Bucking far-left flank, Democrats advance platform touting support for Israel

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin — The Democratic Party on Tuesday advanced a platform that touts the Biden administration’s support for Israel, rejecting efforts by a minority of far-left members who pushed a more aggressive stance against the Jewish state.

Several progressive activists made a long-shot push last week for the Democratic National Committee to add an unprecedented clause to the party platform rejecting US aid to Israel. Already then, a senior Biden official told The Times of Israel that the effort would not succeed and that the platform would reflect the president’s stances on Israel, which include continued US security assistance.

The 2024 manifesto was approved by the DNC platform committee ahead of its formal adoption by delegates at the party convention next month in Chicago.

Party insiders put stock in platforms, whose crafting has led to infighting in the past, but they are also nonbinding and largely forgotten once the convention is over.

Abraham Accords

The Middle East section of the 2024 platform is far more detailed than it was four years ago, with much of it focusing on the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. Biden also now has a record to run on and space is given to lay out the policies he advanced while in office.

The section begins by highlighting the president’s efforts to further integrate the Middle East in order to bolster the anti-Iran coalition.

The previous platform made no mention of this issue, as Biden officials entered office avoiding even using the term Abraham Accords, which had been brokered by the Trump administration.

But the Democratic White House moved away from that approach after several months, and the DNC platform now notes that Biden directed his team to build on the Abraham Accords through a normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

“As a tangible sign of this normalization process, President Biden helped negotiate the first-ever civilian aviation agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia, allowing for overflight of Israeli civilian aircraft in Saudi airspace and leading to a more integrated and economically connected Middle East,” the platform states.

While Biden had been hoping to ink a deal between Jerusalem and Riyadh in his first term, congressional sources told The Times of Israel last week that the window has closed for the administration to broker a normalization deal before the November presidential election, because there is not enough time left for the Senate to hold the hearings necessary to approve the defense guarantees for Saudi Arabia.

From Gaza war to two-state solution

On the Gaza war specifically, the platform states that the US “strongly supports Israel in the fight against Hamas,” while touting the progress Biden has made toward negotiating a ceasefire and hostage release deal.

The 80-page document elaborates that Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris “believe a strong, secure and democratic Israel is vital to the interests of the United States. Their commitment to Israel’s security, its qualitative military edge, its right to defend itself and the 2016 Memorandum of Understanding (containing $3.8 billion in security aid) is ironclad.”

The platform “unequivocally” condemns Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, including the sexual violence perpetrated by the group, which the US “wants to see defeated.”

It notes Biden’s visit to Israel days after the attack — the first by a US president during wartime — and the administration’s defense of Israel at the United Nations.

Biden’s support for the Israel-Ukraine aid package passed by Congress earlier this year is also highlighted. That package included $17 billion in security aid for Israel and $1 billion in humanitarian aid for Gaza.

The platform notes Biden’s efforts to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, while acknowledging that the best way to do so is through the ceasefire deal currently being negotiated. The president said last week that Israel and Hamas have agreed to the framework and are now working on finalizing the gaps.

The document says the Biden-backed ceasefire proposal will enable Arab states to assist in the reconstruction of Gaza “in a manner that does not allow Hamas to re-arm.”

“It would create the conditions for a better future for the Palestinian people, one of self-determination, dignity, security, and freedom, and ultimately a state of their own — a contrast to [former president Donald] Trump, who refuses to endorse the political aspirations of the Palestinian people,” the platform adds, stressing support for a two-state solution that is rarely voiced by Republicans any more.

Asked at the presidential debate last month whether he supports the establishment of a Palestinian state, Trump gave a noncommittal answer.

The two-state framework isn’t backed in Jerusalem either.

Israel’s deputy ambassador to the US, Eliav Benjamin, told Republican members in a Tuesday address on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that “talks about a two-state solution are not talks that any Israeli is willing to talk about at this point… especially right after October 7.”

“The outcome of October 7 cannot be an independent Palestinian state. It will not be the outcome. Yes, we are looking for a way forward, also for the benefit of the Palestinian people — first and foremost on the economic level. We work tirelessly on this, and we will continue to do so also moving forward,” the Israeli diplomat said.

The stance has been voiced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other right-wing lawmakers but seemed more noteworthy coming from a member of Israel’s nonpolitical diplomatic corps.

Iran and antisemitism

The Democratic platform also touches on Israel’s tensions with Hezbollah, maintaining that “the Lebanese people deserve to live in an independent and sovereign Lebanon that is free from the grip of the Iran-backed [terror group].

“In this regard, the administration is also committed to facilitating a diplomatic resolution to the ongoing hostilities along the Israel-Lebanon border that would ensure the return of both Israeli and Lebanese families to their homes,” the document states.

The platform maintains the party’s stance on Jerusalem, calling it “a matter for final status negotiations,” adding that it “should remain the capital of Israel, an undivided city accessible to people of all faiths.”

It reiterates opposition to the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, along with “any effort to unfairly single out and delegitimize Israel.”

On Iran, it touts the administration’s counterstrikes against Iranian proxies and the coalition of 20 countries Biden built against the Houthis, who have continued their attacks on Red Sea shipping routes.

The platform recalls another coalition Biden built to help thwart Iran’s missile and drone attack against Israel in April. It laments Trump’s decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal, claiming it has led Tehran to accelerate its nuclear program, bringing it within weeks “from being able to produce enough weapons-grade material for a bomb.”

“President Biden remains committed to a diplomatic solution while standing resolute that Iran will never be allowed to develop nuclear weapons,” the document says.

The document also builds on Biden’s pre-2020 election pledge to give no safe harbor to any form of hate, including antisemitism.

It highlights his administration’s crafting of the first-ever strategy for countering antisemitism, which has intensified since October 7.

“As part of the antisemitism strategy, the administration clarified, for the first time in writing, that Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits certain forms of antisemitic, Islamophobic, and related forms of discrimination in federally funded programs and activities,” the platform says, adding that Biden has also taken steps to combat antisemitism on college campuses.

The ink spilled on Israel and antisemitism is far more substantial in the DNC platform than in the Republican one approved this week, but it’s unclear whether Democratic leaders will be spending as much time highlighting Biden’s support for the Jewish state at their convention next month.

Even if the far-left flank of the party aiming to cut aid to Israel represents a minority, Biden hasn’t shied away from criticizing Netanyahu’s prosecution of the war and his government’s efforts to expand Israeli control of the West Bank.

Like the previous platform, the one published Tuesday stresses Democratic opposition to “unilateral steps” taken by either side that undermine a two-state solution. The latest edition highlights that Biden has acted on this policy, sanctioning Israeli extremists who have carried out attacks in the West Bank.

Meanwhile, in Milwaukee

The Democrats’ nuanced take on the Middle East conflict contrasted with the Republican convention, which was characterized by unqualified pro-Israel sentiment.

The crowd at the RNC erupted Tuesday after Republican Jewish Coalition CEO Matt Brooks began his speech by asking those who support Israel to cheer.

“If someone tried that at the Democrats’ convention, they’d be booed off the stage! But here at the Republican Convention, we proudly and loudly stand with Israel!” Brooks said to more cheers from the several thousand GOP members in the stands at the Fiserv Forum arena for the second night of the RNC in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The RJC leader pledged that the Republican party will continue to build on its support from Jewish voters in the coming election.

Between two-thirds and three-quarters of Jews vote Democrat, but the GOP has enjoyed a gradual boost in recent years. Still, the large majority who have stuck with the Democratic Party have infuriated Trump, who has repeatedly accused them of being disloyal to Israel and their faith.

Touching on rising antisemitism in the US since October 7, Brooks took out a red yarmulke inscribed with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s name and said, “President Trump will bring back law and order so that American Jews can once again wear a kippah and walk the streets without fear.”

Brooks touted Trump’s Israel record as president, promising to “rebuild the US-Israel relationship after four disastrous years under President Biden.”

Brooks excoriated Biden for withholding 2,000-pound bombs from Israel, which the president says he doesn’t want being dropped on highly populated areas.

Trump has also criticized Israel’s prosecution of the war against Hamas while asserting that the IDF should be allowed to “finish the job quickly.”

Speaking to reporters after his address, Brooks said this message amounts to a “blank check for Israel.”

“If you need to carpet bomb the area, do it. Just get it done. Rip the band-aid off. Finish the job because Hamas needs to be destroyed,” Brooks said.

“This is just taking months and months. All [Trump] is saying is that time is not Israel’s ally. The longer this continues, the more public support erodes, the more international support erodes, and Trump’s point [is] do what you have to do, get it done and get out,” he added.