Sarsour and The Platform

Noted anti-Semite and pro-palestinian activist, Linda Sarsour, has been a fixture within the hard-left wing of the Democratic party. Embraced by the likes of Ilhan Omar, AOC,and other Squad members and quietly tolerated by party leadership, she has spewed her anti-Israel venom for years. Now, recognizing that Jewish donors and supporters have begun to ask hard questions about Sarsour, Joe Biden has "condemned" her. I have to wonder if a cognitively challenged Biden even knows who she is.

The Dems and their trained hamsters in the media are trumpeting Biden's "condemnation" of Sarsour, hoping it will assuage concerns about the Dems anti-Israel trajectory over the past decade.  If that were true, their party platform for 2020 would reflect a degree of moderation that somehow appears to be missing. The party's 2020 platform positions on the Middle East provides a clear indication of just how extreme the Dems have become. Bruce Abramson and Jeff Ballabon comment:

For the past week or so [written prior to the convention], Democrats purporting to be "pro-Israel" have been laying the groundwork for release of the party's official 2020 platform. Their spin has been that they held the line against their party's ascendant anti-Israel progressive base.

They needed that spin. Many lifelong Democrats who recognize Israel as a valued U.S. ally, who appreciate the existence of the world's only secure Jewish state and who oppose the unremitting terror campaigns of the Palestine Liberation Organization and Hamas had grown concerned.

They know that much as they may have admired the Obama-Biden administration on other grounds, its "daylight" doctrine had been an unmitigated disaster for Israel. In a stark, stunning and explicit departure from decades of bipartisan U.S. policy promising "no daylight" and "no surprises" between the allies, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and John Kerry revealed Israeli intelligence, sabotaged operations and engaged in stealthy diplomatic attacks on the Jewish state—culminating in the notorious UNSC 2334 declaration that the mere act of Jews living in Judea is criminal. The party's progressive base has made no secret of its desire to pocket 2334 and orient American policy in directions increasingly antagonistic towards Israel—and increasingly dangerous to Jewish life. The purported "pro-Israel" Democrats needed a pro-Israel platform for assurance.

But the Democratic National Committee released a platform 180 degrees off from the spin. It's so pro-Iran that the National Iranian-American Council, the de facto Iranian regime lobby in Washington, immediately "applauded" the DNC "for its forward-leaning platform commitments on issues of importance to the Iranian-American community." It demonstrates that President Obama's curious preference for the supremacists running the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood, rather than our traditional regional allies, has become mainstream Democratic ideology.

After going over the Israel plank in detail, Abramson and Ballabon (read the whole thing) write:

With this Israel plank in its platform, Joe Biden and the 2020 Democrats have effectively adopted the terrorists' creed, excusing, justifying and encouraging the murder of Jews, denying history and law, and promoting the continued rise of global anti-Semitism. While the platform committee may have allowed the purportedly "pro-Israel" operatives to remove the word "occupation" from the text, its substance reaffirms the Democrats' commitment to the unspeakably anti-Semitic and anti-American notion of "judenrein" territory—the ethnic cleansing of Jews from their historic homeland. Selected details and linguistic niceties cannot spin away the platform's substantive anti-Jewish reality.

So ... despite its new anti-Sarsour stance, it looks like the Dems want to continue Obama's attempted abandonment and demonization of Israel. At the same time, they'll make nicey-nice with Iran, one of our most dangerous adversaries in the Middle East. As a consequence, should the Dems and Biden's puppet masters retake control of our foreign policy, the chaos that pervaded the Middle East during the Obama years will look calm by comparison.

UPDATE (8-24-2020):

For those who think Biden's "condemnation" of Sarsour somehow cleanses the Democratic party of it's on-going support for anti-Semites, The Trump Campaign provides a few additional examples of Biden supporters who appeared or attended the DNC Convention:

Lonnie Rashid Lynn Jr., AKA the rapper “Common”: In 2018, Lynn was featured on a music compilation project released by [notorious anti-Semite, Louis] Farrakhan. He also promoted a clip of Farrakhan speaking, saying, “Wise words being spoken!” He encouraged people to listen to Farrakhan in 2014, posed for photos with Farrakhan in 2006, appeared at a Farrakhan-organized concert in 1997, and praised Farrakhan’s organization in 1995.

 

Freddy Haynes: In 2017, Haynes promoted a photo he took with Farrakhan and called him a "wonderful and great man." Haynes said it was a "great honor to be in the presence of The Minister." In 2015, Haynes called Farrakhan "a prophetic leader of our time" and voiced support for Farrakhan's "Justice Or Else" movement.

 

Tamika Mallory: In 2018, Mallory attended an address by Farrakhan in which he labeled Jews “satanic” and called them his “enemy.” After his remarks, Mallory called him the greatest of all time. Just last year, Mallory refused to denounce Farrakhan when challenged on ABC’s The View.

 

Linda Sarsour: A strong proponent of the anti-Israel BDS movement, Sarsour spoke at a 2015 rally organized by Farrakhan. She also compared progressive Zionists to white supremacists, asking how they could support a state like Israel “that is built on the idea that Jews are supreme to everyone else?”

 

Rep. James Clyburn: In 2018, Clyburn refused to condemn Farrakhan, who he has consistently supported for decades. In 2011, Clyburn shared a stage with Farrakhan, where he said, “I want to thank Min. Farrakhan for offering up a number of precepts that we ought to adhere to.”

 

Sen. Cory Booker: Last year, Booker told a questioner that he’s “very familiar with” Farrakhan’s “beliefs,” has heard his “speeches for a lot of my life,” and would meet with him.

As some have stated elsewhere, following the lead of notorious U.K. anti-Semite and politician, Jeremy Corbyn, the "corbynization" of the Democratic Party continues.

UPDATE (8-25-2020):

The Dems never cease to amaze in their craven attempts to keep their hard left base from scattering to the winds. In the aftermath of Biden's "condemnation" of Linda Sarsour, a few things happened. Jonathan Tobin reports:

The Biden campaign’s distancing itself from Sarsour was roundly denounced on the left. The Moveon.org activist group defended her as a “leader in the fight for justice.”  Extremist Muslim groups like the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) claimed that denouncing Sarsour was an insult to all Muslim voters.

But while this might have been a Sister Souljah moment for Biden in which he successfully distanced himself from the most irresponsible elements in his party, that good impression was erased within days.

On Sunday, some of the Biden campaign’s most important players walked back the denunciation of Sarsour. In a private call, a tape of which was obtained by the Middle East Eye website, Ashley Allison, the campaign’s national coalitions director said she was “sorry” for what had been said about Sarsour.

More importantly, Tony Blinken, the candidate’s top foreign policy advisor who has been leading efforts to reassure Jewish Democrats and supporters of Israel that Biden could be counted on, also apologized to Sarsour and her backers.

Dem supporters in the Jewish community (in fact, in every community) should be disgusted by this hypocrisy. Imagine for just a moment, the media reaction if after Donald Trump condemned Joe Biden's buddy, Robert Byrd, a senior official in the RNC apologized to the late KKK member's family. Instead, crickets.