Los Angeles New Liberals Statement on DSA-LA Response to the Massacre in Israel
LOS ANGELES — In the past week, the world has witnessed a flow of images and videos from southern Israel of what is the largest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust. It has been described as a massacre and a pogrom. We believe that it can only be described as evil.
In the first 24 hours, various chapters of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) mobilized to protest and first and foremost express “solidarity with Palestine.” These were the precise words of the Los Angeles DSA chapter on October 7th on X/Twitter. Their first words were not to express solidarity with the families and friends of those murdered and taken hostage. Their first words were not to express solidarity with the thousands of Jewish and Israeli families who call Los Angeles home and many of whom have relatives and connections among the victims. Their first words were not to condemn Hamas, or to assert that Hamas does not act in or represent the best interests of the Palestinian people or a lasting peace.
Their first words and actions were to attempt to contextualize, euphemize, and minimize this violent evil.
Implied in this stance is a belief that the Israeli victims somehow deserved their fate because of the past and current actions of the Israeli government. This would connote that infants deserved to be murdered and mutilated; that peace activists deserved to be kidnapped, raped, and killed; that Holocaust survivors deserved to be paraded as trophies of war. Moral equivalencies are easy in a conflict decades old and with manifold crimes on both sides. However, the equivocation of the particular, profound, and targeted evil inflicted on the Israeli communities surrounding Gaza discloses an equally profound deficiency in moral discernment in the leadership of DSA and many of its members. Indeed, at many of these rallies, images and videos were circulated across social media showing protesters mocking and relishing in this medieval carnage.
We believe that this is not just a one-off example of poor political judgment, but an approach to politics that has consistently proven detrimental to finding pragmatic solutions for the city of Los Angeles. Groups that claim to speak for working class Angelenos undermine their stated aims by taking morally dubious stances in response to acts of terror on the other side of the world.
We view this moral and ethical incapacity as damning and disqualifying, and as fellow Angelenos, we believe DSA-LA must be held accountable as a political organization. Several members of our local elected government, including three members of the LA City Council and the LA City Controller, have in the past either received endorsements or been dues-paying members of DSA-LA. We call upon these and any other local elected officials of similar affiliation to denounce DSA-LA for their recent actions and to renounce any membership or affiliation with DSA-LA and the national DSA organization. We believe that failure to do so should be disqualifying from reelection or holding an office of public confidence.
This is not to condone the mistreatment nor killing of innocent Palestinian civilians. We believe that Israeli forces must proceed with caution and demonstrate humanity and respect for innocent lives as they conduct these operations, and we unequivocally condemn any actions that punish or result in the deaths of innocent children and civilians. However, we believe that the inability to decry the uniquely heinous and explicitly genocidal killings in South Israel over the weekend must be condemned and bear commensurate political consequences.
The LA New Liberals stand with the people of Israel in their national tragedy, and we stand with the Jewish and Israeli Angelenos in their grief and outrage. Finally, we applaud the American politicians who have shown exceptional moral clarity on this tragedy, including but not limited to President Joseph R. Biden and State Senator Scott Weiner (D-11).
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Media Contact: lanewliberals@gmail.com
