Democratic Socialists of America Extremism Goes Beyond Israel

The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) has been in the news a lot lately, and rightly so. While Hamas militants were murdering Israeli civilians, the DSA was exclaiming “long live the resistance!” and promoting “solidarity” demonstrations in response to the terrorist atrocities. It was abominable, and many elected officials on both sides of the aisle condemned the group in the strongest terms. Representative Ritchie Torres (D., N.Y.) has been particularly outspoken, for which he should be commended, while Representative Shri Thanedar (D. Mich.) renounced his DSA membership, since the group “is unwilling to call out terrorism in all its forms.”

Though the attacks were a watershed moment, anti-Israel rhetoric is nothing new for the DSA. The group voted to support the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement in 2017, and two years later established an official working group to expose what it called “Zionism’s settler-colonialist and imperialist roots” and advocate “a free Palestine, from the river to the sea” — a phrase with unambiguously malevolent meaning.

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Robert Stilson

Robert Stilson is a senior research analyst at the Capital Research Center in Washington, D.C.

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The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) has been in the news a lot lately, and rightly so. While Hamas militants were murdering Israeli civilians, the DSA was exclaiming “long live the resistance!” and promoting “solidarity” demonstrations in response to the terrorist atrocities. It was abominable, and many elected officials on both sides of the aisle condemned the group in the strongest terms. Representative Ritchie Torres (D., N.Y.) has been particularly outspoken, for which he should be commended, while Representative Shri Thanedar (D. Mich.) renounced his DSA membership, since the group “is unwilling to call out terrorism in all its forms.”

Though the attacks were a watershed moment, anti-Israel rhetoric is nothing new for the DSA. The group voted to support the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement in 2017, and two years later established an official working group to expose what it called “Zionism’s settler-colonialist and imperialist roots” and advocate “a free Palestine, from the river to the sea” — a phrase with unambiguously malevolent meaning.