The California Democratic Party passed a platform that removed attempts to falsely accuse Israel of committing genocide and blunted calls for conditioning aid to Israel while leaving language in place supporting Israel's right to exist as a Jewish democratic state and the Two State Solution.

"The California Democratic Party reaffirmed yet again its support of issues critical to the Jewish community community such as fighting antisemitism commitment to Israel's security, Jewish identity and commitment to a two state solution without singling out aid to Israel or false claims of genocide," said California Jewish Democrats President Emeritus Andrew Lachman.

In a break from past intraparty conflicts, we were able to work with Palestinian rights advocates to ensure that the suffering of all communities were acknowledged and the actions of the Israeli far right in the West Bank were addressed issue where the majority of the American Jewish community and American Palestinian community found common ground.

We were disappointed that we could not get language in calling for the disarming of militias like Hamas, but Palestinian advocates also made concessions on removing language inferring that Israel was committing genocide, one-sided language calling for conditioning aid to Israel and adding language calling for cease fire accountability for Hamas.

The platform also retained language condemning antisemitism, noting that no person is responsible for the acts of another country and added new language condemning violence, vandalism and harassment.

We are grateful that the California Democratic Party continued to show of support for the Jewish community and for everyone coming together to find common ground, including leadership of the CADEM Arab American Caucus and Democrats for Justice in Palestine.

The collaboration with California Jewish Legislative Caucus, especially State Senator Stern, JPAC and the JCRCs were critical to our success and DMFI's organizing was appreciated. We also want to express our gratitude to chair Rusty Hicks and the leadership of the California Democratic Party Platform Committee, especially plank chair Michael Sweet and committee chairs Shanna Ingalsbee and Michael Soto. 

Jewish voters remain one of the top two most loyal groups of Democratic voters (along with Black voters), we need to ensure that we stem any further losses and the platform language reflects that commitment.