Boycott-Israel Movement Comes to Congress

National Review Online

Tuesday, July 18, 2023

 

On Wednesday, when Israel’s President Isaac Herzog speaks to Congress, at least five progressive Democrats will be boycotting. Representative Ilhan Omar led the way last week by tweeting that there was “no way in hell” she would attend. She was followed by “Squad”-mates: Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Cori Bush, and Jamaal Bowman.

 

When Democratic leadership decided to invite Herzog to speak last fall, it was viewed as a noncontroversial way to commemorate Israel’s 75th anniversary. In Israel’s parliamentary system, the prime minister steers policy, while the president serves as the ceremonial head of state, with no policy portfolio. To the extent that Herzog has weighed in on policy matters in recent months, it has been to urge Netanyahu to seek compromise and back off his reforms of the nation’s judiciary. In short, there is no reason for members to boycott Herzog unless their objections are to Israel in general, rather than over a specific policy or figure.

 

The left-wing Netroots Nation conference, which ran from last Thursday to Saturday, became a forum for Israel-bashing. Omar declared, “We definitely need people who know what it’s like to experience occupation, whether it is in Ukraine or Palestinian people who have now experienced occupation and displacement for 75 years.” Given that Omar traced the Israeli “occupation” all the way back to its founding, rather than to the territories captured during 1967’s Six Day War, it leaves little doubt that she considers the mere existence of Israel to be illegitimate.

 

At the same conference, the leader of the House progressives, Representative Pramila Jayapal, sought to appease a group of anti-Israel hecklers, reassuring them, “We have been fighting to make it clear that Israel is a racist state.”

 

After Democratic leadership sought to defuse the backlash, Jayapal released a half-hearted apology, trying to frame her comments as really meant for Netanyahu. “At a conference, I attempted to defuse a tense situation during a panel where fellow members of Congress were being protested,” she said. “I do not believe the idea of Israel as a nation is racist. I do, however, believe that Netanyahu’s extreme right-wing government has engaged in discriminatory and outright racist policies and that there are extreme racists driving that policy within the leadership of the current government.” In other words, the “idea” of Israel isn’t racist in theory, but it is in practice.

 

Democrats will continue to downplay these developments, as President Biden will do when he meets with Herzog this week. (Biden dragged his feet for months in issuing an invitation to Netanyahu, and only yesterday agreed to a meeting at an uncertain date.) But it’s becoming more challenging to put the genie back in the bottle. Gallup has for decades been asking the straightforward question: “In the Middle East situation, are your sympathies more with the Israelis or more with the Palestinians?” In 2013, Democrats said they sympathized more with Israelis 55 percent to 19 percent. When the question was asked this year, 49 percent of Democrats said they sympathized with the Palestinians, compared with just 38 percent who said Israelis. That’s a net decline of 47 points in support for Israelis among Democrats in just ten years.

 

Though Democratic leaders will sweep Jayapal’s comments under the rug and dismiss the Squad as a small and insignificant group within the House, it’s hard to ignore the broader anti-Israel trend within the party.