).
The 2020 presidential race is underway, and three of the four top Democratic candidates are deep in the far-left fringe of the party, including Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA). With the rise and remarkable defense of the anti-Israel ‘Freshmen Squad,‘ one can expect the ‘Senior Squad’ will likely draft an official party platform that will actively attack Israel on issues which once had strong bipartisan support.
Trump has not made Israel a wedge issue in politics; the Democrats have been actively doing that themselves since Obama.
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Article was originally posted at FirstOneThrough.
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Comments
Really? So what does it look like when the US refuses entry to members of Knesset? Or is that different?
Business as usual…
Obama went anti-Israel in his first term, as evidenced by his abhorrent behavior toward Netanyahu.
Trump, aware of the anti-Semitism rife within the Democrat Party, has been slyly exploiting the difference. I doubt, however, that this will win him the majority of Jewish votes, but it might deprive the Democrats of sorely needed Benjamins.
I continue to wonder why most American Jews still vote for Democrats, who continue to turn against both American Jews and Israel. Obama stabbed Israel in the back repeatedly, and got away with it.
Trump mentioned that Jews shouldn’t back antisemitic Democrats, and the mainstream media acted like he had said something terrible.
Jews in America will cease voting for Democrats once they learn to love Israel more than they hate Americans.
Or, love America more then hating Republicans because they were blackballed from the country clubs 75 years ago.
maybe when they realize the Democrats are aligning themselves with a group that wants to destroy Israel and eliminate the Jews, and others
Oldprof,
It’s because these jews detest both Israel AND America. They are in effect perfect Democrats.
Really now, does anybody actually care about the “platforms” of political parties?
You forgot your “dry wit” snark tag.
“Will 2020 Democratic platform trash Israel?”
To ask it is to answer it.
With two aggressive Muslimas in Congress (Andre Carson seems to keep his mouth shut), acting in the most ugly manner, with Jew-hatred high on the Qur’an’s list of Things-To-Do, of course Israel will be trashed. Repeatedly.
The national convention is going to be EPIC!
Will the Squid and their sista wymyn robe themselves in the white of their KKK ancestors again, as they did at the SOTU?
“Resistance against Islamic jihad is not ‘oppression’ .”
That’s my rejoinder to the useful idiot, dhimmi collaborators/enablers/whitewashers of Islamic supremacism, totalitarianism, and genocide-aspiring Jew-hatred, who like to parrot their Muslim masters’ contemptible propaganda phrase, ” ‘Resistance’ isn’t terrorism.”
You have to ask? It will be news if it doesn’t…
The history of Germany in the 19th century and early 20th century is replete with stories of Jews who converted to Protestantism. Most of them did not do that out of religious conviction but out of a desire to be included in German society. These Democratic supporting American Jews are as uncomfortable with being Jewish as their German antecedents and they use their anti-Zionism as a means to integrate themselves with their larger society. If they love and support Israel then they need to make Aliyah (Immigrate to Israel), their true Homeland.
with the dhimmicrats preventing capable students into top schools, the need to abhor our native intelligence and capabilities on the throne of pc –
perhaps aliyah will become an attractive alternative.
i urge my fellow MOT to learn past history.
and if parents did not teach their kids, the kids can educate themselves.
don’t get me wrong I LOVE THE USA and served in the military when i was younger –
but if we do not stand up for ourselves – who will
and if not now, when ?
have a pleasant labor day weekend.
That man is lying and is a proxy for anti-Israeli activism. He is a typical Democrat that want an open borders Israel and the destruction of the Jewish state because of their intense atheism, which they believe makes them country club fashionable.
If he had his way, Judaism would be no more than a philosophical concept, embracing socialism for the masses, and an elite band of overlords sharing his academic detachment from the death of millions.
I don’t think it would be a good idea for a Jew to wear a yarmulke at the 2020 Democratic Convention. I guess that says it all.
Certainly not this one:
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81kCmkdqSSL._UX679_.jpg
Is this a trick question?