Sanders expects ‘consensus’ on Palestinian rights at convention

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Bernie Sanders said he expected his views on Palestinian rights to be reflected at the Democratic National Convention, and his appointees to the party’s platform drafting committee pledged to push for acknowledgement of the Israeli occupation.

“I have always and will always be 100 percent supportive of Israel’s right to exist and live in peace and security,” Sanders, the Independent senator from Vermont who is vying for the Democratic presidential nod, said in a statement reported Thursday, May 26 in the New York Times.

“I also believe that lasting peace in the region will not occur without fair and respectful treatment of the Palestinian people,” he said. “I believe that most Democrats agree with that position and that a strong consensus will be achieved at the Democratic National Convention.”

Sanders, the first Jewish candidate to win major party nominating contests, has said that he is “100 percent” pro-Israel and has argued in left-wing circles for the need to preserve Israel’s security. He has also chided fellow Democrats, chief among them his rival, Hillary Clinton, who is the front-runner in the nomination stakes, for not paying enough attention to the Palestinians. He has decried Israel’s settlements policy and has said it uses force disproportionately in dealing with Palestinian violence.

Sanders’ statement comes after he named a slate of five delegates to the 15-person platform drafting committee that includes three people known for pro-Palestinian activism: Philosopher Cornel West, James Zogby, the president of the Arab American Institute, and Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn. The Democratic party platform has for years favored a two-state outcome to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but has also cast that posture on pro-Israel terms, and has laid the blame for the longstanding impasse mostly on the Palestinians.

West and Zogby told the Times that they would make inclusion in the platform that Israel is occupying the West Bank a priority. West said the platform should reflect the “plight of an occupied people.”

“Any honest assessment would say that the debate on this issue has shifted over the last 30 years and the platform has reflected that but lagged slightly behind, and it’s now time to catch up,” Zogby said.

West, who backs the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel and is known for his fiery language, told the Times that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had committed “war crimes.” He also said “the role of money and lobbies makes it difficult for there to be a candid dialogue.”

Clinton’s delegates include figures who have been aligned with the mainstream pro-Israel community, like former Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., and Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md. Her top foreign policy adviser, Jake Sullivan, told JTA this week that her views on Israel would be reflected in the platform.

“Hillary Clinton’s views on Israel and the U.S.-Israel relationship are well documented and she’s confident that her delegates will work to ensure that the party platform reflects them,” Sullivan said.

NY Times editor: Trump is ignoring supporters’ antisemitic tweets

(JTA) — A New York Times editor who has received a deluge of antisemitic tweets from supporters of Donald Trump is calling on the presumptive Republican presidential nominee to denounce the invective and support its targets.

In an article published in the paper’s Sunday edition, Jonathan Weisman summarizes the deluge of tweets he has received from writers identifying themselves with handles like “Trump God Emperor,” “CyberTrump” and “@DonaldTrumpLA.”

Their tweets have insulted his “Ashkenazi intelligence,” included a doctored image of the gates of Auschwitz and featured a menorah made of the number six million. Others show Weisman as a concentration camp inmate being guarded by an image of Trump in a Nazi uniform, a grotesque caricature of a Jew labeled “The Holocaustinator” and a Nazi-era cartoon of an Aryan roughing up a stereotypical Jew.

“And still, we have heard nothing from Mr. Trump, no denunciation, no broad renouncing of racist, anti-Semitic support, no expressions of sympathy for its victims,” writes Weisman, an editor in the Times’ Washington bureau. Weisman is also critical of a statement by the Republican Jewish Committee (RJC), issued May 24, that criticized “anti-Semitic invective” in the presidential race but without singling out the actions of Trump supporters.

Weisman describes the RJC statement — which abhorred abuse of journalists “whether it be from Sanders, Clinton or Trump supporters” — as “equivocation as an art form.”

He says he is preserving the antisemitic tweets – rather than blocking them, as Twitter administrators advised him — as “a research tool of sorts, a database of hate, and a shrine to 2016.”

He acknowledges in the article that he had “become largely disconnected from Jewish life and faith over the years.” But as a result of the Twitter attacks, he writes, “I found myself staring down a social-media timeline filled with the raw hate and anti-Semitic tropes.”

Will Democrats oust Wasserman Schultz as party chair?

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Feeling the heat over her clashes with Bernie Sanders, Debbie Wasserman Schultz is at the center of a debate among Democratic lawmakers over whether to push for her ouster as party chair.

The Hill reported Tuesday, May 24 that about 12 senators have been discussing what to do about Wasserman Schultz, a Florida congresswoman and one of the most prominent Jewish members of the party.

The senators, none of whom spoke for quotation, said Wasserman Schultz’s clashes with Sanders in his bid to defeat Hillary Clinton, the front-runner in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, could lead to tensions at this summer’s convention. They worry that could distract from the effort to defeat the likely Republican nominee, Donald Trump.

Wasserman Schultz has also lost the support of liberal groups that support Sanders, including Credo, Moveon.org and RootsAction.

In the same article, however, a raft of Democratic senators went on record to reject talk of ousting Wasserman Schultz as chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, a post she’s held since 2011. Her defenders included Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, Tim Kaine of Virginia, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Bill Nelson of Florida and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, as well as House minority leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California.

Sanders and his team have accused Wasserman Schultz of “rigging” the nomination process to favor Clinton, with whom she is close. Sanders has endorsed a primary challenger to Wasserman Schultz in her district. Wasserman Schultz, who says she remains neutral between Clinton and Sanders, has adamantly denied charges of bias. She notes that the primary and caucus rules are a matter for the states and that the national party rules were in place before Sanders declared his candidacy. The DNC has added debates at the behest of Sanders, who said the initial schedule prevented him from getting national exposure.

One concession Wasserman Schultz has made to Sanders was to ask him to name five members to the 15-member committee drafting the party platform. DNC chairs usually name the lion’s share of the committee, but Wasserman Schultz, in an apparent peace offering, allocated five names to Sanders, six to Clinton and four for herself.

Luis Miranda, the DNC spokesman, told The Hill that Wasserman Schultz’s defenders were ready to go on the record while her critics remained anonymous. He said Wasserman Schultz wasn’t going anywhere. “She’s going to continue to focus on uniting Democrats and on being an asset to help elect them up and down the ballot in November, just as she’s done for many in both chambers,” he said.

On the other hand, party leaders like Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the minority leader; Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Reid’s likely successor; and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the highest ranking woman senator in the party, dodged comment when asked by Politico whether Wasserman Schultz should stay. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., told Politico removing Wasserman Schultz would be a mistake.

One former DNC official said Wasserman Schultz is being blamed for campaign woes not of her making. “Chairwoman Wasserman Schultz is an easy scapegoat for each campaign who has complaints about how their own campaigns are being run or the traction that they’re not getting,” Holly Shulman, a former DNC spokeswoman, told The Hill.

Sanders’ appointees to the platform committee, meanwhile, have drawn scrutiny from the pro-Israel community for their past criticism of Israel.

In an interview with Foreign Policy, one of the Sanders appointees, James Zogby, the president of the Arab American Institute, said the Middle East would be on the agenda, and said he hoped to modify language that has until now been overwhelmingly pro-Israel to recognize Palestinian suffering. One change, he said, would be to explicitly describe Israel’s control in the West Bank as an “occupation.”