Democratic Socialists of America Break with Founders, Support Israel Boycott

(Daily Beast) Ronald Radosh - At its recent national convention in Chicago, Democratic Socialists of America, a group founded in 1982 by the late Michael Harrington with Irving Howe, passed a resolution in support of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement. The statement avoids any mention of the rights of Israelis to have a Jewish state. Turning against Israel is a major departure from where the founders of the DSA stood. Both Michael Harrington and Irving Howe were critical of aspects of Israeli policy, yet they unreservedly supported the existence of the State of Israel and favored a two-state solution. I heard Harrington stress that support for Israel was a position that democratic socialists held as a matter of principle which, along with opposition to Soviet totalitarianism, would never be reversed. How ironic that a group that calls itself democratic is now undermining the one full democracy in the Middle East. The writer is an adjunct fellow at the Hudson Institute.


2017-08-09 00:00:00

Full Article

BACK

Visit the Daily Alert Archive