Jerusalem-as-Israel’s-capital in (almost) every Dem platform since 1972

Advertisement

Mitt Romney, the Republican Jewish Coalition and other GOPers are going after the Democrats over the omission of earlier platforms’ language recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in this year’s Democratic platform. Some elected Dems seem to be regretting the change as well. (And Alan Dershowitz is calling some of the other Israel-related changes/omissions "deeply troubling.")

I did a little historical research, and it turns out that this change is quite a departure for the Democratic Party platform. Every Democratic platform, with one exception, going back all the way to 1972 had included language affirming Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. (The only exception was in 1988, a year when the section on Israel was notably brief, and when the Middle East was the subject of an intra-party fight, with supporters of Jesse Jackson pushing unsuccessfully for the platform to call for a Palestinian state.)

This site has a collection of party platforms going back decades.

Recommended from JTA

Advertisement