🇮🇱 Maine's congressman hits a fellow Democrat for her Israel remarks.
◉ U.S. Rep. Jared Golden of Maine's 2nd District joined more than 40 other Democrats in a Monday statement criticizing Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Washington, the head of the 100-member Congressional Progressive Caucus for her recent remarks calling Israel a "racist state."
◉ The remarks came at an event on Sunday ahead of a trip by Israel's president, Isaac Herzog, to Washington to meet with President Joe Biden. Jayapal attempted to clarify her statement to say she was criticizing Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu's policies on Palestine, not Israel as a whole.
◉ "We are deeply concerned about [Jayapal's] unacceptable comments regarding our historic, democratic ally Israel, and we appreciate her retraction," Golden and the other Democrats said.
◉ This debate is an example of a shift on the long struggle between Israel and Palestine. Polls recently have shown Democratic support moving further toward Palestine, while Golden embodies the kind of conventional pro-Israel stance that has long dominated U.S. politics.
◉ Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat from Maine's 1st District, has cast many votes in the other direction, though she and Golden both support a two-state solution favored by most politicians here. She did not join the statement and described her votes in 2019 as "in support of Israel and to address the humanitarian situation in Palestine." |
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