DSA BDS BS

Enraged by the fact that Rep. Jamaal Bowman visited Israel, some chapters of the Democratic Socialists of America are urging their parent organization to expel the unequivocally progressive Bronx congressman from its ranks. We dare them to do so; it would expose the DSA as being motivated far more by animus toward the Jewish state than by its supposed mission of building “a more free, democratic and humane society.”

Earlier this month, Bowman, a frequent critic of Israel who defeated Rep. Eliot Engel last year in part by highlighting what he considered the incumbent’s reflexive support of Israel, toured the country under the auspices of the J Street, a liberal Jewish lobby group that’s often seen as the foil of the more doctrinaire American Israel Public Affairs Committee. The trip included Israeli-controlled Palestinian areas, including Hebron, where Bowman met with Palestinian children and declared that “the occupation must end” (his tweet has since been deleted).

But for the apparent sin of also speaking with Israeli leaders — and also having dared to vote in support of Israel’s Iron Dome, which helps protect innocents from missile fire — Bowman is now on the blacklist of many of his comrades. The DSA’s Las Vegas chapter lambasted him for “directly supporting Israeli apartheid and endorsing Zionism” and condoning “the forced displacement, genocide, and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.” Portland’s chapter demanded disciplinary action. The folks in Madison, Wisc., demand Bowman’s expulsion. The idiocy is of a piece with the DSA’s New York City chapter requiring 2021 Council candidates to pledge not to travel to Israel.

For their part, the honchos at DSA national headquarters Tuesday declared themselves “aware of the trip” and “treating this as its highest priority right now,” scrambling jets to investigate the congressman’s alleged apostasy.

If Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the DSA’s macher, can’t convince leadership to calm down, and the DSA boots Bowman, it will reveal itself as a blinded band of zealots who put boycotting, sanctioning and divesting from the Jewish state over every other priority.