Under pressure from pro-Israel Democrats, the DNC held a floor vote to reinstate language affirming Jerusalem as the capital of Israel that had been omitted from its 2012 platform. The stadium full of Democratic delegates loudly booed the resolution and rejected it three times in a voice vote, before convention chairman Antonio Villaraigosa went ahead and unilaterally approved it (h/t BuzzFeed):
It’s hard not to have sympathy for Villaraigosa. Pro-Israel Democrats have been lobbying the DNC all day to change the platform, and convention leadership probably assumed this vote would be the end of it. The shock on Villaraigosa’s face shows you how far in denial the Democratic Party has been about the anti-Israel sentiment spreading among its ranks. Think he’s picturing how many TV ads replaying this moment Sheldon Adelson’s money can buy in Florida?
This video should chill every pro-Israel Democrat to the bone — actually, scratch that, it should chill every pro-Israel American to the bone. Israel relies on bipartisan political support from the U.S., it’s strongest ally. This floor vote at the DNC portends a day when that bipartisan support may cease to exist.
"This floor vote at the DNC portends a day when that bipartisan support may cease to exist". n nIt's a near certainty that it will cease to exist if Obama is reelected President. n nRemember that old Lesley Gore song, "It's my Party"? What you saw in that video IS the face of Obama's Democratic party.
Whew! This vote gives the President some needed "space" for "flexibility" on Israel after he wins the election.
It’s a party of white leftists, Blacks, Hispanics and increasingly Muslims in which pro-Israel sentiment waned long ago.
I'll bet we see the delegate who was waving his arms and shouting "No!" as a speaker tonight. Clearly a rising star.
Would a "pro-Israel" Democrat who reads this site please try to explain or defend the deletion of the "strongest ally" language from the Democrat platform? Even though they they purported to put back in the Jerusalem plank (or did they–see the video), they left out the most important point: that Israel is our strongest ally in the Middle East.
well, there are just so many potential strongest allies waiting for just the right reset: Russia, Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, Syri….ok, scratch Syria
Israel is our ONLY ally in the Middle East — the only one we can count on — and folks need to remember that….
Villaraigosa is instructing them, 1, 2, 3 times to make the ayes louder than the nays. He doesn't succeed. n nGovernor Strickland is simply loathsome.
It's quite possible that this convention will do for Republicans what their own may not have.
I'm having the same reaction. It's like the proverbial train wreck – this, the Root Canal, Bill coming in like the White Knight to save the Party from itself (and, yes, I intend the racial allusion, based on Clinton's comment about Obama serving coffee or whatever), the B of A stadium embarrassment. Maybe Bill will endorse Romney or something, and really blow the whole shebang! nHmm – I might have to watch the speech…
I think it's easy to forget the bad position Obama is in and which forces him to redirect the sight of the electorate constantly. An impossible thing to do consistently without causing SNAFU conditions.
And it sounds like DWS is adding to the train wreck, beyond her Oren misquote. An overachiever even by Obama's standards. nBut, yeah, you're right – the dysfunction is evidence of failure and, thus, provides further evidence that this election is not going to be close. I still think a major player in this election, and one that I haven't seen anybody mention, will be the steady erosion of morale amongst liberals. This convention may contribute significantly to that.
I think it's always been a matter of the grind against Obama and the satisfaction he seems to find in an enervated status quo. n nI don't think we've ever had a man so lacking in qualifications to be President, to say nothing of how desperately we needed the opposite. I voted for McCain but I don't think he was that man either, though he would have been better for the economy because he was humble enough to admit he lacked knowledge and that, without question, would have caused him to appoint knowledgeable people and not merely theoreticians. n nObama really didn't succeed in making Romney untouchable. He wounded him, no doubt, but taking into account Romney's tendency to say the wrong thing at just the right time, it was probably a wash. Point being, people don't dislike Romney they've just been jostled about so, that they've had no chance to really think him over. n nAs the election gets closer they'll be forced to do just that and I'm thinking they'll opt for giving him a chance.
I tried watching Bill, but when he got to Bowles-Simpson I gave up. He's so full of it. Pretty boring speech, I thought. Beneath him, I think, plugging for Obama.
Mike, I think it was a very good speech. It went long and meandered, but I appreciated his kind words for President Bush and I appreciated what little snark (saved or created jobs?) he could work into it. n nOur problems are severe, our self-understanding muddled and I've thought and continue to think that this election called for real honesty but it wasn't to be. Maybe I just don't understand politics, really. n nWe're not that Nation of abstracted constitutional principles that so many say we are. What has brought us together since the late 19th century is War. And the aftermath of war saw the implementation of federal taxes and pensions for the widows of the veterans of our Civil War. n nWe're a degraded people, there's no doubt about that. But we've always been about money. The love and fear of God helped us to be more than that, but God now mainly lives in our private imagination where He soothes our broken hearts, forgives our willful errors, and forbidden Wrath, stays just where He belongs.
A lot here to chew on, and I have begun to chew. Merci.
In retrospect, a blunder by Obama to insert his nose into the platform issue today. It resulted in an embarrassing spectacle during the vote, and kept open the other issues that were NOT put back in – why weren't they, Mr. Preezy of the United Steezy?. May have been less damaging to him to just let it slide. This issue has legs. Ouch. n nSeriously how could his people not have seen this? n nI suspect they did, and so did Obama, and had no problem with it till the platform blew up in their faces. After all, they scoured the Republican platform for talking points. n nI'm lovin' it.
If Obama were 1% of the executive and political leader his worshippers claim him to be, he would have made sure the Dems’ platform exactly aligned with his needs in the first place a month ago; and the well performed convention would complement his exacted reputation. n nAs it is, this is yet another self-inflicted wound, one of many which this train wreck convention is actually creating instead of avoiding. n nAnd they want us to vote for four more years of…? n
Oh my, do you think this is the equivalent of someone taking the stage after FLOTUS? n nThe good press was so fleeting: Oh! deceitful wind!
The LA Times (Villaregosa's hometown paper) has refused to release the video from Obama's attendance and speaking at Khalidi, the anti-Israeli leftist radical's party. The Dem party base and leadership are largely anti-israeli. In another ten years they won't bother with the fig-leaf of calling themselves anti-zionist. By the time any reasonable number of Jews wake up and start voting Republican it will be too late. n nThe best thing that could happen to the pro-Israeli dem activisits is to have Obama lose a huge amount of Jewish support and lose the election. The only thing politiicians respond to is losing power and money. If they can either take Jews for granted or win without them they will be happy to have another wedge issue.
It is incredibly easy to withhold sympathy from Villaraigosa. He is a terrible mayor, a serial cheater on his wife who was literally in bed with the media, has helped run the L.A. economy into the ground and is a reliable party hack. Just because his base refuses to hide their anti-israeli and secular attitude is no reason to feel sorry that this hack can't hide the beliefs of the base that has given him wealth and power. Boo – frigging – hoo. Now which one of the two parties' convention is circa 1812 Mr. Villraigosa?
Maybe it's God they were booing? Or both God and Jews in Jerusalem? Lots of atheists and Muslims at this convention? And very stupid people.
I am hugely disappointed at Democrats abandonment of Israel. I do not understand this shift. Very sad.r nr nBest Regards,
Alana, never forget that a *lot* of Christians (particularly Protestants) support Israel because it is *OUR* Holy Land too. Remember that Jesus was a Jew, that the Last Supper was a Passover Seder, etc. — and that many of his issues (e.g the incident with the moneychangers in the temple) were that people weren't following Jewish law, that Jewish law wasn't being enforced and Jesus thought it ought to be. Remember too that the "Old Testament" — 3/4 of the Christian Bible — essentially is the Torah, verbatim but translated into English, in my case 16th Century English, but still translated from the Hebrew as best as the scholars could. n nAnd whom are they currently massacring in Egypt? Coptic Christians — Christians, not Jews — the radical Islamics will kill us just as quickly and many of us know that. Folk in Iran speak openly of "Big Satan" and "Little Satan" and how much less subtle can they be? n nI don't know how Jewish Democrats are going to interpret this clip, but I can tell you right now how the rural conservative Protestants in the Red States will — and it ain't gonna help Obama at all….
I would like to hand out Yellow Stars outside the convention center. Beat the rush before Obama makes us.
Add yellow crosses as well. I doubt there would be a distinction made if it came to this.
Disgusting, and disturbing, to see what a great political party has devolved to. There were at least a few loudmouthed Arab-Americans out there, to judge by the couple that the camera guy kept focusing on. n nThe American blacks have become reliably anti-Israel and anti-Semitic, except for the older church-going generation that still has respect for the Jews' role in founding the NAACP and fighting for civil rights in the South. n nHispanics–who knows? They're Catholics, but since when have Catholics been pro-Jewish. n nLeftie liberals — now that's a solidly pro-Arab group. If they had their way, our kids would all be bowing to Mecca every morning at school.
Blister– n nSpeaking as a pro-Israel non-Hispanic Catholic, I can assure you that —sadly—most American Hispanic "Catholics" are about as religious as secular Jews. Try visiting a McDonald's some time on a Friday during Lent and watch all of them chow down plenty of meat–and that's just for starters.
Blisterpeanuts, it is more than just the older generation of Blacks respects Jews for assistance with civil rights. While it is not as bad as it used to be, and is a whole lot better than it was in the 1950s, the difference between Catholic and Protestant is almost as clear as between Christian and Jew. Southern Black Christians are largely either Southern Baptist or AME (African Methodist) and these are mainline Protestant faiths, about as far from Catholicism as one can be. n nSee what I wrote above, and remember one other thing — the Catholics have the Vatican and Rome — the Protestants have Israel. This is not to be underestimated with this group — there are a lot of shared values and this needs not to be forgotten.
As an American Jewish Israeli, I was more insulted by the manner that the Democrats voted to recognize Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel than the way they first removed that fact from their platform.
In all the obsession by the media with “Jewish votes” and “Jewish money” and “Jewish power”, there has been little if any discussion of the Muslim vote or Muslim financial contributions in this election. Want to take a wild guess who’s the beneficiary? n nAlso what about the sources of Muslim money in this election? How much of it is coming from our “friends” in the Middle East (most likely hidden as “local” contributions)? n nNone of these topics are ever discussed in the mainstream press. They are much too busy chasing Adelson to look into topics that might embarrass their favorite candidate. Better let sleeping dogs lie. n
The writing was on the wall four years ago, when Obama, an unknown and unaccomplished Chicagol politician whipped Hilary Clinton, wife of a former President and experienced herself in national politics. The "base" of the Democratic Party has changed, and it won't be long before white liberals, including Jewish liberals, are a dispossessed minority in the party, and the Obama/Wright/Ayers ideology comes out in the open as the true colors of that party. Look no further than the changes in the platform, and obvious displeasure of the delegates at the insertion of references to G-d and Israel. I'm sure somebody has already made a comparison between the denials of the Jews of Germany pre-WWII and the attitudes of Jewish liberals today, so staunch in their ideology over their heritage and history. G-d help us.
Dubya-tee-eff, man! This is about Jerusalem, not Netanyahu, or can't you read? (never mind, don't answer that!) n nIt had to be said, because some fool removed Jerusalem-as-a-capital from the platform earlier, and they were just putting it back after catching some flack. It's all about keeping the pro-Israel vote.
He can read, he just can't think. And he hopes no one else can, either. That's why he has to try to distract people with bogeymen.