Dem platform recognizes Palestinian aspirations, rejects ‘occupation’ language

By Ron Kampeas

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Democrats altered their platform to reflect Palestinian aspirations but rejected language calling for Israel to end its occupation of the West Bank and settlement activity.

According to an Associated Press report emailed to reporters late Saturday, June 25 by the Bernie Sanders campaign, the platform calls for a two-state solution but does not frame it purely as an outcome that benefits Israel, as previous platforms have. It declares that achieving Palestinian statehood would provide “the Palestinians with independence, sovereignty, and dignity.”

The platform drafting committee of the Democratic National Committee met in cities across the country. The meeting last weekend, which wrapped up the draft and where the Israel-related language was approved, was held in St. Louis. The full platform committee will vote on the draft on July 8-9 in Orlando.

The committee rejected language proposed by James Zogby, a Sanders appointee to the committee and the president of the Arab American Institute, that called for “an end to occupation and illegal settlements.” Zogby said Sanders, the Vermont Independent Senator and the first Jewish candidate to win major nominating contests, helped draft the rejected language.

Speaking against Zogby’s language were Wendy Sherman, a former deputy secretary of state and an appointee named by Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, and Howard Berman, a former California congressman who was named to the committee by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., the DNC chairwoman. Advocating for the language was Cornel West, a Sanders appointee who backs the boycott Israel movement.

Keeping out language that could potentially alienate the pro-Israel community was a priority to the Clinton campaign. Earlier this week, Jake Sullivan, her senior foreign policy advisor emailed JTA to say that “Hillary Clinton’s steadfast support for Israel, and the importance of the U.S.-Israel relationship, are well known. As we have said previously, she remains confident that the party platform will reflect her views.”

Clinton has secured enough delegates to win the first round of voting at the convention in Philadelphia. Sanders, unusually for a candidate who is set to lose, was given five spots on the platform drafting committee, a reflection of the strength of his campaign. Clinton named six and Wasserman Schultz the remaining four.

J Street, the liberal Jewish Middle East policy group, praised the Israel-related language. “The new language breaks with the party’s practice of framing its aim of establishing a Palestinian state solely in terms of Israel’s interests,” it said in a statement. “By including parallel acknowledgement of Israeli and Palestinian rights, the party underscores its belief that the only viable resolution to the conflict–a two-state solution–requires recognizing the fates of the two peoples are intertwined.”

Trump would let Israel decide on Palestinian state, says adviser

NEW YORK (JTA) — Donald Trump would retreat from the longstanding American commitment to establish a Palestinian state if elected president, an adviser to the Republican candidate said.

In an interview with Israeli daily Haaretz, Trump adviser David Friedman also said the presumptive Republican nominee would support the expansion of Israeli settlements.

American presidents of both parties have supported the creation of a Palestinian state for decades. In the presidential campaign, Trump has also committed to working to reach Israeli-Palestinian peace. But Friedman, who heads a group that funds Israeli settlement activity in addition to working for Trump, told Haaretz that Trump would leave the question of establishing a Palestinian state to the Israeli government.

“The Israelis have to make the decision on whether or not to give up land to create a Palestinian state,” Friedman told Haaretz. “If the Israelis don’t want to do it, so he doesn’t think they should do it. It is their choice. … He does not think it is an American imperative for it to be an independent Palestinian state.”

In the absence of a peace deal, Friedman said, Trump would have no problem with the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, a policy the United States has consistently opposed since Israel took control of the territory in the 1967 Six Day War.

Israel “has a commitment to its citizens in Judea and Samaria,” Friedman said, using the biblical term for the West Bank. “Trump’s position is that we have to deal with reality and not hopes and wishes.”

Friedman also suggested Trump might support unilateral Israeli annexation of parts of the West Bank, though he said he hasn’t discussed that issue with the candidate. The Israeli pro-settler Jewish Home party, as well as some Likud government ministers, support partial West Bank annexation.

Friedman said Trump would be enthusiastic about signing a new military aid deal with Israel, should an agreement not be concluded by the end of President Barack Obama’s term.

Tensions with Trump’s son-in-law reportedly fueled departure of campaign manager

(JTA) — Tensions between Donald Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and Jewish son-in-law Jared Kushner reportedly were behind Lewandowski’s departure announced Monday, June 20 by the campaign. On the same day, Lewandowski said separately that he stood by Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

The New York Times first reported what it said was a firing, and CNN followed up by reporting that Ivanka Trump persuaded her father to let Lewandowski go, citing tensions between the campaign manager and her husband, Kushner. According to one source cited in the CNN story, the last straw for Ivanka Trump was hearing that Lewandowski planned to plant negative stories about her husband in the media. Kushner, the scion of a real estate family and publisher of the New York Observer, is handling the hiring of a transition team should Trump, also a real estate magnate, win the presidency. Kushner, who is an Orthodox Jew, has been instrumental in shaping Trump’s positions on Israel.

Lewandowski was seen as the architect of the pugnacious, self-congratulatory style that helped Trump win the primaries, but other advisers are now pressing Trump to adopt a more statesmanlike demeanor as he faces Clinton in the general election.

Jewish man who sought Libertarian presidential nomination found dead

(JTA) — Marc Allan Feldman, a candidate for the Libertarian presidential nomination who pitched his candidacy citing Jewish lore, was found dead in a hotel.

Feldman, a Cleveland Clinic doctor, was found in a Cleveland area motel on Wednesday, June 22, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported. He was 56. Coroners have yet to list a cause. The motel alerted police after a woman in his room said he was unresponsive.

Feldman announced his candidacy in May with a 20-minute video that included Jewish jokes, a story his rabbi told him about a Holocaust survivor who found her niece after the war and his own wrenching story of losing a teenage son to cancer.

Unusually for a Libertarian, he framed his appeal in quasi-religious terms. “How do you make a miracle happen?” he said. “Start by asking for what you want, and see what you get. Sometimes you’re not given what you ask for, you’re given what you need.” He called himself the “No fear” candidate.

At the Libertarian convention at the end of May, he came in fifth, but earned a standing ovation for his concluding remarks at the debate, delivered in the form of a rap.

“I’m that be what you want to be Libertarian,” he said. “That Muslim Libertarian, that Jew Libertarian, the Christian, Atheist, Hin-DU Libertarian.”

Gary Johnson, the onetime Republican and former New Mexico governor who won the nomination, paid tribute to Feldman. “Wonderful sense of humor and a good guy,” Johnson said on Twitter.

The Libertarian ticket, which usually barely registers in the general election, is expected to perform better than usual this year because of the unhappiness among some longtime Republicans with Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.