The Democratic Party has adopted the strongest pro-Israel platform in the party’s history ahead of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia next week, DNC chairwoman and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz told Jewish Insider on Thursday.
“In this campaign, when it comes to which party and which candidate will make sure that we can remain solidly behind the U.S.-Israel relationship, it’s the Democratic Party, which has adopted the strongest pro-Israel plank, including adding anti-BDS language to our platform, in our party’s history,” Wasserman Schultz said during a press conference in Cleveland, Ohio.
Earlier this month, the Democratic Party’s platform committee “>contains strong pro-Israel language, albeit it dropped any reference to the party’s longstanding support for the two-state solution. “We reject the false notion that Israel is an occupier,” the platform’s language on Israel reads. “Support for Israel is an expression of Americanism, and it is the responsibility of our government to advance policies that reflect Americans’ strong desire for a relationship with no daylight between America and Israel.”
Marc Zell, the co-chair of Republicans Overseas Israel chapter, “>approved the new Israel language. “The straw that broke this camel’s back was this past week,” Zell said in an interview. “This is the most pro-Israel plank of any party in the history of the State of Israel, and who helped us write that and approved it? Donald Trump.”
Zell also blasted AIPAC for lobbying against the proposed amendment. “I have a lot of respect for AIPAC, but they were wrong about this,” he said. “They wanted to preserve the two-party consensus on all issues at any cost, and that’s not right. The Democrats are about to go over the cliff on Israel. It was only by a small miracle that they preserved the AIPAC plank, but there are people on that committee, as you know, who are basically anti-Semites and would have abandoned Israel in a second.”
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