If you needed any affirmation that the Democratic Party establishment is terrified by the impending showdown with the ascendant anti-Israel faction of the party wokes, you just have to turn to the final page of the new party platform draft. There, you will find the intentionally placed and carefully worded party take on Israel, which has become a lightning rod for the Left.
In the platform’s Israel blurb, a delicate balancing act is on full display. The party makes the shocking allowance that it will respect the Trump administration’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel without delving into the question of whether they would move the U.S. Embassy back to Tel Aviv.
“We believe 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,” the draft reads.
However, one line perfectly illustrates just how fearful of the anti-Israel coalition that party has become.
The final line of the party platform draft issues this stunning concession: “We oppose 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.”
That the party officially condemns BDS efforts is obviously good. It’s that final phrase, paying lip service to the notion that anti-BDS laws constitute an attack on free speech, that brings to mind a caustic controversy the party may not want to relive.
Months after Ilhan Omar found herself in hot water for the repeated use of anti-Semitic stereotypes that House leadership ultimately refused to condemn in a dedicated resolution, Omar waded back into troubled waters on BDS. Although she campaigned on opposing BDS, she joined 16 of her colleagues to vote against a nonbinding resolution to condemn anti-Israel BDS and reiterate support for a two-state solution.
It wasn’t that she simply supports the eradication of the world’s only Jewish state because she hates Jews, Omar argued. Rather, boycotts, even discriminatory ones enacted by the state, are just a form of constitutionally protected free speech. So Omar introduced her own pro-boycott resolution, but on top of its glaring anti-Semitic intention, it also attacked a straw man.
Anti-BDS laws aren’t about forbidding individuals from boycotting Sabra hummus. Instead, they build on existing anti-discrimination laws and apply to contractors who are seeking business with a state government. The laws place no limits on what individuals working or running a given business may do in their personal capacity, only what a business seeking taxpayer money does.
The cowards running the House let Omar use free speech as her cover at the time, and that the “free speech” canard made it into the party platform means that they’ll do it indefinitely. It was a completely unnecessary concession to make unless you believe that Omar and company are acquiring the political clout to force a fight over recognizing Jerusalem as the nation’s capital. And evidently, they are.
And so the tail, yet again, will continue to wag the dog.