Last Thursday, the Benton County Democrats’ Central Committee met, with three, maybe four, worthy takeaways. Early on, it was announced that incumbent Pat Malone had conceded the Democratic primary race for County Commissioner to challenger John Wilson.
No Republican has filed for the seat, but an unaffiliated or minor party candidate could still file to oppose Wilson in the November general.
Then, after all the general announcements, Corvallis Mayor, Charles Maughan motioned to pass an anti-Israel platform resolution that had been put on the agenda. He also took the opportunity to confirm what everybody probably already knew, he will be running for a second term as Mayor of Corvallis.
Okay, so one concession and one candidacy confirmation, and now, about that resolution.
The Anti-Israel Resolution
Before we tell you what the local Democratic Party did, we need to tell you what the statewide party had already done because that’s where this whole little shemozzle actually started.
So. The Democratic Party of Oregon has a Platform and Resolutions Committee. And during a meeting at the end of April this year they chose to leave in place the statewide party platform concerning the Israeli-Gaza conflict.
Several weeks prior, some on the committee had expressed the desire to revise the platform, but instead of just moving their proposal to the floor, the committee opted to form a special subcommittee tasked with developing a consensus resolution with input from various stakeholders, including the statewide party’s Jewish Caucus.
You may already know where this is going.
That subcommittee couldn’t come to an agreement. In fact, their proceedings were so fractious that they submitted two competing resolutions. One from the members who had wanted to revise the platform in the first place, and another from the members of the Jewish Caucus.
So, the full Platform Committee voted 13-8 to simply leave the current state party platform in place. After all, they had already reviewed this part of the platform as recently as 2024.
Now back to the Benton County Democrats Central Committee. Last Thursday, they voted to print and distribute a letter to the State Central Committee that essentially advocates for reopening the debate about the platform. And before we go further, we need to say that some readers may view some of the letter’s language, and one of its attachments, as antisemitic. For reporting purposes, we will provide a small amount of the letter’s text, but we also offer you links to the full documents at the bottom of this story.
So the letter seeks to make a case for reopening the platform debate, saying among other things, “Poll after poll shows that majorities of Democrats believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.” It also says, “South Africa’s genocide case against Israel before the International Court of Justice remains ongoing.”
Importantly, many international law experts caution that the existence of proceedings should not be confused with findings, and most believe the International Court of Justice will not in the end be able to sustain a finding of genocide against Israel. The polling offers no actual evidence, and as framed, one could suspect there has been push-polling.
Many in the Jewish community view these sorts of allegations as unfair, and often see them as similar to old school antisemitic expressions of theories that demonize Jewish people. There are recent examples of these ideas leading to violence against Jewish people in America and Europe. The FBI reports these incidents have been increasing.
Importantly, as central as Israel is to the identity of many American Jews, it is absolutely the case that one can criticize Israel without crossing over into antisemitism. The vast majority of Jewish people, and maybe especially Israeli people, believe that.
The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, or IHRA, definition of antisemitism is generally accepted worldwide by governments, foreign policy experts and academics, and it makes clear that Israel can be criticized like any other nation-state without crossing over into antisemitism. But it also clarifies when criticism isn’t really criticism, when it crosses over into something else, when it is indeed antisemitism, such as when Israel is held to a double-standard, or seen as racist, or when Jewish people are demonized.
The Benton County Democrat’s letter also goes on to point out the statewide platform committee chair’s surname; which is Stoltz. Some could see that as intentional. We do not know if the chair is, in fact, Jewish or not, but the inference could be seen as apparent.
To see the Benton County Democrats Central Committee letter that will be circulated to the State Central Committee, click here, scroll to the bottom of the agenda. To see the proposed platform resolution the BC Dems appear to be aligned with, click here. To see the statewide Democratic Jewish Caucus proposal, click here.
That fourth takeaway
The Benton County Democrats have come out against Albany’s flock cameras. Currently, the City of Corvallis doesn’t have any of these license plate tracking devices, but still, good to know where the local Dems fall on this one.
By Hallie Greenberg and Steven J. Schultz
Do you have a story for The Advocate? Email editor@corvallisadvocate.com