The leading Democratic candidates for the 2020 presidential election have all announced they will not attend the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) week-long conference scheduled to begin on Sunday.
Frontrunners Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass), Kamala Harris, (D-Calif), and Bernie Sanders, (I-Vt), all announced they will not attend. It should be noted that Sanders did not attend the 2016 conference held during the last presidential campaign.
In addition, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas), Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend Indiana, former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro, former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, who is considering running for president as an independent, are reportedly not planning on attending.
The anti-Israel Democratic tidal wave comes after Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn) made several anti-Israel tweets including the claim that AIPAC was paying politicians to support Israel. These tweets were also claimed to perpetuate classically anti-Semitic tropes. She later gave an ambiguous apology and a subsequent resolution condemning anti-Semitism failed to pass in Congress.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be attending the conference.
The tidal wave of Democratic Israel-rejection came after MoveOn.org called on all 2020 presidential candidates to boycott the event. Moveon.org is considered a progressive organization that opposes bigotry. It recently called on politicians to oppose an anti-Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) bill. Moveon.org advocates reinstating the nuclear deal with Iran, accused Netanyahu of allying with the Israeli version of the Klu Klux Klan (KKK), and accused AIPAC of giving a platform to Islamophobes. In the same announcement in which they called for Democratic candidates to boycott AIPAC, Moven.org ironically condemned the Republican party for not denouncing anti-Semitism within its ranks.
This recent development seems to confirm President Trump’s accusation made two weeks ago that the Democratic Party is becoming an anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli party. The anti-Israel move by the Democrats stands in stark contrast to an announcement by Donald Trump that his administration will recognize Israel sovereignty over the Golan Heights.
