By Henry Srebrnik, [Halifax, NS] Chronicle Herald
The Democratic Party was once Israel’s central pillar of political support in the United States. But things have changed.
The party’s left wing, which had once seen Israel as the victim of Arab aggression, became increasingly hostile when it decided that it was Israel that was the oppressive power, denying Palestinians precisely what Zionism had given Jews: a state of their own.
The diplomatic rupture began with Jimmy Carter, who, as an ex-president, became the first major American political figure to accuse Israel of being an apartheid state.
Barack Obama’s presidency saw a further deterioration in the relationship. As part of his outreach to the Muslim world, he called the situation for the Palestinian people “intolerable.” In the waning days of his presidency, his administration even refused to veto an anti-Israel resolution at the UN Security Council.
In a stunning diplomatic rebuke of Israel, in December 2016 Washington abstained on a resolution demanding an end to Israeli settlements on Palestinian territory, allowing it to pass easily.
How is Joe Biden faring in relation to Israel? The president has affirmed the Abraham Accords, kept the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, and has done nothing to reverse Donald Trump’s recognition of the Golan Heights as sovereign Israeli territory. But he continues to push for a new nuclear deal with Iran, which Israel views as exceptionally dangerous to Israel’s security.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party itself has seen the rise of prominent anti-Israel progressives in Congress such as Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib.
In May 2021, as Israel became embroiled in conflict with Hamas, some 25 Democrats signed a letter calling Israel’s military response a violation of international and American law, and condemned Israel’s use of force.
Months later, House of Representative progressives briefly blocked an effort to fund the Iron Dome missile-defense system, the chief purpose of which is to intercept Hamas rockets before they can kill Israeli civilians.
On May 16 of this year, Ocasio-Cortez, Omar and Tlaib introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives referring to Palestinian Arabs as the “indigenous inhabitants” of Israel and endorsing the Palestinian “right of return,” one of the most sensitive issues in Israeli-Palestinian relations.
The influence of the left in the Democratic Party has been bolstered by the grip of “intersectionality” as it now applies to Israel: The idea that if one is against the oppression of African Americans in the U.S., one must also be anti-Israel, based on the view that Israelis are white Jews oppressing Palestinians, considered people of colour. (Actually, a majority of Israelis originate from outside Europe.) The assumption is that America’s racial categories can be grafted on to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
The so-called “legacy” media also skews to the Democratic Party left. On June 9, 2021, scores of journalists signed a public statement decrying the “decades-long journalistic malpractice” of the news industry’s alleged bias in favor of Israel.
The letter gained more than 500 signatories, with representatives from nearly every major American news outlet, including the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, ABC News, NBC News, and National Public Radio.
During the 2021 Gaza war, it was clear that this “moral-clarity” agenda had already filtered into coverage of Israel. Framing of the Gaza escalation as a racial conflict pitting “white settlers” against a “native” population started cropping up even in mainstream media.
Such equivalencies between Israeli and American racism, and their elevation to something newsworthy, is to be expected now. Lost is the ability to discuss complex events in other parts of the world as if they existed outside a narrow partisan American domestic framework.
Yet maintaining American support from both major American political parties and newspapers remains a priority for any Israeli government.
If war breaks out with Hamas in Gaza or with Lebanon-based Hezbollah, the calls to sanction Israel might dramatically increase and will be heard not just on MSNBC but also on the floor of the House of Representatives in the U.S. Capitol.
Does anyone really believe that if Israel does to Beirut what Russia did to Mariupol in Ukraine, the world will stand by and applaud? Or might, rather, American corporations pull out of the country? Tough times ahead.
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