Media spotlight on anti-Israel minority at DNC paints skewed picture of a party divided
There might have been less surprise over low turnout at pro-Palestinian marches and warm reception of hostage’s family had coverage of the far-left flank been more proportionate
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
CHICAGO — Some three dozen pro-Palestinian activists held a press conference outside Chicago’s United Center on Thursday, as the final night of the Democratic National Convention proceeded uninterrupted inside.
The group of “Uncommitted” delegates was surrounded by a gaggle of reporters twice their size.
The scene was representative of the past four days at the DNC, where the minority group that led a protest vote against US President Joe Biden during the Democratic primaries received a disproportionate amount of media attention.
The spotlight both on this far-left flank — which made up less than one percent of Democratic delegates — and on the even more hardline demonstrators outside the perimeter of the United Center, helped create a skewed narrative of a Democratic Party divided between a leadership that supports the Jewish state and a base that is walking away from it.
It could explain why many were surprised when only several thousand protesters took part in a march toward the United Center on the first day of the convention, after organizers of the anti-Israel demonstration warned of 100,000 party crashers.
It could explain why many were on edge about the kind of reception that the parents of American-Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin would receive when they took the stage on Wednesday night.
The chants of “Bring them home!” as Jon and Rachel Goldberg-Polin entered and the attentive silence from the tens of thousands standing in the arena as the parents spoke could have served as a wake-up call to reporters covering the DNC protests.
However, many continued covering every move of the Uncommitted delegates, including when they launched a sit-in outside the United Center, demanding that a representative be allowed to address the convention inside.
DNC organizers denied the request, and the convention ended Thursday with the party’s presidential nominee Kamala Harris pledging to ensure Israel “always has the ability to defend itself” — the effective antithesis to the Uncommitted call for an Israel embargo.
Harris also said she was working to end the war in such a way that Palestinians can realize “self-determination.” The remark garnered some of the most enthusiastic applause in the entire speech, indicating that Harris delegates do hold some views in common with the Uncommitted ones. But her lines in support of Israel were similarly well received, suggesting that the party prefers the type of balance that its new leader is offering.
That’s why they overwhelmingly adopted a platform at the beginning of the convention that touted an “ironclad” commitment to Israel’s security and a two-state solution.
The latter policy might be out of step with the current Israeli government, but it’s where a majority of American Jews are, and possibly why most American Jews continue to back the Democratic Party.
“Kamala Harris has spoken for the vast majority of people here,” Rep. Jamie Raskin told The Times of Israel, “which is that we are in complete defense of Israel’s strategic security and its survival and its future, and at the same time, we are not going to remain silent about [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and the right-wing in Israel being indifferent to civilian casualties and death in Gaza.”
