The Democratic votes on the pair of resolutions from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., were not enough to overcome universal opposition from Republicans.
Still, the votes represented a watershed moment in the party’s relationship with Israel and the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel had continued to enjoy strong support from Democratic leaders, despite outrage from the base over the war on Gaza. Sanders said the votes signaled that party leaders are finally taking note.
“This is where the American people are. The polls are very clear: The overwhelming majority of American people do not want to continue to give weapons to Netanyahu and his horrific wars in the Mideast,” he said. “I think the Democrats have caught on to that. It took a little while, but they caught on to that. But Republicans, I think, are standing in opposition to millions of their own supporters.”
It was safe to vote in order to appease the voters without actually doing anything because they knew the Republicans would shut it down.
If the vote were closer and couldn’t survive Democratic unanimity, just enough of the rotating selection would oppose it to keep it from passing while the rest saved face.
It’s a bad play I think if that’s their plan. It shows that criticizing Israel is fair game, which has pretty much been against everything said in the past. It’s an admission that they think that what Israel is doing is wrong. You can’t put that back. AIPAC would not be in favor of this. If this is just appeasement, it’s at least appeasement that can be pointed at to show what’s wrong.
They may think of it like appeasement
But this is only the beginning of the anti-zionist snowball
I desperately hope you’re right, but I suspect this is naïvely optimistic.
Israel will only get more unpopular
More and more people see day after day the billions we spend sending weapons to Israel’s genocide and ethnic cleansing campaigns, billions that aren’t being used to help everyday americans
This type of resentment and anger is only growing, and will only grow faster as material conditions continue to worsen, which the vast majority of Americans are experiencing
So on top of the, rightfully, moral outrage at what Israel is, it’s also fuelled by that economic outrage, and both are only increasing
With berniecrat types, like Zohran and others, we see massive grassroots motion precisely because they can authentically tackle both those aspects. Calling out the truth of Apartheid and Genocide, demanding Divestment, on top of taxing the rich, moving all those funds to instead help cost of living at home
More and more berniecrats are winning races across the country because people are demanding a disruption to the status quo. The scare mongering of the socialist label doesn’t work anymore. People don’t care, they just hear that those policies can improve things. And as those policies do improve things, it only gets more and more popular
A Candidate whose unapologetically anti-zionist shows authenticity, so people are more charitable to that candidates socialist policies and more willing to give them a chance. The Republican policies aren’t working, the Liberal Democrat policies aren’t working, so fuck it, we ball
The Democratic Party has shown time and time again that they are willing to vote in line with the people if and only if their vote doesn’t change the outcome.
I’ll believe their votes on Israel mean anything when their votes – well – mean anything for the result.