There's probably some sort of lesson in history about the danger of populist demagogues stirring up hatred toward a particular minority group. Maybe the Democratic Party should take a lesson from it.
Sanders supporters have wasted no time advocating their position during the platform drafting process, where they're calling to exclude references to Jerusalem while advancing the notion that Israeli settlements in the West Bank represent "an occupation"
Dems booed Jerusalem last time around. It's probably a reasonable bet that it will become a casualty of the Sanders occupation. If the platform though explicitly condemns Israel, that will mark a significant turning point in the relationship between the Democratic Party and Jews. That turning point is coming anyway, just as it did in the UK, but it would arrive ahead of schedule.
Now obviously Hillary benefits from this. For now. Despite her anti-Israel background, Bernie is making her look good. The extremist Truthers and terrorist supporters he appointed to fight this battle and making even notorious figures like Wexler look good.
West led the way and was joined by James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute and another Sanders appointee.
"If we're concerned about security, it seems to me we're going to have to talk seriously about occupation," West said. "I don't know if you'll allow the use of that word. … Occupation is real, it's concrete."
West was addressing a witness, Robert Wexler, who rejected the language outright.
"I would in fact oppose the use of the word 'occupation' for the very reason that it undermines our common objective,” said Wexler, president of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace and a Clinton supporter.
“A two-state outcome will result in an agreement on borders," he added. "Once you have borders, the issue that propels your concern as what you refer to as occupation, will be resolved.”
Zogby spoke next, asking Wexler whether the "occupation" language should not be adopted "as a way simply of clarifying that to get to two states an occupation has to end?"
Of course this is basically smoke and mirrors. Wexler and Clinton believe that Israel's presence in '67 Israel is an occupation, thereby validating the Muslim invasion and ethnic cleansing of Jews in '48.
For that matter, Hillary has sympathies even more extreme than that.
In the entire forced dump of her emails, you will be hard-pressed to find a single note that is sympathetic toward the Jewish state from any of the people she trusted. The negative, poisonous approach Ms. Clinton established demonstrates that a huge segment of her close advisers and confidants were attacking Israel, condemning Prime Minister Netanyahu, and strategizing how to force Israel to withdraw from Judea and Samaria at all costs.
This was occurring in the backdrop of Israel’s recent Gaza withdrawal, which led to the takeover of the Strip by Hamas. There is almost zero mention of the huge risks to Israel’s security in withdrawing, as Ms. Clinton and the Obama Administration did everything they could to pressure Israel to capitulate to their demands.
But the radical hatred unleashed by the Bernie camp allows Hillary to play protector to the Jews.