By Norman Solomon / The Guardian
More than 100 Democratic lawmakers voted against arms for Israel. They’re listening to the people – their bosses are behind
The Democratic party is in dire need of a mutiny.
Top leaders at the party’s helm are unprepared to navigate the political sea change about Israel. Last week, nearly half of House Democrats voted to block $3.3bn in weaponry and other aid to that country. A recent New York Times poll found that 74% of Democratic voters “opposed providing additional economic and military support to Israel, including large majorities in all age groups”.
Such polling numbers are not new. But the House Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, and his Senate counterpart, Chuck Schumer, still follow an old playbook of unwavering service to Israel. The moral bankruptcy amounts to political malpractice, as voters tend to bypass a party with leadership they see as lacking a moral compass.
The day before 103 House Democrats ignored his guidance, Jeffries sent out a “dear colleague” letter filled with the kind of pro-Israel rhetoric that has worn transparently thin. The amendment to cut off aid, he claimed, “would restrict our country’s ability to confront Hamas, Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations in the region who are sworn enemies of both the United States and Israel”.
But Nancy Pelosi’s vote for the weapons cutoff was a weathervane for how drastically the Democratic winds have swung away from Israel. Consider the former speaker’s remarkable words at an Israeli-American Council conference in 2018: “I have said to people when they ask me: if this Capitol crumbled to the ground, the one thing that would remain is our commitment to our aid, I don’t even call it aid – our cooperation – with Israel. That’s fundamental to who we are.”
Fears of being slandered as antisemitic have routinely made automatic support for Israel seem safest. Now, while Aipac and other Israel-backing operations with deep pockets remain menacing, the dramatic shift in public attitudes toward Israel has notably reduced their intimidating power.
Worries about alienating big donors have been palpable at the Democratic National Committee (DNC), where financial woes are a huge concern. The business model of courting megadonors has a grim logic when the party leadership is so uninspiring to grassroots Democrats.
No one can make a credible case that Jeffries and Schumer, or the DNC chair, Ken Martin, for that matter, have been inspirational. A major factor in their inability to inspire has been failure to engage with the genuine moral anguish felt by so many Americans about their country’s complicity in genocide.