Democratic Party tiptoes nimbly around Israel at DNC

The mind inherently seeks patterns, looking for similarities between present and past events as a way of predicting the future. It’s basic human nature.

It was understandable, therefore, why in the run-up to the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago this week, so many drew parallels with the DNC in Chicago in 1968.

It’s the same city, the same party’s convention, a vice president winning the nomination in place of a sitting president stepping aside, and a nation that has seen a flood of war-related protests. True, the wars were completely different, one a war involving the US in Vietnam in 1968, the other involving Israel in Gaza.

But that is just a pesky detail the pattern-seeking mind can overlook. Those were anti-war protests; these are anti-Israel protests centered around a war. Those protesters created bedlam at the Chicago convention in ’68, and these protesters would create bedlam at the Chicago convention in ’24.

Or, as a headline on the Guardian’s website put it this week: “‘The world is watching’: 1968 protests set the stage for the Democratic convention.”

To further draw the historical parallels, some organizers of the anti-Israel demonstrations at the Chicago DNC purposefully made the connection, with one group, Behind Enemy Lines, advertising a protest in front of the Israeli consulate under the slogan, “Make it Real like 68.”

It was natural, therefore, to look at the Chicago DNC 2024 and think of the Chicago DNC 1968. Besides, that builds drama and expectation.

In the end, however, or at least up until when this was written, the parallels that should have been drawn were not with the Chicago National Convention in 1968 – not with Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and Mayor Richard Daley – but rather with the DNC in Chicago of 1996.

Remember that one? Probably not. Few people remember that one. Why? Because nothing memorable happened.

Bill Clinton was nominated by acclamation, much as Kamala Harris was nominated on Tuesday; the delegates danced the Macarena, Al Gore gave a self-deprecating speech, and Chicago proved it could host a national political convention free of violence, riots, and police brutality.

THE RESEMBLANCE to 1996 offers a more accurate comparison to this week’s events, which unfolded without the anticipated chaos. The relative calm on the streets and the absence of significant anti-Israel drama inside the United Center where the convention was held undoubtedly relieved the Democratic Party leadership, especially given the high stakes of the upcoming election.

Images of radical anti-Israel and anti-American protesters battling the police in the city of Chicago could have had a significant impact on the election in November – just as the riots around the convention in 1968 undoubtedly had something to do with Richard Nixon’s 0.7% slim popular vote victory over Hubert Humphrey that year. 

Middle America does not like to see chaos, the US flag burned, police heckled as “pigs,” or scenes of anarchy. As the saying goes, that doesn’t play well in Peoria (Illinois).

There is a paradoxical quality about all the anti-Israel protests that have sprung up around the US and on its campuses this year. For Jews and pro-Israel supporters, these demonstrations are distressing to witness, with their hate-filled rhetoric and inflammatory signs. 

But those protests do not move the public’s needle on Israel; if anything, they probably engender antagonism to the cause being championed by foul-mouthed protesters disrupting people’s everyday lives. 

A chaotic convention with scenes of near-anarchy on the streets could have played into the hands of Donald Trump, who, like Nixon, is trumpeting law and order as a significant part of his campaign. But the anti-Israel hate fest that so many people feared would emerge around the Chicago DNC did not materialize. 

Nor, for that matter, did divisions on Israel inside the party spill into ugly anti-Israel demonstrations or fights on the convention floor.

Someone unfurled a banner against aid to Israel during US President Joe Biden’s speech, and someone else from behind tried to take it down.

The anti-Israel wing of the party did not – as they had hoped and many feared – set the tone at the convention. The 30 uncommitted delegates among the more than 4,000 on the floor who were uncommitted in the primaries to protest Biden’s support for Israel had no impact.

That is not to say that there weren’t some ugly anti-Israel scenes on the streets, that there weren’t marchers with Hezbollah flags, or protesters wearing Hamas headbands, or slogans chanted calling for Israel’s extinction, or efforts to break through police lines in front of the Israeli consulate downtown or arrests.

That was all there, but in a minor key – not at all what was expected. The organizers boasted that some 50,000 would descend on Union Park on Monday and printed up “Genocide Joe” signs to meet the expected demand. In the end, according to local news reports, maybe 2,000 showed up, and most of the “Genocide Joe” signs lay untouched on the grass.

Pro-Israel supporters could find some solace in that. They could also find solace in the fact that delegates on the floor of the convention, like delegates at the Republican National Convention last month in nearby Milwaukee, chanted “Bring them home,” as the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an American hostage held by Hamas in Gaza, addressed the crowd.

After the scene at the Republican convention, where delegates chanted “Bring them home” when the parents of American-born Omer Neutra spoke, some observers said – mistakenly– that this was not something that could ever happen at the Democratic parley. But they were wrong, a sign that the Democratic Party has not been taken over by the aggressive, anti-Israel wing. Not by a long shot.

But still…

What was noticeable in the high-profile speeches at the convention leading up to Kamala Harris’s acceptance speech on Thursday night was a marked absence of any use of the word “Israel.”The war, yes; hostages, yes; Gaza, yes. But Israel? Not so much. This absence signals the party’s cautious approach, reflecting the complexities of its diverse base as it navigates an increasingly polarized political landscape.

On Tuesday, four Jews addressed the convention, and a rabbi – Sharon Brous – gave the invocation. Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, who in November could very much be the president’s husband, spoke of his Jewish upbringing in New Jersey in the 1970s, full of references to Hebrew schools, Passover brisket, plastic-covered couches in his grandparents’ home, and antisemitism. But no mention of Israel, support of which was surely as much a fixture of his suburban Jewish life as the plastic-covered couches and brisket.

New York Senator Chuck Schumer spoke of antisemitism but nothing about Israel. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker spoke of nothing Jewish. And Bernie Sanders, whose fierce and unrelenting criticism of Israel for years has provided a strong backwind for Israel-bashers and antisemites, was the only one to allude to it, saying the war must end and the hostages must come home.

Biden, in his speech, also never said the word “Israel,” as if doing so would alienate part of the base the party is counting on in November to beat Trump. The days of speakers at the DNC talking unabashedly about support for America’s democratic ally in the Middle East are, apparently, over.

This is a period of transition. Israel still has support among wide and powerful swaths of the party and its leadership, but it is a support to be whispered, not blasted through the speakers from the podium – because of the fear of what the reaction might be.

It was kind of like the events held on the sidelines of the convention by Jewish groups across the ideological spectrum who kept the location a secret to all but registered guests to prevent others from coming to cause a disturbance that would then go viral on social media. No one likes a disturbance.

At this convention, the party was mostly able to avoid a major Israel-related disturbance inside and outside the convention hall, sidestepping what could have been a significant controversy.

It’s a big tent, the Democratic Party, encompassing shrill anti-Israel voices like Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar on one side and proud Zionist Jews like Illinois Rep. Brad Schneider on the other. 

The November election is going to be a close election where the party will need everyone in that tent to come out and vote, so it must be careful not to alienate anyone inside. 

The way to do that is to discuss the shared humanity of everyone, Israelis and Palestinians, as Brous did in her invocation, and to say too many civilians have been killed on both sides, as Biden did, nodding affirmatively at the protesters in the street who he said “have a point.”

In his speech, Biden didn’t say “Israel.” He also didn’t say the word “Hamas” when talking about the nearly 11-month war. He was careful not to take sides, to be okay with everyone, and not to alienate anyone. It’s smart politics. But it’s also morally opaque.

It shows that when it comes to Israel, it’s not your grandmother’s Democratic Party anymore. But it’s also not a party that Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib has taken over, either. Again, not by a long shot.