Mass Dems move to kill anti-settlement resolution, amid fears of BDS and ‘exodus from party’

The political news from Boston is inevitable but tragic; it shows why the Israel Palestine conflict is lurching toward more bloodshed not less.

In Massachusetts, a group of activists pushed a mild resolution inside the Democratic Party saying that “Israel’s settlements in the occupied West Bank are obstacles to peace.” And the resolution got killed in a subcommittee, under pressure from the donor class. This portends more bloodshed over there, because when supporters of Palestinian rights in the west undertake the mildest gestures of public solidarity, they are quashed by the establishment, which fears any threat to the brutal status quo in Palestine.

Joshua Miller reports in the Boston Globe:

After fierce backlash from state party leaders, Massachusetts Democrats are moving to formally kill a provocative proposal for the state committee to declare opposition to Israeli settlements in the West Bank without specifically mentioning Palestinian violence.

A party subcommittee voted over the weekend to recommend that the full Democratic State Committee table the resolution at a meeting on April 29.

The Jewish establishment put its foot down, warning about a breakup of the Democratic Party’s coalition.

Top leaders, including former state and national party chairman Steve Grossman, said the resolution was starkly unbalanced and could lead to an exodus from the party.

And a powerful local Jewish group, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, said “by offering a one-dimensional response to a multidimensional problem, the resolution is a failed opportunity to offer constructive guidance on how to achieve peace.”

This shows you once again that the pressure of the Israel lobby in the Democratic Party has nothing to do with Christian Zionists and everything to do with the “Jewish establishment.” Why Bernie Sanders’s opposition to the occupation is heroic even though it’s lukewarm. Why Hillary Clinton led a similar effort to white out any reference to the occupation in the party platform last summer, as Cornel West said the party was in AIPAC’s pocket.

And it shows you why the revolution that #IfNotNow is leading against the Jewish establishment at the 50th anniversary of the occupation is, er, pathetic, even if it is inspiring. The Jewish resistance has had no effect yet on the recalcitrant refractory Jewish donor class. There aren’t enough Jewish insurgents at this point to frighten the Mass Democrats.

Miller reports that in the wake of the setback, there’s “blowback” from the resolution’s supporters. A couple express bitterness over the party’s inability to engage this issue. But Steve Grossman, the treasurer/AIPAC leader, is doing an endzone dance. Notice that he invokes the “progressive tradition.”

“I believe the subcommittee acted wisely because they saw the resolution as deeply divisive,” Grossman said Monday. “The Democratic Party and its activists need to be unified to fight the Trump agenda that threatens our progressive tradition.”

Also happy with the subcommittee’s move was James Segel, a former state representative and aide to Barney Frank, who had offered alternative language to the resolution he felt was more balanced.

“This is an issue that has eluded world leaders for 50 years, so for the Democratic State Committee to get involved in it takes a lot of hubris in the first place,” Segel said Monday. “But if they do, people should study it and have been there.”

As if the U.S. has ever stayed out of the Israel Palestine conflict.

Miller gives the context for the resolution– BDS.

The proposed resolution is primarily about Israeli settlements. But the debate about it comes as the so-called boycott, divestment, and sanctions, or BDS, movement against Israel has gained ground on college campuses and in certain parts of the Democratic Party….

Remember Hillary Clinton pledged Haim Saban that she’d fight BDS, even as her campaign foundered.

Notice the fear of BDS:

Opponents say BDS is an effort to undermine Israel’s very existence as a Jewish state, and that it unfairly places responsibility solely on Israel for a complex conflict.

Complex? For 70 years Palestinians have been promised a state by the world. For 70 years they’ve gotten occupation and Jim Crow. Desperate young people sacrifice their lives to stab occupying soldiers. The world calls them terrorists.

(In Boston, no less, where we celebrate the heroic status of a humble freedom-fighter, Crispus Attucks.)

Source Article from http://mondoweiss.net/2017/04/settlement-resolution-exodus/

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Leave a Reply

Powered by WordPress | Designed by: Premium WordPress Themes | Thanks to Themes Gallery, Bromoney and Wordpress Themes