FEATURED JOBS
The last few weeks were quite unfortunate and very telling for the Democrat Party, which has long claimed a lock on Jewish voters. It continued to assume that American Jews would support the party through hell or high water. This time, though, American Jews had a rude awakening.
The weeks began with news stories claiming that Iran had been promised, by the Obama administration, that the U.S. would not help Israel in any attacks on Iran if Iran agreed to not to attack U.S. ships and interests. Another news story came out claiming that the Obama administration had asked the Palestinian Arabs not to declare a Palestinian Arab state until after the presidential elections. Both of these news stories were denied by the administration.
A short time later, Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz falsely claimed that the Israeli ambassador had told her that the Republican Party was not a friend of Israel. Wasserman Schultz at first denied she made this claim but reversed her position when an audio tape of her statement surfaced. The matter worsened when the Israeli ambassador flatly denied ever making this statement and went on to say that Israel would never involve itself in U.S. partisan politics.
Later, at the Democrat Convention, it was revealed that the party platform had been changed from prior Democrat platforms and that there was no statement strongly supporting Israel or stating that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. Once President Obama was caught in this matter, he claimed that the removal of pro-Jerusalem position from the Democrat platform was simply a clerical error.
In an attempt to save face (and votes), the Democrat leadership introduced an amendment to the platform at a televised and public meeting of delegates. Party leaders assumed that this change would be a “sure thing” — that the delegates were sure to overwhelmingly approve the change. The change required a two-thirds voice-vote approval. Shockingly, the Democrat delegates strongly rejected the pro-Israel/pro-Jerusalem position. Even though it appeared that possibly more Democrats voted against Jerusalem than for it, the moderator falsely claimed that two-thirds of the voice voters supported Jerusalem and passed the amendment before an angry crowd.
Clearly, Jews and others who support Israel and Jerusalem have had a rude awakening. The Democrat Party has made extreme changes since the years of FDR, JFK and LBJ. This is clearly not the Democrat Party of our fathers and mothers.
Howard Hyman
Jamison, Pa.
