Sanders’ Challenge to Clinton and Democrats: Palestinian Lives Matter

[Israeli]

The party currently supports a two-state solution because it serves Israel’s interests, but not because Palestinians have the right to live as free citizens of their own country.

Peter Beinart May 25, 2016 3

When it comes to Israel, Bernie Sanders is already changing the Democratic Party.

In 2012, Barack Obama’s campaign chose the committee that drafted the party’s platform. On the 15-member panel, three of the four people who focused on Middle East issues espoused fairly conventional “Pro-Israel” views: former congressman Robert Wexler, then-congressman Barney Frank and Obama administration foreign policy official Colin Kahl. Wexler, Frank and Kahl certainly aren’t Likudniks. But they operate within the parameters of the Beltway consensus. Only one committee member --California Congresswoman Barbara Lee—has a history of challenging that consensus in support of Palestinian rights.

This week, the Democratic Party announced the drafting committee for 2016. Hillary Clinton’s campaign chose six members. The only one with a clear Middle East background is former State Department official Wendy Sherman. She too fits comfortably within the Washington consensus, albeit on the progressive side. So does former Congressman Howard Berman, who was among the four members chosen by Democratic National Committee Chairperson Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Schultz also reappointed Congresswoman Lee.

The big shift is the Sanders appointees. In deference to the Vermont Senator’s electoral success, the party awarded him the right to choose five members of the drafting committee. Three of Sanders’ choices have a profile on Middle East issues: Congressman Keith Ellison, one of the two Muslims in Congress, Arab American Institute President James Zogby and philosopher Cornel West. Ellison and Zogby are party insiders. West is a leftist activist. But all three are impassioned advocates for the Palestinian cause. Together, they virtually ensure an effort to shift the party platform in a pro-Palestinian direction. If the Clinton campaign resists that shift, expect a fight on the convention floor.

read more: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.721404

[Scootaloo]

1. Good n/t

[Israeli]

3. Yes it is Scoot ....

...very good .

Cant wait to see how much mud is thrown at Peter Beinart when the motley crew wake up

[Israeli]

2. Fascinating insight for me.....

Sources close to the Sanders campaign tell me his appointees may propose platform language condemning Israel’s “occupation,” acknowledging Palestinian suffering, and recognizing the Palestinians’ right to self-determination. By any reasonable standard, these aren’t inflammatory demands. For decades, the United States government itself has termed Israeli control of the West Bank an “occupation.” And it’s hardly radical to acknowledge that West Bank Palestinians—who have lived for almost a half-century without citizenship, free movement and the right to vote for the government that controls their lives—suffer as a result.

In today’s Democratic Party, however, such language would represent a fundamental shift.

Officially, the party has supported a Palestinian state since 2004. But it has justified that position almost exclusively by reference to Israeli self-interest. In 2012, for instance, the platform devoted a paragraph to Obama’s military aid to the Jewish state, which demonstrated his “enduring commitment to Israel’s security.” It then added that, “It is precisely because of this commitment that President Obama and the Democratic Party seek peace between Israelis and Palestinians. A just and lasting Israeli-Palestinian accord, producing two states for two peoples, would contribute to regional stability and help sustain Israel’s identity as a Jewish and democratic state. At the same time, the President has made clear that there will be no lasting peace unless Israel’s security concerns are met.”

The Democratic Party, in other words, supports a Palestinian state not because Palestinians, like all people, have the right to be citizens of the country in which they live. The Party supports a Palestinian state because it’s good for Israel.

It’s more than a semantic difference. Once you acknowledge that Palestinians are enduring a “brutal” occupation (the adjective comes from former Shin Bet chief Avraham Shalom), then ending it becomes morally urgent. If, on the other hand, the only reason to support a Palestinian state is to promote “regional stability and help sustain Israel’s identity as a Jewish and democratic state,” then there’s little ethical imperative.

Now Bernie Sanders is asserting, through his appointees to the platform drafting committee, that Palestinians are not mere extras in the Israeli and Jewish story. It’s a fascinating moment. The most successful Jewish presidential candidate in American history is saying that Palestinian lives matter. And he’s daring Hillary Clinton to disagree.

Now i'm beginning to get why ericson00 and his motley crew are so upset by Bernie.

[shira]

4. Something missing here....whatever could it be?

Oh, right. Israeli Lives Matter too, don't they? Both Israeli and Palestinian lives. A lot of people "forget" that for some reason....

[Israeli]

6. Something missing here.........whatever could it be?

This has also been the overarching theme of Israeli efforts to counter BDS and growing anti-Israeli hostility on campuses, indeed the leitmotif of Israel’s view of any and all hostility in the world. It’s all part of a sinister anti-Semitic plot, possibly masterminded by Hamas, Iran and other Jew-haters. They are poisoning the minds of naive and impressionable American youths and leading them down a path of evil. And if that is the case, there’s no need to acknowledge the influence - or the very existence, in fact - of occupation, racism, “seeds of fascism,” popular support for extrajudicial killings, endless efforts to curtail democracy and the cries of frustration and anguish that all of these spark in Israel and are broadcast from there, through social media, to the rest of the world. All of these don’t matter, because primordial antipathy to Jews rules the world.

One of the eight senators who stayed away from Netanyahu’s speech was Bernie Sanders. Since then, the Vermont senator has gone on to become a presidential contender who is wildly popular among young Democratic liberals. It is possible that Sanders’ willingness to stray from the norm, to criticize Israel and Netanyahu publicly, to call for an evenhanded U.S. approach and to express unabashed sympathy with the plight of the Palestinians gave an extra push to pent up liberal frustrations that had been simmering beneath the surface all along.

Lieberman’s appointment as defense minister is bound to pour more fuel on the fire, even if one assumes, as I do, that his actions will belie his harsh and often racist words. Nonetheless, the next time someone blames anti-Zionism, anti-Semitism, leftist agitprop, liberal naiveté or that all purpose whipping boy Barack Obama for the growing alienation between Israel and liberals, in America and around the world, you might want to refer them simply to this week’s headlines.

Source: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.721482

[shira]

8. Sorry, but Sanders, Clinton, and Obama all say BDS is antisemitic.

All are Zionists opposing the bullshit of anti-Zionists.

[liberalnarb]

9. This sounds alot like the "all lives matter" right wingers.

Who are really the privileged ones, but like to play the victim.

Welcome to Palestine, shall I give you a tour?







Sorry, Israel isn't the victim here.

[shira]

11. That describes what you're peddling as you can't acknowledge Israeli lives matter....

There are such people as innocent Israelis, whether they're Jewish or Arab victims of rockets, stabbings, suicide bombs, etc.

They're human too.

I think what you're really saying is Jews don't count in the Regressive Left Oppression Olympics.

[liberalnarb]

17. No, actually. Netanyahu is slaughtering Israelis too. They're lives matter. But this is on him.

Obviously, this conflict has been going on longer then he has been in power, but he's the biggest war criminal in the situation. A state terrorist and a fascist. Israel's Cheney. He'll keep letting the innocent get slaughtered until the end of time as long as he doesn't have to compromise.

[oberliner]

12. Do you want to see pictures of Israeli victims of Palestinian terror attacks?

I can certainly post those for you if you are interested.

[liberalnarb]

16. The innocent of either side, don't deserve what is happening to them.

I had a neighbor, who only lived on our street for a year. They were from Israel, they were some of the few Israeli citizens opposed to the abomination taking place over there. One day we noticed the mother of the family was crying. We found out she had just found out that her close friend was murdered. Who was at fault in her mind? (It wasn't Palestinians.)

[oberliner]

20. Agreed

A peace agreement would be a wonderful thing. It's far past time. Sadly, the Israelis have an extreme RW government in place right now, and Hamas has a great deal of political power on the Palestinian side.

[Fozzledick]

5. Unfortunately Hamas and the PLO disagree.

They both regard Palestinian lives as expendable cannon fodder to be used up in "martyrdom operations" to murder Israeli civilians, which is why they're stuck in a self-imposed state of endless war.

[shira]

7. True. Palestinian lives don't matter to Hamas & the PLO as much as attacking Israel.

Never to be acknowledged by the Israel haters no matter the overwhelming evidence proving it.

[liberalnarb]

10. Bernie is my hero.

[Tony_FLADEM]

13. In 2014 we had a midterm election in the U.S. and the Democrats lost an historic landslide

I can't prove it but I suspect part of the reason Democrats didn't bother to vote that year was because of the 2,000 Palestinians who lost their lives in Gaza that year. Now some of them were terrorists but most of them weren't.

The Democrats were about even with the Republicans on the generic ballot until about July/August of that year. Then all of a sudden Democrats' enthusiasm to vote declined and Republicans took the lead.

I suspect that if there is a similar event this year Trump will unfortunately win in a landslide.

[King_David]

14. I'm not sure that if this comes to fruition

that it will help our party win in FL ....

[oberliner]

15. I don't think that is a top 10 issue for most voters

I believe the polls bear that out.

[liberalnarb]

18. So their lives don't matter?

[oberliner]

19. I was responding to the claim about the midterm elections

I don't think it was a big issue for most voters, at least according to the polls. Generally speaking when voters list the issues that are most important to them, they usually cite the economy, jobs, taxes, immigration, etc. Foreign policy issues tend to rank very low, if at all.

[Israeli]

21. Clinton Appointee Seeks to Change Democratic Party's Platform on Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Rep. Luis Gutierrez is reportedly working together with Sanders' appointees to change platform to show more sympathy to Palestinians.

Jacob Kornbluh, Jewish Insider May 28, 2016 1:33 AM

Hillary Clinton’s campaign is moving along to satisfy the liberal wing of the Democratic Party by indicating proposed changes to the Democratic Party’s platform on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be addressed by the drafting committee ahead of the convention in Philadelphia.
According to a report by the Chicago Sun Times, one of Clinton’s appointees to the Democratic Party’s platform committee, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), is brewing with two of Bernie Sanders’ appointees, Cornel West and James Zogby, to show more sympathy to the Palestinian side of the conflict.

In an interview with the Chicago publication, Gutierrez stressed that there could be room in the platform for language that “elaborates more clearly the wishes, the desires, the aspirations of the Palestinian people and their hope for justice and for peace and equality.”
“Absolutely, I think we can do more,” he said.

The report also notes that Gutierrez departed on Thursday for a long-planned trip to cities in the West Bank and Jerusalem, where he will meet with Palestinian Authority officials, Palestinian members of the Israeli Knesset and Palestinian students and businessmen. The trip is hosted by the American Global Institute, funded by MIFTAH, a pro-Palestinian organization.

“I am going to go with an open mind, to listen and to discuss the issues. You should not make any pre-judgment about what Luis Gutierrez is going to do on the platform committee,” he said moments before departing.

Sanders, who started in March to focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict after receiving the endorsement of prominent pro-Palestinian activists, indicated in a statement to the New York Times that he would seek “consensus” on the party’s policy towards Israel. “I have always and will always be 100 percent supportive of Israel’s right to exist and live in peace and security,” the Democratic presidential hopeful wrote in a statement. “I also believe that lasting peace in the region will not occur without fair and respectful treatment of the Palestinian people. I believe that most Democrats agree with that position and that a strong consensus will be achieved at the Democratic National Convention.”

Jewish Democratic party leaders conceded that changes are forthcoming, pointing to recent polls that show a shift in liberal voters’ attitude towards Israel. But in private conversations, some are perplexed that Sanders decided to create buzz about an issue that he never campaigned on until recently.

Source: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.721875