On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in the U.S. for a now-canceled meeting with President Joe Biden in advance of his planned address to Congress on Wednesday.
Upon his arrival, Prime Minister Netanyahu was not greeted by President Biden, who also canceled a scheduled meeting with him this week, or by Vice President Kamala Harris, as is standard protocol when leaders of allied nations make official visits to the U.S.
Vice President Harris, now the presumptive 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, has said via aides that she plans to skip Netanyahu’s congressional address.
Although the aides have also claimed that her decision not to attend the address is not intended to indicate that she will no longer support Israel, she is likely facing political pressure to appease far left voters who have been protesting Israeli military actions in Gaza following then Hamas terrorist attacks of Oct. 7.
While many Democratic politicians have supported Israel’s war against the Palestinian terrorist group, many in the Democratic voting base have vocally, and often violently, expressed their support for Hamas terrorists and their opposition to American backing of the Israeli Defense Force.
The fervent opposition to Israel among far left Democrats across the country, including in Maine, could cause problems for Harris’s presidential bid, especially as Democrat support wanes in Michigan, which has one of the largest populations of Muslim voters in the U.S.
The Maine Coalition for Palestine is currently organizing a bus trip to take anti-Israel protestors to Washington D.C. with the goal of surrounding the U.S. Capitol with a national group of protestors and demanding the arrest of Netanyahu.
The ad urges protestors to board a Portland bus on Tuesday night so that they can arrive in D.C. in time for Netanyahu’s speech.
The ad also calls on Mainers who can’t go to D.C. to protest at the Augusta State House in solidarity.
Activists from aligned with the Maine Democrats and the Maine Democratic Socialists have been on the front lines of pro-Hamas rallies since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October of last year, and prominent Democratic politicians in Maine have mostly been silent as large swaths of their supporters engage in brazen displays of anti-Semitism.
Just days after the Oct. 7 attack, which left over 1,000 Israeli civilians dead and hundreds of other civilians, including American citizens, as hostages of Hamas, Maine’s chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) hosted a rally in Portland in opposition to Israel’s right to defend itself and attempt to rescue its hostages.
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That rally featured one representative of Maine’s DSA who claimed that Hamas’s attack on Israel, which primarily targeted civilians, was morally justified.
“The actions of the resistance over the course of the last day is a morally and legally legitimate response to the occupation,” said Zack Campbell from the DSA.
No elected Democrat in Maine condemned Campbell’s remarks, which were greeted with applause by a crowd gathered in front of Portland’s City Hall.
In the aftermath of the attacks, Maine’s progressive voters united with progressives across the country in staging numerous anti-Israel protests and contributing to a nationwide uptick in anti-Semitic incidents.
In late October, a Portland law office operated by an ethnically Jewish bankruptcy lawyer, Steven Cope, became the target of far-left vandalism, with “Free Palestine” graffitied across the building’s windows.
That incident was followed shortly by another instance of vandalism targeting an Israeli-owned business in Portland.
In early November, the East Coast Gold legal marijuana dispensary was plastered with a pro-Palestine poster.
The owner, Avi Ruimy, an American citizen who emigrated from Israel, believes that his business was targeted based on his national origin.
Bath Iron Works, a shipyard operated by General Dynamics and one of the largest private employers in Maine, has also been the target of pro-Palestine activity.
In December, protestors gathered outside the shipyard with numerous signs, some bearing the “from the river to the sea” slogan, which calls for the destruction of Israel.
In that case, protestors also blocked roads and demanded that the U.S. stop sending any military aid to Israel.
A month later, that protest was followed by another, smaller protest outside the General Dynamics facility in Saco.
In November, seven protestors were arrested at the Bangor office of U.S. Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine), one of the only Maine Democrats who has been vocal in his support for Israel, after they trespassed and refused to leave his office while demanding that he support calls for a ceasefire in Gaza.
A separate incident in January saw protestors vandalizing Golden’s office with pro-Palestine graffiti.
Strangely, even U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), who has opposed foreign aid to Israel, was the target of pro-Palestine DSA protestors, who trespassed in her office and refused to leave until they were arrested.
The instances of anti-Semitic vandalism and protests driven by progressive opposition to Israel led to very little public outcry from Maine’s Democrat politicians, who voted against a resolution affirming Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas terrorists.
The same Democrats were vocal in their support for a similar resolution supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia.
The antipathy for Israel among large swaths of the Democrat base has been mirrored across the country, which has seen massive protests on college campuses, shutting down graduation ceremonies, and leading to vandalism and violence against Jewish institutions and students.
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