The Democrats and Israel -- 2

Yesterday, I wrote about how the Democrats had made four major changes to their platform which pulled back from a strong commitment to the security of Israel. The one which got most of the press, however, was the removal of the language in the platform that declared that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. That change was not surprising, since president Obama has made clear during his term that he now views the status of Jerusalem as open to negotiation. The statements from his 2008 campaign that supported Jerusalem as Israel's "eternal" capital were no long operative.

Tonight, after a day of press discussions about this change in the platform from 2008, the Obamacrats folded. They made a motion at the convention to amend the platform to put the language about Jerusalem back into the document. Then, in the truest indication of the lack of support by the Democrats for Israel, a voice vote on the motion was taken. It failed to garner enough support to pass, so the chair of the convention announced that they would vote again. A second time the votes were sought and a second time there was not enough support to pass the motion. Another announcement came that they would vote a third time. This time, the microphones in the areas that were voting for the measure were turned on and those in the other areas were turned off. On the third vote, the convention chair announced that the measure had passed even though to those of us watching on TV it certainly seemed like another defeat for the motion.

The point of all this is simple. Those running the Democrat convention wanted the reference to Jerusalem as Israel's capital out of the platform. When the politics of that move began to reverberate in a way unfavorable to the Democrats, the powers that be decided reluctantly to put the language back in. Democrats are so hostile to Israel, however, that it took a stacked deck to get the change to the platform passed.

Anyone who supports the right of Israel to exist would be foolish to vote for a party that treats our friend and ally so poorly.