What Else Was Left Out of the Progressive Party Platform? (And Not Reinstated)
- Post 12 September 2012
The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) and GOP supporters are slamming the Democratic Party for omitting strong language against Hamas and the Palestinian “right of return” from its 2012 platform, language that was part of the 2008 Democratic platform. This is yet another significant omission — and it was not later fixed — contrary to the party’s reinstating language referring to Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, which TheBlaze reported on last week.
In 2008, the Democratic platform included the statement that Hamas – the group that rules Gaza and which the State Department defines as a terrorist group – must renounce terrorism. The platform then stated:
The United States and its Quartet partners should continue to isolate Hamas until it renounces terrorism, recognizes Israel’s right to exist, and abides by past agreements.
That language is now gone. In fact, the word “Hamas” doesn’t appear at all in the 2012 platform.
Also in 2008, the Democratic platform stated:
The creation of a Palestinian state through final status negotiations, together with an international compensation mechanism, should resolve the issue of Palestinian refugees by allowing them to settle there, rather than in Israel.
The Palestinian Authority under President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas are demanding what they call a “right of return” for Palestinian refugees and all their descendants, that is, a whopping five million people moving into the territory that is today the State of Israel; however, less than 1% — only 30,000 Arabs — actually ever lived in Palestine before 1948 and are still alive today. If five million Palestinians move to Israel, the question is: Where are the Israelis expected to go? The “right of return” implicitly means a destruction of the Jewish state through demography. In 2008, the Democratic platform said the refugees should be settled in a Palestinian state, not in Israel. The 2012 platform is silent on this major point.
Additionally, though the new Democratic platform reiterates President Obama’s commitment to Israel’s security, a line denoting Israel as America’s “strongest ally” is also absent from the 2012 document.
George Birnbaum, former chief of staff to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the changes in the Democratic platform “devastating” for Israel. He told radio host Joe “Pags” Pagliarulo on Monday:
The Democratic Party clearly showed their true colors during the Democrat convention. I mean, the language that came out of the platform committee was the true reflection of what the committed and the party wanted to say with regards to Israel and the Middle East.
From Republican Jewish Committee Ad
"Question all which is 'taught,' dig deeper, think clearly, respond profusely. Conformity is the antithesis of free thought and self-determination." -- Standard Pearls