The Jewish Advocate
A broad-based coalition led by Jewish groups was instrumental in engineering the defeat Saturday of a resolution introduced at the Massachusetts state Democratic Party convention that would have called for the creation of a Palestinian state.
On a voice vote, an overwhelming majority of the state’s 4,000 Democratic delegates present at Northeastern University’s Matthews Arena said no to an amendment advanced by the Citizens for Participation in Political Action, or CPPAX, which supports a slate of progressive issues.
Instead, the convention adopted a plank that affirms “unequivocal support for Israel, as written in the Camp David Accords,” recognizes the “legitimate rights of the Palestinians” and supports Israel’s recent call for Palestinian elections in the territories.
One of the cardinal rules of politics is to ask people to help, and we have been overwhelmed by help,” said Leonard Zakim, New England regional director of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, which led the opposition.
“This is not just a Jewish issue,” he added.
The CPPAX amendment called for the creation of an independent Palestinian state and for negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians’ chosen representatives.
The amendment conflicts with the national Democratic Party plank on the Middle East, which says nothing about a Palestinian state.
NEW JEWISH AGENDA ENDORSED IT
Among the groups endorsing the CPPAX proposal was New Jewish Agenda. But the group blocked an earlier version of the amendment that would have called for monitoring U.S. aid to Israel so that none could be used “to perpetuate Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.”
New Jewish Agenda has long supported a two-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. It helped put forward a resolution to that effect before the Democratic National Convention last summer.
According to Zakim, the defeated amendment would have served to undermine Israel by “imposing a solution from the outside. If people are truly concerned about furthering the peace process, they’d know the only passage to peace is through direct negotiations.”
Also opposing the CPPAX proposal was Democrats for Middle East Peace, an ad hoc committee that obtained the support of virtually all of the leading Democrats in the state, including Gov. Michael Dukakis, Sens. Edward Kennedy and John Kerry, and U.S. Reps. Barney Frank and Joseph Kennedy, Jr.
The committee was chaired by Charles Flaherty, majority leader of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. Kennedy and Flaherty represent Cambridge, a district which last November passed a referendum urging Congress to scrutinize aid to Israel.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Ron Brown contributed a statement supporting the majority stand. Zakim called Brown’s statement “the most supportive we’ve seen on record from the chair of the Democratic Party.”
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