PAGE 10A HERITAGE FLORIDA JEWISH NEWS, JUNE 14, 2019
Getty Images/JTA Montage
From left to right, Democratic presidential contenders Elizabeth Warren, Tim Ryan, Joe
Biden, Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders. All five, along with several others, delivered
video messages at the American Jewish Committee's 2019 Global Forum.
By Ron Kampeas
WASHINGTON (JTA)--Ev-
eryone started by praising
the American Jewish Com-
mittee, naturally enough.
But in their video greetings
to the group's annual policy
forum here, 13 Democratic
candidates proceeded to
demonstrate a party grap-
pling with what story they
should tell to one of its most
important demographics:
Jewish voters.
Some candidates started
by decrying anti-Semitism.
Others started by holding up
the U.S.-Israel relationship. A
couple didn't mention Israel
at all. Some remarks lasted
under a minute, one went over
six minutes.
Then there were the back-
grounds, from the Capitol to
a hotel room interior to what
appeared to be the exterior of
a shipping container. Front-
runner Bernie Sanders, the
Independent from Vermont,
posed in front of a poster
touting the band the Red Hot
Chili Peppers.
Taken together, the 13 vid-
eos show a field of Democratic
presidential candidates united
in a determination to combat
right-wing extremism, but di-
vided in their interpretations
of the U.S.-Israel alliance.
The AJC invited most of
the 24 declared candidates
to contribute a video and
13 complied; longshots like
Marianne Williamson, a Jew-
ish self-care counselor and
author, orWayne Messam, the
mayor of Miramar, Florida,
were not invited. Candidates
who are leading in the polls
or who have had longstand-
ing relations with the group
had their videos streamed
during plenaries. People at-
tending the conference and
others streaming online were
directed to AJC's YouTube
channel to watch all 13.
Participating were Sens.
Kamala Harris of California,
Elizabeth Warren of Massa-
chusetts, Sanders of Vermont,
Kirsten Gillibrand of New
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York, Cory Booker of New
Jersey, and Michael Bennet
of Colorado. The governors
were Jay Inslee of Washington
and former governor John
Hickenlooper of Colorado.
Former Vice President Joe
Biden shared a video, as did
Reps. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii
and Tim Ryan of Ohio, former
Rep. John Delaney of Mary-
land, and South Bend, Indiana
Mayor Pete Buttigieg. An AJC
spokesman told JTA that Sen.
Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn and
Montana Gov. Steve Bullock
wanted to submit videos but
were not ready in time. Former
Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-Texas,
declined the offer.
AJC asked President Donald
Trump to contribute a video.
He did not. His Secretary
of State, Mike Pompeo, pre-
recorded an interview with
AJC CEO David Harris, but
spoke mostly about foreign
policy, and did not campaign
for his boss.
Here's what the candidates
shared and how they differed:
The rise of the extreme
right
Every one of the 13 can-
didates noted the rise of the
extreme right and at least al-
luded to the two deadly attacks
since October on synagogues,
in Pittsburgh and in Poway,
near San Diego.
Some spoke of the threat in
general, almost vague terms
as if it were a deadly version
of whack-a-mole.
"We've got a lot of issues
that we need to work on in
this country, combating
anti-Semitism here in the
United States and abroad,"
Ryan said. "We're seeing it
pop up periodically all over
in communities around the
United States."
Others spoke in personal
terms. Inslee recalled at-
tending a memorial service
after the Pittsburgh attack
at a synagogue in his home
state, and Sanders describ-
ing his meeting with the
Tree of Life rabbi. Gabbard
devoted a chunk of her video
to describing the discrimina-
tion she has faced as a Hindu
American--in particular, in
the form of biased expres-
sions from Republicans in her
home state.
Harris, whose husband is
Jewish husband and who has
adult Jewish stepchildren,
brought it home with an im-
age that parents could identify
with: "No one should have to
worry about their children's
safety when they drop them
off at the JCC," she said.
Biden and Sanders, leading
in the polls, named Trump as
a factor in spurring bias. Biden
noted Trump's equivocation
following the deadly neo-
Nazi riot in Charlottesville,
Virginia, in 2017, echoing
his attack on the president in
the video he released in April
launching his campaign.
"We are in a battle for the
soul of our nation," he said.
Sanders, as he has done
in the past, identified Trump
with rising authoritarianism
worldwide.
"We see political leaders
who exploit people's fears
by amplifying resentments
stoking intolerance and fan-
ning ethnic and racial hatreds
among those who are strug-
gling," Sanders said. "We see
this very clearly in our own
country it is coming from
the highest level of our gov-
ernment."
Only Delaney alluded to
allegations of anti-Semitism
on the Democratic Party's left
wing, including in Congress,
where Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-
Minn has apologized for traf-
ficking in anti-Semitic tropes.
"We can't enable it, we can't
brush it aside, we have to call
it out, we have to call it out on
the left and we have to call it
out on the right," he said.
Israel or anti-Semitism
first?
Sanders, Delaney, Inslee,
Gabbard, Biden, Booker,
Gillibrand, and Ryan started
with decrying the rise of
anti-Semitism. Hickenlooper,
Warren, Bennet, Harris, But-
tigieg started by touting their
pro-Israel credentials.
Booker and Gabbard did not
mention Israel at all, which
made sense in Gabbard's case:
She has galled the pro-Israel
community by accusing Is-
raeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu of spurring the
United States to war with Iran.
Why Booker would not
mention a country he has vis-
ited multiple times, and with
which he is closely identified,
was not clear.
How to assign blame in the
Middle East
Republicans have sought to
depict Democrats as soft on
the threats Israel faces and
of becoming estranged from
the country. Democrats have
little love lost for Netanyahu,
seeing him as having exacer-
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bated tensions with President
Barack Obama and of embrac-
ing Trump too closely.
That has created a minefield
for Democrats, and how each
candidate crossed it reflected
intraparty tensions. Here
were some of the approaches,
advanced at times by the same
candidate:
The "b" word: Harris, Ben-
net, Biden and Buttigieg all
offered some version of saying
that support for Israel must
remain "bipartisan." The
word has become a code for
a perception that the party is
drifting from Israel.
The "c" word: Criticizing
Israel does not mean one is
not pro-Israel, a number of
candidates asserted. That
can be interpreted as "friends
sometimes disagree," or plac-
ing part of the blame for any
rift with the Democrats on
Netanyahu. Cue Sanders,
Warren, Hickenlooper, Biden
and Buttigieg.
"The relationship has never
been about individual leaders
it's been about the kinship,
the values," Biden said. "We
also have to tell each other
the truth and that includes
offering criticism on polices
that are counterproductive
to peace."
Warren, notably, was the
only candidate to start her
video referring to the U.S.-
Israel alliance and also to
argue that it was okay to
have differences, typical of
her reputation for delivering
hard truths.
"In a world of compli-
cated threats and challenges,
America is stronger when we
work with our allies," said
Warren, a progressive who
sharply criticized Netanyahu
for intimating that he might
annex parts of the West Bank.
"A candid expression of con-
cerns does not diminish our
friendship."
Sanders, who in his 2016
bid for the Democratic nomi-
nation set new standards for
explicitly criticizing Israel,
was the most explicit in taking
on Netanyahu.
"As someone who believes
absolutely and unequivocally
in Israel's right to exist in
peace and security who as a
young man lived in Israel for
a number of months [and] as
someone who is deeply con-
cerned by the rise of global
anti-Semitism, we must say
Candidates on page 13A
