Maine Democrats have an antisemitism problem. I was a delegate at the recent U.S. Senate nominating convention. It wasn’t just the man who yelled “f— Israel” during a speech broadcast across the world, nor the protesters outside as the convention ended who were waving Palestinian flags on giant flagpoles shouting about Israel. It’s about more than that.

When talk comes to freeing oppressed peoples, only Palestine is mentioned; to genocide, only Gaza; to the deaths of children, only Gazan children; to cutting military aid, only Israel; to Boycott, Divestment ,Sanctions (BDS), again, only Israel. There is nothing of Yemen, Sudan, the Rohingya, the Uighurs, the Tibetan people; these places and people where unimaginable oppression, hunger and genocide are occurring but there is only silence — and complicity — from Maine Democrats. 

Add in the “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” shirts that were abundant at the convention, and it looks an awful lot like part of Maine Democrats’ platform is actually “We hate the Jews.”

This platform means Israel has now become inseparable from Jewish identity and the stated goal of the eradication of the state of Israel — and all Jews — by terrorists is embraced by Maine Democrats, making them complicit in anti-Jewish attacks and sentiment across the state and nation. 

Any Maine Dem who disagrees, politician or otherwise, doesn’t just need to say so; they need to prove so. Silence and inaction is further complicity, and our Jewish friends, family and neighbors deserve better.

Rien Finch
Waterville