The Democratic Party’s Day of Reckoning

October 7, 2023. The worst massacre of Jewish civilians since the Holocaust.  Innocent men, women, children, babies, fetuses, and the elderly were hunted, tortured, raped, butchered and defiled in a show of such barbarism by gleeful Palestinian terrorists who proudly recorded  the carnage they created on their GoPros and posted on sites like Telegram.

The immediate reaction by most of the Western world was shock, horror, sympathy, concern, and the most unified showing of solidarity the Jewish world has experienced since the 1970s.  Jews have been screaming from the rooftops that we have an enemy that wants to butcher us, and our screams fell on deaf ears for decades.  It was a relief that our screams were finally heard, but it took the butchery of 1,300 innocent Israelis for the West to finally pay attention and hear our cries.  It should not have taken a massacre for us to be heard.

That afternoon, as the details of the savagery were still emerging, as the bodies were just beginning to be located and counted, many of which could not be identified, as the scope and seriousness of the terror attack was coming into focus, and as the USA and Israel were trying to determine and identify the people who’d been taken hostage into Gaza (a number that ultimately came to be approximately 199 people from 43 nations), the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), a group closely aligned with the Justice Democrats, announced their sponsorship of a rally to be held in New York City on Sunday, October 8.  This rally was not in solidarity with the victims of the terrorists, but in solidarity WITH the terrorists.  This savage act of inhumanity was being celebrated by the DSA and their cohorts, the Justice Democrats.

As the rally took place, we saw chants of “700,” denoting the number of dead that had been counted thus far, chants of “From the River to the Sea,” and “Khaybar Khaybar ya Yahud, jaish Muhammad soufa ya’oud,” which references a 7^th century battle waged by the Prophet Muhammad in which the Jews of the Khaybar Oasis were completely annihilated by followers of the fledging Muslim faith.  Swastikas were displayed, images of massacred Jews were displayed by individuals on their phones while they pointed and laughed, people feigned crying to ridicule the Jewish community’s pain, and speeches lauding the motorized paragliders who came through the air over the border from Gaza and arrived at the Supernova Music Festival to butcher 260 young people were met with cheers.  It was a despicable display that made its way to social media where pro-DSA, pro-Justice Democrats, and pro-Hamas accounts repeated the same messages.

The Justice Democrats was formed by a group of former Bernie Sanders’ staffers in 2016 and upon their organization, they announced on social media not only their affiliation with the DSA, but their goal to conduct a “hostile takeover” of the Democratic Party.  I’ve written about them before here and here.  They built a complicated web of PACS, Super PACS, and organizing apparatuses that include “Our Revolution” and “Brand New Congress,” and they immediately began recruiting candidates to primary centrist and moderate Democrats in safe blue districts.  Most famously, unknown bartender, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, was entered into a Justice Democrats’ contest by her brother to be one of their first candidates, according to a video on their YouTube channel.  She won the contest and the Justice Democrats put their money and marketing behind this unknown to successfully primary longtime Democratic Congressman Joseph Crowley.  Justice Democrat members of Congress include Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Pramila Jayapal, Ro Khanna, Ayanna Presley, Raul Grijalva, Summer Lee, Greg Casar, some of whom share membership in both the DSA and the Justice Democrats.  Mark Pocan, Katie Porter, and Barbara Lee were endorsed by Justice Democrat-affiliated PAC, Our Revolution, which was started by Bernie Sanders.  They are all members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which is amusing considering how regressive they are.

After the massacre of 1,300 Jewish lives, most of these members of Congress were either silent, made statements that blamed the victims of the massacre for their own massacre, issued an all lives matterseque statement, or called for a ceasefire, which sends a message to both the US Jewish community and to Israel that we don’t have a right to self-defense or a right to retrieve our hostages.  In a rare moment, Mark Pocan was the only person to condemn Hamas, demand the release of hostages, and endorse Israel’s right to self-defense on October 7, only to water that statement down on October 13 by joining other regressives in an edict to Israel on how to defend itself and conduct its operation against Hamas.

The DSA-sponsored rally and the reactions by these Justice Democrat/DSA members and their affiliates were met with dismay and shock by both liberal (moderate) and progressive Democrats on social media.  A lot of Democrats have been asleep and despite the cries from Jewish Democrats like myself that this antisemitic element within the Democratic Party not only existed, but was dangerous to our success, they did not see it or did not believe it.  Until now.  I’ve seen several accounts on Twitter/X apologizing for not believing us and letting us know they’ve seen the light regarding the blatant antisemitism coming from the far left.  And again, as much as I appreciate their epiphany, it just shows that it takes a massacre for Jewish voices to be heard.

As the horrors of October 7^th unfolded, my anger got the best of me and I was put in time-out on Twitter/X.  I migrated over to Meta’s Threads to express my outrage and anger.  Meta’s Threads served as a very pleasant refuge for liberals and progressives who were tired of Elon Musk’s antics on X and his restoration of some of the most vile far-right accounts  banned under Twitter’s previous owner, including Donald Trump, until this week.  It’s no longer that pleasant echo chamber.

I can only describe what Jews on Threads have experienced in the aftermath of the Hamas attack as an outrageous and obscene campaign of extreme gaslighting.  Hundreds of “progressive “ accounts posting screeds against Israel, completely ignoring the pain of the Jewish community, having more concern for a population that overwhelmingly supports a terrorist group than innocent victims at a music festival or peaceful kibbutzniks, using a North American lens to ignorantly paint Netanyahu as a Trumpified “war monger” who purposely ignored intelligence to lead Israel into a war against innocent Palestinians, despite the fact that Israel has a conscripted military and every politician, including Netanyahu, has children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and family members that will be called to serve.  Americans fail to understand that war is never any Israeli’s desire, no matter how rightwing they are, because it puts at least 1/3 of the country and its entire youth in danger.

October 7, 2023 is the day of the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.  October 7, 2023 is also the day of reckoning that has long been brewing for the Democratic National Committee (DNC). These grotesque reactions either blaming victims, equating the IDF to Hamas, not calling for the release of Israel’s hostages but instead calling to “Free Palestine,” are certain to be used in any Republican election campaign where they can be used.

The Republican party is not the only dysfunctional party in the US.  Republicans, especially MAGA Republicans, have been beating a drum that the Democratic party is a party of Marxists.  They’ve been ridiculed by liberal Democrats who have been unaware, and this mantra was labeled yet another rightwing conspiracy, as with Cultural Marxism and the Lab Leak theory.  If the Democratic party does not rid itself of the Justice Democrat/DSA element, then they actually are a party of Marxists.

I suspect the Democratic party will experience major losses in 2024 if they do not take a stand against their members that view a rightwing, Islamist, fundamentalist, misogynistic, homophobic, Jihadi terrorist group as freedom fighters.  There have been displays of this support on a less noticeable level when prominent Democrats shared the stage with convicted Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist Rasmea Odeh at the Women’s March and those of us who have been paying attention have been bringing this up regularly, only to be met with blank stares and a total lack of understanding by non-Jewish and even some Jewish Democrats as to why this was a problem.  That is no longer the case after the events of the past week unfolded.

Jewish university students in America are terrified.  Jewish children in America are terrified.  Jews do not feel safe in America and as bad as the rightwing antisemites like the Goyim Defense League are, the leftwing antisemites are worse because the people we believed would stand against antisemitism are silently condoning their antisemitism, or actively participating in it.  The worst massacre of Jewish civilians since the Holocaust occurred and Jews are being targeted by progressives with vile, poisonous venom.

The ideal DNC response to this would include:

• Issue a strong condemnation of the Justice Democrats and DSA for their terrorism apologia not only in a statement, but in television interviews
• Demand any incumbent Justice Democrat/DSA member to denounce and resign from both organizations in order to continue to be part of the Democratic caucus
• Ban any Justice Democrats and/or DSA affiliates from running on a Democratic ticket
• Disavowal and complete disassociation from the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), who were established as and remain an arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in the US, as Hamas is in the Levant (CAIR issued supportive statements of Hamas after the massacre and is a designated terrorist group in the UAE)
• Refuse to endorse any primary challengers to Democratic incumbents in safe blue districts (unless that incumbent is a Justice Democrat)
• Cull and find candidates who support the liberal ideals of the Democratic party to primary incumbent Justice Democrats or DSA members
• Adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism to be implemented as a barometer for any and all platform positions at the DNC convention
• Vet social media accounts for anyone they endorse
• Support the removal of all Justice Democrat or DSA-affiliated members from Congressional committee assignments
• Encourage Joe Biden to move back to the center left, which was the mandate that got him elected, and stop listening to these elements who convinced him to implement extremely unpopular positions like including CAIR as a partner in the fight against antisemitism, not endorsing the IHRA definition of antisemitism, and erasure of student loan debt, which he has been quietly doing without any press coverage (we moderates are all for eliminating interest and penalties, but not the loans themselves)

I don’t know if the DNC will have the wherewithal to embark on even one of these suggestions, but if they don’t, they need to be prepared to lose the Senate, remain the minority in the House, and potentially lose the White House in 2024, which would be a disaster.  The influence of this Marxist terrorist-supporting element is already dominating and spreading within Democratic circles as conservatives watch the growing vitriol against Israel and Jews with both dismay and a level of strategic analysis.

They’ve been warned.  I hope they listen.