Let me first start off by saying, this is not really a diary...it's more or less a question. This popped up in my newsfeed on my social media and rendered some fairly interesting responses, nevermind the article comment section, which quite frankly is a cesspool...
First from the article in question....
Netanyahu’s speech – which sought to challenge US President Barack Obama’s efforts to broker a nuclear deal with Iran – and his comments ahead of the election that his supporters must vote because “Arabs are voting in droves,” has lead many black Democrats to turn their back on the Israeli prime minister.
This reported alienation could effectively kill any chance US lawmakers could submit legislation mandating new Iran sanctions that would have enough supporters to override an Obama veto.
“Bibi [Netanyahu] ensured there will be no veto-proof majority in the House,” a Capitol Hill source told Newsweek.
The Congressional Black Caucus is gone
From the Newsweek article:
On Capitol Hill, that message seemed to resonate loudest among Obama’s black Democratic allies. There was a time before Netanyahu’s speech when many members of the Congressional Black Caucus, steeped in Old Testament messages from Negro spirituals, saw their own reflection in Israel’s struggle. But after Netanyahu’s broadsides against Obama’s diplomacy and his remarks about Israeli Arabs, those days appear to be over. As one Democratic aide put it: “It's going to be very difficult to bring them back.”
The second block quote hints at my question...one of the commenters in the first article indicated that other than MLK....no other Black leader had supported Israel in Congress or otherwise, which frankly would be news to me, now he may have a case in regards to Farrakahn and Malcolm X who he specifically pointed too...but I've never seen by and large a brush off of Israel in the African American community.
So my question is to those who follow Congress and the Black Caucus a lot more closely than I do...did this really happen, did the Black Caucus turn their backs on Israel and how do they go about explaining that to the church folk during re-election time, who might not take too kindly to that position....Horns of Jericho and all that entails...