Fighting for the Soul of the Democratic party

This weekend, the California Democratic Party meet in Long Beach to endorse candidates for district offices, and to make policy and platform recommendations.

True to form, extremist groups like JVP were there, in an effort to pressure the party to adopt divisive positions on Israel that serve only to marginalize the Jewish community and to demonize the world’s only Jewish state. 

Fortunately, groups such as  the Progressive Zionists of California (like them on Facebook!)and the AJC were also involved, to fight for the soul of the Democratic party, and ultimately prevailed.

 From the Progressive Zionists of California:

Progressive Zionists of California commends the California Democratic Party for upholding language on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict proposed by the Platform Committee, whose members worked tirelessly over three months to collect comments, engage in robust dialogue, and streamline language on a number of complex issues. Thank you to every delegate who voted against the proposed anti-peace amendment and for the platform language, upholding the values we hold dear as Democrats.

Despite many late nights working to find a compromise on the platform language, at the convention anti-Zionists collected signatures to attempt to get language changed through a vote at the general session, in what is known as a "floor fight." During this process, flyers distributed to gain signatures to bring the amendments to floor misrepresented the wording of the revised platform.

The floor vote, which was done first by voice and then checked visually as voting delegates held up their cards, overwhelmingly rejected the anti-Zionist's amendment, included language calling for an unprecedented “right of return” — a policy that would preclude a two-state solution.
In particular, we are pleased with the numerous rewrites of particularly troubling planks in the Platform Committee. We commend the Platform Committee in particular for their thoughtful discussion, and commitment to dialogue.

PZC founding member Susan George said, "We are pleased the party has once again rejected extremism, and decided to focus on unifying issues. 2020 is the election of a lifetime, and we must focus on keeping the tremendous gains California Democrats made in 2018, not get derailed by a divisive conversation."

We are also pleased that the party accepted an amendment to the Education plank and the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum, proposed by PZC Steering Committee member Andrea Beth Damsky, to meaningfully include language encouraging education about antisemitism.

PZC is grateful to our partners:

California Legislative Jewish Caucus
Democrats For Israel Los Angeles
Democratic Majority for Israel – Official Page
AJC - Global Jewish Advocacy
JIMENA: Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa
Democrats for Peace in the Middle East
Zioness Movement
A Wider Bridge
ADL Long Beach/Orange County
ADL Los Angeles
CYD Jewish Caucus
Jewish Federation & Family Services, Orange County
and numerous grassroots partners for their cooperation, support, and guidance.

We look forward to working together in the future to keep the California Democratic Party free from antisemitism, to focus our attention on making our communities better for everyone.