DNC Platform Still Guts Pro-Israel Language

by Ben Shapiro 

Despite yesterday’s chaos on the floor of the Democratic National Convention in an attempt to restore Jerusalem and God to the Democratic Party 2012 platform, full pro-Israel language from the 2008 platform has not been and will not be restored. The current Democratic platform regarding Israel had a couple sentences restored yesterday:

Jerusalem is and will remain the capital of Israel. The parties have agreed that Jerusalem is a matter for final status negotiations. It should remain an undivided city accessible to people of all faiths.

But the full language of the 2008 platform is still gone:

The United States and its Quartet partners should continue to isolate Hamas until it renounces terrorism, recognizes Israel’s right to exist, and abides by past agreements. Sustained American leadership for peace and security will require patient efforts and the personal commitment of the President of the United States. The creation of a Palestinian state through final status negotiations, together with an international compensation mechanism, should resolve the issue of Palestinian refugees by allowing them to settle there, rather than in Israel. All understand that it is unrealistic to expect the outcome of final status negotiations to be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949.

Each and every sentence of this is important. If the Democratic Party no longer believes that the United States and its partners should isolate Hamas, refuses to acknowledge that return to 1949 armistice lines is disastrous, and doesn’t think that the so-called “right of return” which would destroy Israel as a Jewish state is a non-starter, there’s nothing to talk about: the Party has excised virtually every important element from its Israel plank.


President Obama saw this platform before it was approved. He did not object. He still does not object to the excision of anti-Hamas language and preconditions to negotiations that would actually make a lasting peace possible. The Democratic Party platform is still dramatically more anti-Israel than its past platforms. And yesterday’s fiasco was only the start of the problem.