MESSAGE
| DATE | 2024-07-11 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Re: [Hangout - NYLXS] Blacks Versus Jews - the open wound
|
On 7/11/24 5:53 AM, Aviva wrote:
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqECJf0ZZ38
>
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“I’d ask you to consider the overwhelming sentiment among our
constituents: 80% of Democrats support a permanent ceasefire in Gaza,
52% of Americans and 62% of Biden voters advocate for halting arm sales
to Israel,” she said. “These numbers are reinforced by tens of thousands
rallied nationwide.”
supporting Fascists has always been popular
https://www.jta.org/2024/07/09/politics/democratic-platform-committee-hears-witnesses-clash-over-aid-to-israel
WASHINGTON — The committee drafting the Democratic platform heard
clashing visions of what the party’s Israel policy should be, with two
witnesses urging continued military aid and one urging cuts.
Tuesday’s online meeting, convened by a subcommittee of the Democratic
platform committee, underscored a dilemma the party faces as it heads
into their August convention.
Any change to the robustly pro-Israel language in the Democrats’ 2020
platform could alienate Jewish voters and donors who are already rattled
by months of protests against Israel’s war in Gaza and increasing
criticism of Israel’s actions among Democratic lawmakers.
The Biden campaign, on the other hand, is seeking to stem discontent on
the party’s left with the president’s support for Israel. That backlash
has been especially pronounced in swing states such as Michigan where
there is a substantial Arab American population. Fights also erupted
over the Democratic platform’s Israel policy section in 2012 and 2016.
The Democratic platform meeting, one of several that will take place
before the convention in Chicago, also came a day after the Republican
Party published its platform, which includes unmitigated support for
Israel as well as anti-immigrant language and pledges to erode the
separation of church and state, both of which have long unsettled Jewish
Americans.
Speaking in favor of continued assistance to Israel were Halie Soifer,
the CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, and Dana Stroul, a
former deputy assistant secretary of defense who is now a senior fellow
at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a think tank highly
regarded by Israel’s defense establishment.
Stroul said President Joe Biden had reversed much of the damage that
former President Donald Trump’s isolationist bent caused to U.S.
deterrence in the Middle East. She cast U.S. support for Israel as part
of the fabric of a robust defense policy. And she stressed that Biden
coupled his support for Israel with plans to bring relief to the
millions of Palestinians displaced by the war.
“The focus on human security and rights is why the Biden-Harris
administration is pushing Israel to formulate a credible plan for Gaza’s
recovery and stabilization,” she said. “Palestinian civilians deserve a
future without the stranglehold of Hamas governance, as well as a viable
political horizon for a state of their own alongside the Jewish
democratic state of Israel.”
Soifer spoke of how closely Israel is held in American Jewish hearts.
Her remarks signaled that changing the platform could cause damage for
the Democrats among one of their most loyal constituencies.
“Eighty-two percent of Jewish voters identify as pro-Israel and have an
emotional attachment to Israel, and 74% approve of President Biden’s
handling of the war with Hamas, according to a November poll,” Soifer
said, adding that the polling by the Jewish Electorate Institute and
others also showed broad American support for the U.S.-Israel
relationship. “The Democratic Party platform language on Israel should
not be diluted from the strong starting point of four years ago.”
Elianne Farhat, who is of Lebanese and indigenous American descent, is
the executive director of TakeAction Minnesota, a grassroots activist
group. She described the U.S. Navy evacuating her from Lebanon in 2006,
when she was visiting family during the Israel-Hezbollah war of that summer.
“I know what it is like when our country uses our immense power to
promote good as well as when it misuses that power to spread pain,
suffering and genocide,” she said. “I know what it’s like to have bombs
paid for with my tax dollars falling on my head.”
Farhat, who is also a leader in the “Uncommitted” movement, which urged
Democratic primary voters to vote “uncommitted” to protest Biden’s
Israel policies, cited polling whose source she did not identify to back
her claim that cutting assistance to Israel would be popular and reach
disaffected voters.
“I’d ask you to consider the overwhelming sentiment among our
constituents: 80% of Democrats support a permanent ceasefire in Gaza,
52% of Americans and 62% of Biden voters advocate for halting arm sales
to Israel,” she said. “These numbers are reinforced by tens of thousands
rallied nationwide.”
She urged the United States to advocate an immediate ceasefire in Gaza,
and an embargo on arms sales to Israel.
Platforms are non-binding, but reflect a party’s priorities. Soifer in a
text to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency predicted the platform would
continue to support defense assistance for Israel.
“The Democratic Platform language on Israel in 2020 included an ongoing
annual commitment of U.S. security assistance to Israel,” she said. “In
2024, this commitment stands, and should be updated to reflect President
Biden and Democrats’ staunch support of Israel in the aftermath of the
horrific Hamas attacks of October 7, including an unprecedented increase
in emergency security assistance for Israel of $14.3 billion.”
The structure of the hearing, which lasted several hours, saw each
presentation followed with friendly questions from members of the
drafting committee who are sympathetic to the witness’s point of view.
Jeremy Bash, a former top defense official in Democratic administrations
who is now a consultant, spoke to Stroul and Soifer. Keith Ellison, the
Minnesota attorney general who was a prominent critic of Israel when he
was in Congress, spoke to Farhat.
The platform must be complete by the beginning of the convention, when
it will be formally approved on the floor. The convention starts on Aug. 19.
--
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town
that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological
proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
http://www.mrbrklyn.com
DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
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Being so tracked is for FARM ANIMALS and extermination camps,
but incompatible with living as a free human being. -RI Safir 2013
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