Fight might erupt at convention over language regarding Israel and Palestinians.
WASHINGTON – Hillary Clinton will ensure that the Democratic Party Platform slated to be approved at the party convention next month will be supportive of the State of Israel, Wendy Sherman, a former top State Department official and member of the committee that drafts the platform, told The Jerusalem Post this week.
“I am sure the Democratic Party Platform will reflect longstanding, strong support for Israel,” she said. Sherman, who was the Obama administration’s chief negotiator in the Iran nuclear negotiations, added: “Secretary Clinton’s views in support of Israel’s security and an unbreakable bond between the United States and Israel are well known.”
Her comments came amid growing concern in Israel and within the American Jewish community that Sen. Bernie Sanders’s appointments to the committee – including vocal critics of Israel like Cornel West, a known Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement supporter, James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, and Congressman Keith Ellison (D-Minnesota), the first Muslim elected to Congress – would steer the platform’s language in a direction that Jerusalem views as potentially harmful for Israel.
“I am sure the Democratic Party Platform will reflect longstanding, strong support for Israel,” she said. Sherman, who was the Obama administration’s chief negotiator in the Iran nuclear negotiations, added: “Secretary Clinton’s views in support of Israel’s security and an unbreakable bond between the United States and Israel are well known.”
Her comments came amid growing concern in Israel and within the American Jewish community that Sen. Bernie Sanders’s appointments to the committee – including vocal critics of Israel like Cornel West, a known Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement supporter, James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, and Congressman Keith Ellison (D-Minnesota), the first Muslim elected to Congress – would steer the platform’s language in a direction that Jerusalem views as potentially harmful for Israel.
Clinton was given six appointees to the committee while Sanders received five. The Democratic National Committee appointed four.
Sherman pointed to a speech Clinton delivered at the Brookings Institution’s annual Saban Forum for clues about how she would craft the language on the conflict.
“As she said in her Saban speech earlier this year, ‘only a two-state solution can provide Palestinians independence, sovereignty and dignity and provide Israelis the secure and recognized borders of a democratic Jewish state,’” Sherman said. “She went on to say, ‘Israelis deserve security, recognition and a normal life free from terror.
Sanders, who himself is Jewish and has lived in Israel, has repeatedly called for a “more balanced” approach to the decadesold conflict. But the policy gap between Clinton and Sanders may amount to rhetoric: Both pledge their support for Israel’s right to exist in peace and security, and ultimately to the establishment of a Palestinian state.
“When it comes to the fight against BDS, there’s strong agreement,” said Aaron Keyak, a Washington-based consultant for Jewish, pro-Israel and progressive groups.
“Secretary Clinton has been an outspoken critic and leader in combating BDS, and Senator Sanders has come out against BDS and believes that anti-Semitism is a driver of the movement.”
Should West, Zogby or Ellison choose to push for harsher language in committee discussions, they will have to negotiate with Sherman.
Neither Sherman nor Sullivan spoke of using the term “settlements.” But language that may prove even more relevant this year is any reference to the necessity of direct negotiations between the two sides, given the number of international efforts under way to outline parameters for a twostate solution.
Clinton opposes any effort in international bodies, including in the United Nations Security Council, to impose terms for peace “from without.” The Obama administration has not yet explicitly ruled out support for such initiatives, as presidents have done in the past, amid efforts by France and the Palestinian Authority to draft Security Council resolutions on the matter.
Party platforms are largely inspirational documents – snapshots of moments in time as political parties evolve and shift positions. They are rarely cited in holding a president or other party members to account once they are elected.
“This process is raising issues which are generally not so broadly discussed in the American electorate, and I think the press has overblown all of this,” commented Mel Levine, a former Democratic congressman from California who remains active in the party’s foreign policy circles. “I am confident that a balanced result will be achieved which is consistent with traditional bipartisan US policy,” he added.
As reported by The Jerusalem Post