Schumer's speech was definitely a 'watershed moment'. As I said before some pages ago, there may not be immediate change American posture because the Israelis have both parties in their pocket. But there is already a narrative being built which blames Netanyahu, which will slowly transform to blaming the state of Israel itself. This article touches upon those themes. America is not as monolithic as people might think and the electoral pressures are already pulling the central Democratic leadership into slight rethink about Israel.
It is only a matter of time when the pro Palestinian forces gel into a unified force against Israel in America and that's when the real change in American policy will begin. Never forget: A politician's first job is to get into power. Their second job is to stay in power. Why would the Democrats want to lose millions of votes so that they lose power to Republicans forever.
Also note, Schumer wouldn't have made this speech if Israel was winning or Israel's prospects are bright by following its current policies.
Republicans have long sought to make Israel a partisan issue, framing their party as the only one truly supportive of the Jewish state. The Senate majority leader’s blistering speech may have helped.
www.nytimes.com
A Watershed Moment for the Politics of Israel, Courtesy of Chuck Schumer
Republicans have long sought to make Israel a partisan issue, framing their party as the only one truly supportive of the Jewish state. The Senate majority leader’s blistering speech may have helped.
Over
44 painstakingly scripted minutes on the floor of the Senate on Thursday, the majority leader, Chuck Schumer, spoke of his Jewish identity, his love for the State of Israel, his horror at the wanton slaughter of Israelis on Oct. 7 and his views on the apportionment of blame for the carnage in Gaza, saying that it first and foremost lay with the terrorists of Hamas.
Then Mr. Schumer, a New York Democrat and the highest-ranking elected Jew in American history,
said Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was an impediment to peace, and called for new elections in the world’s only Jewish state.
But Mr. Schumer’s speech was potentially a watershed moment in a much longer political process, pursued initially by Republicans but joined recently by left-wing Democrats — to turn Israel into a partisan issue. Republicans, as they see it, would be the party of Israeli supporters. Democrats, as the rising left would have it, would be the party of Palestine.
At the root of that divide is a fundamental question: Is support for the Jewish State separable from the support of Israel’s democratically elected government? For years, Republicans have said no. Increasingly, the Democratic left agrees but from a different perspective:
Israel is bad, regardless of who governs it.
“It’s impossible to understate the seismic event this was,” said Matthew Brooks, the longtime chief executive of the Republican Jewish Coalition, who made it clear that the group would use the speech to drive Jewish voters to the G.O.P.
