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Rep. Jerry Nadler campaigned in the New York Jewish community last night by saying that no one else has been able to keep progressives in Congress pro-Israel, but he has kept BDS from getting a foothold there.

Asked at the Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center last night why has campaigned on the issue of New York City keeping a Jew in Congress, Nadler spoke of rising antisemitism and then BDS.

We have to have more and more attention and frankly political power to fight this antisemitism. And to understand how to fight it and to have the people in Congress in particular who can talk to the left, which is the progressives, and keep them pro-Israel. A Jewish member of Congress who has the three positions that I have [including Judiciary chairmanship] and has the ability to work with the progressives has shown the ability and the willingness to use the resources to prevent BDS from getting a foothold on the left.

BDS is a nonviolent campaign led by Palestinians to boycott and divest from Israel over its human rights violations.

Nadler bragged of writing the House resolution calling BDS antisemitic in 2019. That bill had the backing of J Street, and Nadler bragged of his endorsement by the liberal Zionist group J Street and the rightwing Israel lobby group AIPAC.

The fact is Im endorsed by both AIPAC and J Street, Im the only candidate of whom thats true because of my success in deepening the Israel-American relationship and in getting progressives to stand with Israel, which no one else has been able to do. And I have been able to do that. And thats why you get votes like 421 to 7 on funding Iron Dome.

Nadler is battling another incumbent, Carolyn Maloney, in the newly-combined 12th district in Manhattan. Last night Maloney staked out positions to his right on Israel. She opposes the Iran deal and said nothing in support of the two-state solution, which Nadler said he supports.

The third candidate on the stage was Suraj Patel, an attorney and former Obama aide, who said there was no daylight between his positions on Israel and Nadlers. All three candidates praised Trumps deals to normalize relations between Israel and Arab monarchies. Nadler called them a fantastic advance probably the only thing I congratulate President Trump for.

All the candidates tried to outdo one another trashing BDS. Maloney called it dangerous and a threat, and said there was a fine line between it and antisemitism. Nadler said the public needs a large scale educational effort against BDS and said he had stopped it dead in Congress.

Ive been fighting BDS since 2001 when it first reared its ugly head after the Durban conference. Its not a question of freedom of speech, quite the contrary. BDS itself is a violation of freedom speech because it denies Israeli academics, Israeli performers the right to come here and speak. So BDS is anti free speechI have led the fight in Congress against it. The bill that passed against BDS Brad Schneider and I wrote that bill On the public we need a large scale educational effort about BDS and theres no way around it, but I have been able to stop it dead in Congress and make sure that it hasnt taken a foothold in the progressive caucus. I got the Ford Foundation to stop supporting BDS.

In fact, in polling released by Brookings last week, Democrats have shown marked support for BDS as a means to curb Israels human rights violations by 33 to 10 percent (with many still not familiar with it). So Nadler is fighting a tide.

Patel offered his own opposition to BDS as a Stanford undergraduate 18 years ago and said this is why he ran to maintain Israels support among young progressives.

This comes back to my initial argument here for all of you. I am incredibly concerned that the next generation of Democrats are veering away from the stalwart support of the Jewish state of Israel and its right to exist. We need messengers who can speak to that generation and insure it doesnt drift away for good. And Im the only one on this stage who can make that argument.

Moderator Jodi Rudoren said that both Nadler and Maloney are AIPAC stalwarts and challenged Nadler about that endorsement.

Nadler said it wasnt AIPACs fault that it has poured millions into Democratic primaries more than any other special interest.

The problem isnt AIPAC, the problem is Citizens United [decision by the Supreme Court], Nadler said. He has tried to pass legislation to outlaw this kind of soft money, but till such legislation passes, AIPAC and J Street and everybody else will have to use this kind of soft money.

Patel said there had been no flood of outside money into the 12th district from AIPAC, Democratic Majority for Israel or J Street because everyone on stage is a stalwart supporter of Israel.

Nadler said he has been pro-Israel since he was eight years old 67 years ago when he was collecting money for Israels (racist) Jewish National Fund.

Patel countered that only he can preserve youthful support for Israel against vocal Dems who dont like Israel.

This is one of the reasons Im running for this seat We need to insure that the U.S. Israel relationship does not become a one party issue. Now if you dont elect young Democrats Democrats in places like New York City who want to support the U.S. Israel relationship then the conversation is then monopolized by only one small group of very vocal Democrats who are much younger, then this will become a partisan issue and not a historical bipartisan issue, which is why Im in this race.

Thats the distinction between me and my opponents. Im offering for the next 10 years a representative that will be aligned on this issue and will be able to make a new generational case to Democrats to stay stalwart with our ally, our liberal democracy in the Middle East, the only one that supports LGBTQIA rights, and to secure its defense.

Maloney expressed regret for her support for the Iraq war, after Nadler faulted her for backing a war that killed hundreds of thousands. He said, she was gullible enough to believe the misrepresentations of the Bush administration.

Maloney made repeated hellos to an audience member: Janice Shorenstein, the head of Hadassah and a major donor to Democrats.

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Nadler says he 'stopped BDS dead' with progressives in Congress - Mondoweiss