Global Research

“The Democratic national convention in Charlotte has been plunged into chaos with a row over Israel threatening to overshadow Bill Clinton’s speech as the second day of business was mired in a clumsy and embarrassing climbdown.

Barack Obama intervened personally to try and head off a mounting clamour from Jewish donors and pro-Israel groups who objected to the dropping of a line supporting Jerusalem as the capital of Israel from the Democratic policy platform.

A day after the platform was published without the recognition of Jerusalem, the line was reinstated. Pressure had been building over not only the dropping of that statement – which was part of the Democratic party platform in 2008 – but also the removal of any reference to God in the document. Those omissions threatened to alienate both Jewish Democratic supporters and Christian swing voters.

But the reintroduction of the lines was equally controversial; its clumsy handling resulting in a confusing vote and booing on the convention floor.

At the formal opening of the day’s business, the convention chairman, Antonio Villaraigosa, proposed a vote to return to the document its past commitment to Jerusalem as the Israeli capital as well as a reference to God.” (The Guardian, September 5, 2012)

The backlash caused by the dishonest handling of the gavel and the vote on this deeply unpopular amendment will ripple through the Democratic Party for years to come.

Handling his gavel so clumsily, so dishonestly, Villaraigosa must have been under strict orders from above.

Apparently Chuck Schumer played a heavy hand as he strode through the thick crowd surrounded by a beefy phalanx of security agents before, during and after Villaraigosa’s gavel fiasco.

The bottom line is that the majority of the delegates to the Democratic National Convention opposed the Jerusalem plank.

Netanyahu’s arrogant White House press conference and his harangue of Congress have not been forgotten by the rank-and-file Democrats who want to see a swift end to all US wars in the Middle East supported by a sustainable peace treaty between the Israelis and Palestinians.

Everyone is waiting for Netanyahu’s visit to New York later this month when he will harangue the UN General Assembly and demand US backing for a unilateral attack on Iran.

During his visit to the USA, Netanyahu will confer with his pals in New York and on Capitol Hill in the next episode of his strenuous campaign to unseat his nemesis:  Barack Hussein Obama.