DNC Platform Footage In Israel Group's TV Ad
In Miami on Sunday, NFL fans saw a brief flashback to the floor of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte nearly two weeks ago.
During the Miami Dolphins' tilt against the Oakland Raiders, the right-leaning Emergency Committee for Israel (ECI) aired a new TV ad featuring footage of the Democratic National Committee's platform vote on an amendment defining Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The ad aired on Miami's CBS affiliate, which carried the game:
The vote caused some embarrassment for Democrats, during what was otherwise a three-day infomercial for the party and President Obama.
After Democrats had stripped their platform of a reference to Jerusalem, in keeping with the administration's view that Jerusalem's future status "should be determined in final status negotiations," as White House Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest put it in a July briefing, the language was added back in-at Obama's behest, according to a party spokesperson-amid criticism from Republicans.
The convention's flummoxed chair, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, called for three consecutive votes on new language and finally declared a requisite two-thirds majority approval for reinstating the Jerusalem language, despite the shouts of "no" clearly exceeding one third of those present.
ECI, the board of which features William Kristol and former Family Research Council president and U.S. presidential candidate Gary Bauer, has criticized Obama's handling of Israel diplomacy since it was founded in July 2010.
ECI has also run the ad during broadcasts of Miami Marlins baseball games. The group is considering other times and places to air it, Executive Director Noah Pollak said.