The anti-BDS movement attacking American First Amendment rights appears to have gone seriously awry, as MoveOn has publicly thrown down a gauntlet in the face of AIPAC.
No Democratic presidential candidates committed to AIPAC conference as liberal group calls for boycott. With some Democrats advocating a re-evaluation of the U.S relationship with Israel, the progressive political advocacy group MoveOn is calling on 2020 candidates to boycott this year’s conference of prominent pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC.
It’s not clear yet which 2020 Democratic candidates — if any — were planning to attend this year. But in the past three presidential cycles, the eventual nominees for both parties spoke at the conference the year of the election.
Iram Ali, MoveOn’s campaign director, told NBC News that the boycott only applies to this year’s conference. That could leave the door open for candidates to attend next year, when the Democratic presidential primary will be in full swing. But she described alignment with AIPAC as anti-progressive.
“It’s important that the next Democratic nominee has progressive values, not only in their domestic policies, but also in their foreign policies,” Ali said. “You cannot be a progressive and support AIPAC because of the policies that they’ve supported.”
It’s mildly amusing to see the shock being expressed by conventional conservatives. Apparently their civnattery prevented them from ever thinking through the obvious implications of the changing Democratic Party demographics. Of course, they’re more inclined to piously denounce anti-semitism – DRRA – than they are to take advantage of the situation.
The Trumpslide 2020 just got that much bigger. It’s not that Jews will vote for Republicans no matter what bones Trump throws Israel, but at least they’ll probably be less enthusiastic about funding his opponents.