News

4/13/2024 - The Israel Defense Forces have announced that the theocratic Islamist government of Iran has launched a multi-pronged attack on Israel from Iranian soil. Initial reports indicate that drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles from Iran are heading for Israel.

The Israeli missile defense systems will be the first line of defense for this attack, while American missile defense systems are also in position in the region to intercept incoming attacks on Israel, reflecting the strong partnership between the two countries. Jordan is also expected to attempt to shoot down any drones or missiles from Iran that violate its airspace.

The U.S. Secretary of Defense and National Security Advisor spoke with their Israeli counterparts earlier today (4/13/2024), and the White House has issued a statement affirming American support for Israel in the face of these attacks. Democrats and Republicans in Congress have already issued statements supporting Israel and condemning the Iranian regime.

Democrats for Israel – Los Angeles recognizes and appreciates the strong support of President Joe Biden and the bipartisan leadership of Congress for Israel. Never before has the Iranian government attempted to attack the Israeli homeland from its own soil, and an unprecedented red line has now been crossed by the Iranian regime.

Our thoughts are with the people of Israel, who are now confronting this dangerous attack from Iran. DFI LA, its members and its supporters will continue to urge the President and Congress to make sure that Israel has the resources and support it will need to defend itself.

On March 12, 2024, the Los Angeles County Democratic Party (LACPD) passed a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. The resolution was crafted in part by several members of the LACDP who are members of Democrats for Israel (DFI) – Los Angeles. Those DFI–LA members were acting as individuals, as Democrats for Israel – Los Angeles has not taken a formal position in favor or in opposition to a ceasefire. The LACDP reported that DFI–Los Angeles co-authored the resolution. That was not accurate. Furthermore, the resolution omitted several critical items.

We remind LACDP and others that it was Hamas that started this conflict by violating a ceasefire with Israel with its October 7, 2023 brutal assault on innocent Israel civilians, the single worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Moreover, Hamas terrorists continue to use the Palestinian civilians in Gaza as human shields while they hide in tunnels underneath Gaza, or use hospitals as staging grounds. DFI–LA decries the casualties among the civilian population of Gaza, and holds both Hamas and its Iranian benefactors as the primary responsible parties for this crisis. But any ceasefire that does not include the release of all hostages, the return of the bodies of all victims of Hamas’ October 7 surprise attack, and the removal of Hamas’ control of Gaza, is both unacceptable and counterproductive. Hamas’ repeated commitment to continue attacks such as the October 7 massacre makes it clear there can be no lasting peace between the Palestinian people and the people of Israel so long as Hamas remains in power in Gaza.

Furthermore, Democrats for Israel – Los Angeles calls for the LACDP, and the California Democratic Party, to acknowledge the continued rape and abuse of female victims and female hostages by Hamas and its allies, both on the day of the October 7, 2023 attack, and during the many months that they have been held in captivity in Gaza.

Democrats for Israel – Los Angeles is hopeful that a lasting, if not permanent, ceasefire in Gaza becomes possible. Indeed, DFI–LA is also hopeful that a lasting peace WILL emerge, allowing both Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace and prosperity, rather than in constant conflict.

DFI-LA's David Alpern and Mihran Kalaydjian penned an op-ed: How to Get a Palestine State? Stop Hating the Jews - https://www.citywatchla.com/world-watch/28512-how-to-get-a-palestine-state-stop-hating-the-jews

The local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America censured council member, Nithya Raman, for seeking the backing of Democrats for Israel Los Angeles. DSA also voted to retain its own endorsement of Raman, infuriating some of the organization’s members and laying bare the bizarre political pretzeling involved when the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is injected into local races. Read: https://forward.com/news/578358/nithya-raman-dsa-censure-dfi-endorsement

DFI-LA's David Alpern and Mihran Kalaydjian penned an op-ed: Like Hamas, Benjamin Netanyahu’s Reign Also Must End ASAP

https://www.citywatchla.com/important-reads/28314-like-hamas-benjamin-netanyahus-reign-also-must-end-asap

Jewish Caucus letter sent January 3, 2024 to all members of the California State Legislature asking for "support and solidarity at an unprecedented moment of pain and fear for our Jewish community. Recent events, including Hamas’s horrific October 7 massacre, the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, the glorification of violence and sexual assault against Jews, calls for the annihilation of Israel, and the extreme escalation of antisemitism in the United States and around the world have left our community reeling. According to the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (CalOES), since October 7 there have been more than 200 bomb threats against Jewish institutions in California. We cannot recall another time in recent history when Jews in California felt as targeted, threatened, and unsafe as they do now. At this moment, the work our Legislative Jewish Caucus has been doing in close partnership with Jewish community organizations feels existential."

California Legislative Jewish Caucus Dear Colleague Letter 2024 01 03.pdf

10/7/2023 - Like the many organizations in the Jewish and non-Jewish world across our nation, Democrats for Israel Los Angeles, alongside the many affiliated DFI groups across the state of California, condemns the Saturday morning surprise attack by the terrorist Hamas regime in Gaza on Israel.

The brutality of Iranian-supported Hamas terrorists is being documented in real time. Women and children beaten and then taken hostage. Kibbutz residents who have worked for peace with the Palestinians for their entire lives butchered by terrorists. Thousands of rockets launched deliberately at Israeli cities, villages and kibbutz have killed Israeli children, women and men and injured hundreds, while Hamas terrorists on the ground have killed hundreds more.

DFI-LA condemns this senseless and unprovoked attack on Israel and its citizens and calls on all members of the Democratic Party and all Americans to rally in support of Israel, as President Biden and his administration have already done.

There will be time for investigations about how just such an attack by Hamas was planned and implemented, catching the Israeli security apparatus by surprise, just as there will be plenty of time for political and military analysts to determine just how much the unrest in the West Bank contributed to this situation. But for now, it is time for Americans to rally behind Israel, the only democracy in the region, in opposition to the terrorism of Hamas and Iran’s other allies in the region, notably and potentially, Hezbollah in Lebanon.

We stand in solidarity with the pro-democracy opposition in Israel, against the policies of the extremist coalition government of Benjamin Netanyahu

March 13, 2023

As Democrats, we are greatly alarmed by the potential harms to Israeli society by Israel’s new governing coalition, the most right-wing in its history.

The values of the California Democratic Party (CDP) are clear. The CDP’s 2022 Platform states its support for Israel’s future as a secure democratic Jewish state and provides Israelis and Palestinians the right to live with independence, sovereignty, and dignity within their own viable states free from persecution, terror, or incitement.

Consistent with our values and those of the Democratic Party, we continue to support the right of Israel to live securely as a Jewish and democratic state, as it has since 1948.  

As we have seen in the rise of other right-wing nationalist governments in Hungary, Poland, Turkey and Italy, the recent elections in Israel have veered the country sharply to the right and away from the democratic principles espoused by its founders — principles that have placed the Jewish state among other western democratic nations.

When Donald Trump was elected President, millions of Americans mobilized to oppose his policies, but they did not advocate for the end of the United States. They mobilized because they loved their country. As American Jews, we are not citizens of Israel, but we recognize that Jewish identity remains intertwined with Israel’s existence.

Criticism of harmful Israeli policy that bears on its democratic character is appropriate as long as it does not embrace antisemitism or seek to delegitimize Israel’s existence. The way to support Israel and its democratic values is to stand with the more than 200,000 Israelis  regularly coming out to protest the current government's attempts to undermine its democratic principles. Indeed, as Democrats and as Zionists, we express great alarm at the current government’s proposed policies  and stand in solidarity with Israelis of all religions and orientations who seek to protect a democratic Israel.

We stand in solidarity with a democratic Israel because the current far-right government is advancing a proposal to eliminate independent judicial oversight, which would enable members of the government to refuse to comply with the law whenever they choose. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is standing trial on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust while leading a campaign to destroy the very judicial system responsible for his criminal prosecution, dismantling the separation of powers, eroding the independence of Israel's judges and giving politicians unfettered control.

To accomplish this requires extremist alliances. Enter Itamar Ben-Gvir, Bezalel Smotrich and others, who seemingly have no qualms about dismantling Israeli democracy, disregarding the rights of the LGBTQ community, women, secular Israelis, Reform and Conservative Jews, and other minority groups.  This extremist coalition government is ignoring the concerns of the millions in Israel who oppose this anti-democratic judicial overhaul, and members of this extremist coalition government have refused to slow the process and sit down and negotiate reforms that would be acceptable to the vast majority of the Israeli public.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for the Palestinian village of Huwara to be wiped out because a terrorist shot and killed Israelis at a settlement nearby. Shortly thereafter, a mob of settlers attacked and torched the town. Further, another member of the coalition government objected to the arrest of Israeli settlers who are connected with the attack. Ben-Gvir has been convicted of incitement to terrorism on multiple occasions. He is a follower of the late rabbi Meir Kahane, the founder of Kahanism: a violent, extremist ideology that advocates for and has inspired acts of terror. He and his disciples were rightly banned from Israel's legislature  in 1988 on the grounds that their ideology is “racist and undemocratic.” As recently as November 2022, Ben-Gvir attended a commemoration ceremony for Meir Kahane.

We stand in solidarity with a democratic Israel because Israel’s ruling coalition seems bent on imposing radical change to Israel’s political system. We Democrats in the United States have witnessed how a rightward shift of the Supreme Court has impacted the rights of immigrants, expanded Title 42, and reversed Roe v. Wade. A majority of our U.S. Supreme Court Justices have also signaled a readiness to challenge voting rights, election law, and affirmative action. The erosion of minority protections in our own country is deepening and, as noted by Israeli legal experts, the proposed dismantling of the checks and balances of an independent Israeli judiciary would have a similar effect. Democracy is not the power of a temporary, thin legislative majority to permanently —without recourse — oppress and remove the rights of its citizens. We cannot stand by quietly as democratic protections are eroded in both Israel and the United States. 

We stand in solidarity because we are concerned for the rights and aspirations of the Palestinian people, who desire their own viable, independent state living in peace next to Israel. We are particularly concerned with a guiding principle of the new coalition, which seeks to greenlight unilateral annexation, making a two-state solution virtually impossible and making the establishment of a just and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians equally impossible. Worse, the goals of this coalition government would normalize a unilateral form of Jewish hegemony from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, creating no options for consenting Palestinians to retain basic human rights of self-determination and taking away the option of their own state. The ruling coalition is in contravention of the national Democratic Party platform, which expressly supports a two-state solution and opposes unilateral actions by either party—whether it be Israelis imposing a single state via annexation or Palestinians attempting to force Israelis into a single-majority Palestinian state through an international campaign of delegitimization and a wildly overbroad interpretation of right of return laws.

As Democrats, we stand in solidarity with those seeking a democratic Israel by standing in opposition to the extreme proposals of Israel’s current coalition government, which are in stark contrast to our party platform and the values enshrined in Israel’s founding Declaration of Independence. Israelis are raising a clear and broad voice to oppose these proposed policies. These voices cannot be ignored.

We stand with the will of the Israeli people to find solutions that benefit all Israelis, protect democracy, and work for a sustainable peace.

●      Democrats for Israel California, a council of Jewish Democratic clubs
●      Progressive Zionists of California
●      Democrats for Israel Los Angeles
●      Jewish Democratic Club of Silicon Valley
●      Jewish Democratic Club of Solano County

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DFI-LA's Mihran Kalaydjian and David Alpern published a look at the shared values that lead both Israel and American to frequently extend a helping hand to those afflicted anywhere, anytime, by a natural disaster.

https://citywatchla.com/index.php/cw/world-watch/26452-shared-values-america-and-israel-rush-to-provide-aid-wherever-and-whenever-needed

and...

https://www.publishedreporter.com/2023/02/12/op-ed-shared-values-helping-nations-why-two-nations-rush-to-provide-aid-wherever-and-whenever-needed

America and Israel’s shared values spur each of them to quickly respond when a global crisis happens due to a natural disaster. For Israel it is rooted in the Jewish concept of being responsible for providing Tikkun Olam (heal the world) derived from one of the noblest precepts found in the Mishnah (in Sanhedrin) as well as other Talmudic-period texts that convey how “Whoever Saves a Life Saves the World”. America is the only country ever founded on Judeo-Christian values, where Judaic values are factored into the DNA of the nation alongside Christian values. The balance of Western democracies are founded strictly on Christian values. As such, America and Israel are the only two countries in the history of civilization who have incorporate Jewish values into their DNA and worldview, which in this case translates into being a resource to all corners of the globe when tragedy strikes.

Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) quickly sent a humanitarian aid delegation to Turkey on the heels of the deadly 7.8 earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria on Monday morning (2/6/2023) killing tens of thousands and injuring thousands more.

The Israel Defense Forces sent a humanitarian aid delegation to Turkey to assist in the disaster relief effort - including helping extricate the thousands who remained trapped beneath rubble. "Olive Branches" is a joint mission together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defense to lend their expertise in searching for survivors and treating wounded victims. Israel also sent supplies to Syria, despite officially being in a declared state of war.