Monday, August 19, 2024
Elder of Ziyon
It criticizes Israel as well. Here is one of its painstaking attempts at even-handedness.
President Biden and Vice President Harris oppose any unilateral steps by either side, including annexation, that undermine prospects for two states. We will continue to stand against incitement and terror. The Administration opposes settlement expansion. President Biden has spoken out against extremist settler violence, and in February, the President issued an executive order establishing U.S. authority to impose financial sanctions against foreign persons engaged in actions that threaten the peace, security, or stability of the West Bank. The Administration believes that while Jerusalem is a matter for final status negotiations, it should remain the capital of Israel, an undivided city accessible to people of all faiths. We support critical assistance to the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza, consistent with U.S. law. The Administration opposes any effort to unfairly single out and delegitimize Israel, including at the United Nations or through the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement, while protecting the Constitutional right of our citizens to free speech.
To trly understand the Democratic Party's evolution of its position on Israel, we need to compare the newer platforms with previous party platforms. The previous platforms are always the starting point for the newer ones, so what has been removed from the platforms it is often more significant than what is included.
aHere you can see what language has been removed from the Democratic Party platforms of years past.
2004:
Our special relationship with Israel is based on the unshakable foundation of shared values and a mutual commitment to democracy, and we will ensure that under all circumstances, Israel retains the qualitative edge for its national security and its right to self-defense.
2008:
For more than three decades, Israelis, Palestinians, Arab leaders, and the rest of the world have looked to America to lead the effort to build the road to a secure and lasting peace. Our starting point must always be our special relationship with Israel, grounded in shared interests and shared values, and a clear, strong, fundamental commitment to the security of Israel, our strongest ally in the region and its only established democracy.
President Obama and the Democratic Party maintain an unshakable commitment to Israel's security. A strong and secure Israel is vital to the United States not simply because we share strategic interests, but also because we share common values.
2016:
A strong and secure Israel is vital to the United States because we share overarching strategic interests and the common values of democracy, equality, tolerance, and pluralism.
In 2012, the Democratic Party stopped referring to America'a "special relationship with Israel."
In 2020, the Democratic Party stopped referring to America having "shared values" and "common interests" with Israel.
Before 2020, the Democratic Party always included some praise for Israel. It no longer does.
Which means that the Democratic Party no longer believe those things.
The platform shows that J-Street is now the author of the Democratic Party's position on Israel. There is no daylight between J-Street's positions and the party platform, including saying they oppose BDS but denying the inherent antisemitism of the BDS movement and supporting the rights of antisemites to copy/replace "Jews" with "Zionists" in their screeds.
J-Street and the Democratic Party are not pro-Israel. Neither of them say anything positive about Israel, instead relying on platitudes about supporting Israel's right to exist and right to defend itself. But that is their position towards every other nation on Earth, including Iran, so there is nothing "pro-Israel" about them.
They cloak their increasing antipathy towards the most liberal, democratic, progressive state in the region with platitutes but their language - both what they choose to say and what they choose not to say - tells us everything about the direction that party is going.
