DPOC Mangles Rules to Block Peaceful Statement re. Gaza

By
Greg Diamond
– November 2, 2023Posted in: "The OC", democrats, DPOC, Fresh Juice, Israel, Palestine

[This comes from Dr. Jose Moreno’s Facebook page. I find it astonishing but I’m not astonished. — GAD]

Last week, a proposal was submitted by Mirvette Judeh to the Democratic Party of Orange County‘s Legislation Committee for their review and action to recommend to the County Party Chair and Executive Committee support for H.Res. 786–Deescalation and Cease Fire In Israel and Occupied Palestine.

The meeting to discuss the proposal was tonite with great interest by members of our impacted communities—Arab, Muslim, Jewish, Palestinian, Latinos, Catholics, and Christians were among those wanting to speak and engage in democratic deliberation.

Tragically, In an orchestrated manner, a motion to adjourn the meeting (3 minutes after meeting started) was made and seconded by two DPOC Executive Committee members— without ability for motion to be debated. The DPOC Legislation Committee then voted, without debate, 4-2 to adjourn and not give a hearing, discussion and vote to the duly submitted proposal calling for cease fire in Israel-Palestine. A resolution calling for a ceasing of killing of thousands of children, women and men—civilians. (Jose Trini Castañeda and Marleen Gillespie voting against the motion to adjourn—thank you!)

A shameful action and cruel use of power to suppress democratic deliberation on a proposal calling to stop the killing of innocents.

Shame. Que vergüenza!

To fellow Democrats on Central Committee, and those registered Democrats, whether one agrees with the legislation or not, we should all be alarmed at the anti-democratic abuse of power to suppress deliberation and a vote. If Party leaders suppress the fundamental act to discuss, debate and vote, then what do we truly stand for?

Especially on a humanitarian crisis.

We are talking about a humanistic call to end the killing of children and generational lines of innocent families😔

May be an image of 1 person, the Western Wall and text that says 'I wish children didn't die. I wish they would be temporarily elevated to the skies until the war ends. Then they would return home safe, and when their parents ask them: where were you? They'd say: "we were playing with the clouds."'

OK, this is Greg again. I remember things like this happening in the DPOC and the Democratic State Central Committee, where I spent a lot of time arguing on the private Facebook page with some astonishingly anti-Arab/Muslim party leaders, but I can’t recall anything quite like this. This is terrible behavior in front of many activists who are now going to spit on the Democratic Party for its cowardice — not because it didn’t give them the resolution of support they sought, but that it literally did not give them the dignity and courtesy to speak on behalf of their position. They clearly had the votes to oppose such a resolution anyway, so the whole point here was likely either:

  1. fear of being exposed to ideas that they rejected out of hand;
  2. making a blatant show of disrespect to their visitors that they thought would with their own supporters by treating anything short of slavish dedication to Israeli policy as literally “beneath contempt.” In writing this, though, I realize that there was a another possibility:
  3. that they feared for their own safety if the meeting went forward in front of a crowd of angry people of color. If anyone wants to make the case that they were acting out of fear rather than contempt, they owe it to the party to come forward and state their basis for such beliefs — because it would likely be very illuminating. (And the notion of this coming from a union-supporting party whose common tactic is filling the seats at Council meetings when they feel affronted is strange indeed.)

Let’s get some things straight: First, the sadly supine position of most of the Democratic Party reflects the fact that Israel can only do this sort of thing because they have the power and boundless generosity of the United States behind it. That means that Israel has to have its American supporters police the views of their parties with the energy that Southern Dixiecrats had to be ready to stomp out any ember of pro-Black representation or respect on television that might grow into a flame of support for civil rights. (I’m old enough to remember not only Lt. Uhura’s first appearance on Star Trek, but also when Diahann Carroll played the first starring TV role by a Black woman on “Julia” — and the Dixiecrats went mad with their denunciations. Interracial romance — except possibly that involving white men and their Black mistresses — also sent them into a frenzy of cancelling shows on local stations. Because if you “gave an inch” on these issues, those wanting to go against the culturally prescribed norms would take a mile. (And, yes, that’s pretty much what happened — and we can all be thankful for that.)

Second, the fears of anti-Zionism or anti-Judaism — I don’t call it anti-Semitism here because there are Semites on both sites — now burgeoning in the United States are exactly what that bastard Benjamin Netanyahu WANTS. He wants American Jews to be afraid, because fear of personal reliably shifts people views to the right and generally leads them to sacrifice their moral qualms to gain physical protection. (This is not just a move favored by fascists — although of course it is that as well.)

Third, this is absolutely killing Joe Biden’s chances against the nation-ending Donald Trump (not to mention against Nikki Haley, if she beats him, or Jim Jordan, if an incarcerated Trump anoints him as his successor.) And again: this is perfectly fine with Netanyahu, who knows that the party’s progressive wing is not a stable ally in the long term as the Israeli leaders go further and further beyond the bounds of human decency and the limitations of the laws of war. Actually, it’s more than fine: he wants to see the reasonable, peace-seeking members of the Democratic Party smothered; he sees the Armageddon-yearning fundamentalist Christians of the Republican Party as his more natural allies, because their religious doctrine needs a strong Israeli state encompassing all of Palestine before we get the prophesied Second Coming.

Netanyahu endorsed Trump over Biden, and while they have had a falling out — or he pretended to have one when he needed Joe Biden to push for a separate peace treaty with Saudi Arabia (which the disproportionate Israeli slaughter of Gazans has made unlikely anytime soon — he and Trump can easily reconcile if Trump wins. And the idea of Israel as a bestial criminal state is being imprinted firmly in young people today — and they’re largely not going to be working or maybe even voting for Democrats as things stand. And even the possibility that Joe Biden might crack down on Israel in a way that Trump would not in a second term is losing him the hardcore Jewish vote as well.

So, everyone on the craven committee but Marleen Gillespie and Trini Castaneda — and I wish I knew who they were so I could address them properly — should hang their heads in shame. I presume that the DPOC still allows motions to come directly to the floor of the General Meeting, or maybe even of the Executive Board, in this sort of situation; I hope that Democrats will clamor for Ada to do so. (She should also kick a lot of people off of that committee.) I think that the odds of Ada letting such a resolution be presented is at least 5%; it’s probably not as high as 10%, but worth a try, anyway!

Two final thoughts:

  1. This is the sort of thing that works out well only if it is kept as secretive as possible — and so THAT didn’t work out very well, did it?
  2. I think that Mirvette was truly aghast when I said this to her, but: I am a Zionist! I believe in some manner of two-state solution; one of those states would be a homeland for Jews, and that makes me a Zionist! So I would like to remind people that not everyone who thinks that we Jews should have a homeland in our ancient home thinks that Jews can or should kill enough Palestinians and other Muslims to make that homeland safe. We have to find another way; and we have to pretend that we can leave the creation of a viable and secure Palestinian state within unaccomplished for too much longer — because, as I have been telling Jews and Israelis for almost half a century now, the U.S. is not going to put up with Israel’s war crimes and other arguably genocidal excesses indefinitely. In fact, I hope that the carte blanche approach to Israel — which, again, I want to see exist in peace! — comes to a definite end very very soon.

About Greg Diamond

Somewhat verbose attorney, semi-disabled and semi-retired, residing in northwest Brea. Occasionally ran for office against jerks who otherwise would have gonr unopposed. Got 45% of the vote against Bob Huff for State Senate in 2012; Josh Newman then won the seat in 2016. In 2014 became the first attorney to challenge OCDA Tony Rackauckas since 2002; Todd Spitzer then won that seat in 2018. Every time he's run against some rotten incumbent, the *next* person to challenge them wins! He's OK with that. Corrupt party hacks hate him. He's OK with that too. He does advise some local campaigns informally and (so far) without compensation. (If that last bit changes, he will declare the interest.) His daughter is a professional campaign treasurer. He doesn't usually know whom she and her firm represent. Whether they do so never influences his endorsements or coverage. (He does have his own strong opinions.) But when he does check campaign finance forms, he is often happily surprised to learn that good candidates he respects often DO hire her firm. (Maybe bad ones are scared off by his relationship with her, but they needn't be.)