By Stephen Zunes,

Truthout

Due to a series of decisions by the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC’s) platform committee, progressives are concerned that the Biden-led Democratic Party’s foreign policy toward Israel and Palestine will more closely resemble that of Republicans than that of the Democratic rank-and-file.

There has already been much consternation among party activists over Biden’s key role in pushing the Iraq War resolution through the Democrat-controlled Senate in 2002, and his support for the invasion despite the return of UN inspectors and absence of “weapons of mass destruction,” weapons programs and weapons systems he falsely claimed Iraq possessed. As a result, Democratic activists were hoping the 2020 platform would offer reassurances of a less militarist foreign policy in light of the increasingly liberal views within the party with regards to the Middle East. Instead, the incipient nominee’s representatives on the committee were solid in their defense of continued U.S. backing for Israel’s corrupt right-wing government, defeating proposed amendments to modify such unconditional support by a nearly 4 to 1 margin.

The draft plank on Israel and Palestine fails to criticize or even mention the occupation. Nor does it offer any criticism regarding the vast network of more than 250 illegal settlements Israel has established in the West Bank and other occupied territories in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, a series of UN Security Council resolutions and a landmark ruling by the International Court of Justice. The draft does, however, criticize international civil society campaigns to boycott companies and other entities supporting the Israeli occupation and settlements.

The platform stresses Israel’s “right to defend itself,” which would not be problematic except for the fact that the majority of congressional Democrats have referred to massively disproportionate Israeli attacks on Palestinian and Lebanese civilian population centers as “legitimate self-defense.” Neither the Palestinians nor any other government in the world is specifically mentioned in the platform regarding their right to self-defense — only Israel.

In response to a new law pushed through by Israel’s right-wing government that “the right to exercise national self-determination” in Israel is “unique to the Jewish people,” there was a proposed amendment to support Israel as a state for all its citizens. The idea of equality was apparently such an anathema to the DNC majority that it was not even allowed to come for a vote. Instead, the language in the platform emphasizes U.S. support for Israel as a “Jewish” state.

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