On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in the U.S. for a now-canceled meeting with President Joe Biden in advance of his planned address to Congress on Wednesday.
Upon his arrival, Prime Minister Netanyahu was not greeted by President Biden, who also canceled a scheduled meeting with him this week, or by Vice President Kamala Harris, as is standard protocol when leaders of allied nations make official visits to the U.S.
Vice President Harris, now the presumptive 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, has said via aides that she plans to skip Netanyahu’s congressional address.
Although the aides have also claimed that her decision not to attend the address is not intended to indicate that she will no longer support Israel, she is likely facing political pressure to appease far left voters who have been protesting Israeli military actions in Gaza following then Hamas terrorist attacks of Oct. 7.
While many Democratic politicians have supported Israel’s war against the Palestinian terrorist group, many in the Democratic voting base have vocally, and often violently, expressed their support for Hamas terrorists and their opposition to American backing of the Israeli Defense Force.
The fervent opposition to Israel among far left Democrats across the country, including in Maine, could cause problems for Harris’s presidential bid, especially as Democrat support wanes in Michigan, which has one of the largest populations of Muslim voters in the U.S.
The Maine Coalition for Palestine is currently organizing a bus trip to take anti-Israel protestors to Washington D.C. with the goal of surrounding the U.S. Capitol with a national group of protestors and demanding the arrest of Netanyahu.
The ad urges protestors to board a Portland bus on Tuesday night so that they can arrive in D.C. in time for Netanyahu’s speech.
The ad also calls on Mainers who can’t go to D.C. to protest at the Augusta State House in solidarity.
Activists from aligned with the Maine Democrats and the Maine Democratic Socialists have been on the front lines of pro-Hamas rallies since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October of last year, and prominent Democratic politicians in Maine have mostly been silent as large swaths of their supporters engage in brazen displays of anti-Semitism.
Just days after the Oct. 7 attack, which left over 1,000 Israeli civilians dead and hundreds of other civilians, including American citizens, as hostages of Hamas, Maine’s chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) hosted a rally in Portland in opposition to Israel’s right to defend itself and attempt to rescue its hostages.
That rally featured one representative of Maine’s DSA who claimed that Hamas’s attack on Israel, which primarily targeted civilians, was morally justified.
“The actions of the resistance over the course of the last day is a morally and legally legitimate response to the occupation,” said Zack Campbell from the DSA.
No elected Democrat in Maine condemned Campbell’s remarks, which were greeted with applause by a crowd gathered in front of Portland’s City Hall.
In the aftermath of the attacks, Maine’s progressive voters united with progressives across the country in staging numerous anti-Israel protests and contributing to a nationwide uptick in anti-Semitic incidents.
In late October, a Portland law office operated by an ethnically Jewish bankruptcy lawyer, Steven Cope, became the target of far-left vandalism, with “Free Palestine” graffitied across the building’s windows.
[RELATED: Jewish Business in Portland Vandalized With Pro-Palestine Graffiti…]
That incident was followed shortly by another instance of vandalism targeting an Israeli-owned business in Portland.
In early November, the East Coast Gold legal marijuana dispensary was plastered with a pro-Palestine poster.
[RELATED: Israeli-owned Business in Portland Targeted with Pro-Palestine Flyer…]
The owner, Avi Ruimy, an American citizen who emigrated from Israel, believes that his business was targeted based on his national origin.
Bath Iron Works, a shipyard operated by General Dynamics and one of the largest private employers in Maine, has also been the target of pro-Palestine activity.
In December, protestors gathered outside the shipyard with numerous signs, some bearing the “from the river to the sea” slogan, which calls for the destruction of Israel.
In that case, protestors also blocked roads and demanded that the U.S. stop sending any military aid to Israel.
A month later, that protest was followed by another, smaller protest outside the General Dynamics facility in Saco.
In November, seven protestors were arrested at the Bangor office of U.S. Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine), one of the only Maine Democrats who has been vocal in his support for Israel, after they trespassed and refused to leave his office while demanding that he support calls for a ceasefire in Gaza.
A separate incident in January saw protestors vandalizing Golden’s office with pro-Palestine graffiti.
Strangely, even U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), who has opposed foreign aid to Israel, was the target of pro-Palestine DSA protestors, who trespassed in her office and refused to leave until they were arrested.
The instances of anti-Semitic vandalism and protests driven by progressive opposition to Israel led to very little public outcry from Maine’s Democrat politicians, who voted against a resolution affirming Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas terrorists.
The same Democrats were vocal in their support for a similar resolution supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia.
The antipathy for Israel among large swaths of the Democrat base has been mirrored across the country, which has seen massive protests on college campuses, shutting down graduation ceremonies, and leading to vandalism and violence against Jewish institutions and students.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="29563 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=29563">15 Comments
” one of the only Maine Democrats who has been vocal in his support for Israel,” And Golden happens to be Jewish. Nice to see someone who at least stands for his own.
I know what the DSA and Hamas supporters can do!
They can go to Palestine for six months to help out.
See what it’s really like.
I wonder what Jesus would say about what Israel is doing to the children of Gaza?
One other item. Prime Minister Netanyahu’s approval rating in Israel is 32%.
Mike, he probably says the same thing he says about the democrats and their fixation in murdering 50 million unborn children not to mention the grooming that they do to children in schools. Not to mention the trafficking of children on the Harris open border.
Just for prospective, I wonder what actions pingree would take if say… Mexico came across the border and raped, killed and kidnapped US citizens? Oh wait, that already happens and she not only condones it she begs for more. I just don’t understand how these tools get reelected.
Mike: Israel is under the Law of God. BTW: Hamas is the guilty party.
I’m not sure whether Grove is intellectually dishonest or just plain stupid. The democrats are the party of death. The party that gave us slavery and Jim Crow. The party that sanctions the killing of infants by the millions. The party that sanctions the open invasion of the United States with known criminals, rapist, terrorists and drug dealers. The party that wants to disarm honest law abiding Americans so the democrat voting criminals can run amuck. The party that openly sanctions removing your free speech rights unless you bow at the progressive alter. We’re a heartbeat away from 1932 Germany and half of this country can’t wait to put their neighbors in camps. Just look at the open antisemitism if you don’t believe me. The Nazis used the liberal church as a disguise for their real agenda too when their true allegiance was to the occult and satan himself. Keep telling yourself and your holier than thou pals you’re on the right side of history.
Keep it up and the US will force Iseral to use its nuks. Then what Bright bulbs?
The social justice Left and the Paleoconservative/Nationalist Right are united in their desire to end the US codependency with the Zionist Israeli State. It is time that Christian Zionists wake up and see the truth.
What an idiotic statement to make saying you support someone or something and then distance yourself from the subject of your supposed support. Don’t believe your lyin’ eyes!
Didn’t Portland just hire a leading member of the DSA? Strimling is a card carrying member too.
It’s time for Jewish Dems to join the JEXIT movement.
So lets see, killing the unborn is good, killing Mainers is good, killing Ukrainian citizens good, killing Hamas terrorists is bad, this the democrat party position.
Rooster and Infidel are onto something. Maybe American politics should be matriculated according to American interests. And I would be interested in seeing a Jexit. Just Imagine a world…