The strange turn in the DNC convention on the second day came during the surprising voice-vote rejection of amendments to the Democratic platform by the delegates on the floor at approximately 5 pm Eastern Time. The unhappiness started with a motion by Ohio Rod Strickland (above) of the Platform Committee in order amend the platform by introducing a reference to "God" and to state that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel: "Jerusalem and and will remain the capital of Israel." The White House wanted us to know that these amendments were recommended by POTUS, who was not pleased with the product already adopted. The amendments were displayed in huge type on the blue screen. Then came the surprise. Mayor Villagaroisa, at the gavel, was frustrated three times to get a vote that he could declare a two-thirds voice vote in the affirmative. Finally Mayor Villagaroisa tried the expedient thing and declared the motion carried. The video of the event is painful viewing. The C-Span camera found a young woman wearing an "Arab Democrat" tee-shirt, and her colleague can be seen in the shouting "No!" to the motion all three times, and gesturing thumbs down at the close.
Propaganda.
Spoke Alan Furst, author, "Mission to Paris," a new work of literary fiction that is set int he Fall of 1938 in Paris, Berlin, Morocco. The darkness that closed over Europe that led to the Holocaust was darkness visible long before the German attack on Poland, September 1939. What is also true is that the uniform anti-Semitism that was practiced in Paris and London and America was not a world away from the poison in Berlin, Munich and Vienna. The naked display of anti-semitism on the DNC floor voice-vote cannot be explained away by making the false distinction of ant-Zionist or anti-Israeli prejudice. I heard "No!" and I heard "Boo!" to the fact that Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish State. The propaganda machinery of Al Jazeera, the Fars News Agency and Xinhua will follow soon enough with translations that do not hesitate to argue the worst sorts of conclusions. This is a sad business form the DNC, an unforced error that cannot be answered by ignoring it.