Howard Dean Says ‘Israel Embraces Ethnic Cleansing’ for Supporting Removal of Israeli Citizenship From Arabs

Former Democratic National Committee head and presidential candidate Howard Dean tweeted on Feb. 4 that Israel is embracing “ethnic cleansing” regarding its reported support for removing Israeli citizenship from Arabs.

Dean was reacting to a Haaretz report from earlier in the day saying that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had floated the idea to White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of President Donald Trump, in 2017. The Haaretz report states that Trump’s peace plan opens the door to the idea with the provision stating that “subject to agreement of the parties … the borders of Israel will be redrawn such that the Triangle Communities become part of the State of Palestine. In this agreement, the civil rights of the residents of the triangle communities would be subject to the applicable laws and judicial rulings of the relevant authorities.”

The Triangle Communities reference the Arab-majority areas of Israel.

Dean’s full tweet read, “In other words, Israel embraces ethnic cleansing. This is a complete betrayal of Tikkun Olam and a betrayal of what it means to be a Jew.”

https://twitter.com/GovHowardDean/status/1224665332578705408

Jewish groups criticized Dean’s tweet.

“I think the Jews around the world — including this one — are getting kind of tired of people telling us what is anti-Semitism, what is Judaism, etc.,” Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action Agenda at the Simon Wiesenthal Center Rabbi Abraham Cooper told the Journal in a phone interview. “… with the greatest of respect, in addition to tikkun olam — which is, of course, a core Jewish value but not per se a mitzvah — we’ve got 613 of them, including many, many core commandments that have to do with our love for the homeland.”

He added: “So I think we should try to get past that kind of moralizing. It leaves a bad taste in the mouths of people who understand that there are two people, two narratives, etc. We don’t need the lectures and we don’t need the talking points that are poisonous, and [Dean] just repeated one of them.”

The Progressive Zionists of California similarly said in a statement to the Journal, “Howard Dean unfortunately has made another clumsy commentary that wades into anti-Semitism. He should certainly call out Trump’s moral failings in proposing this plan, but should not goysplain what it means to be Jewish, especially in relation to the world’s only Jewish state.”

Dean, who is also the former governor of Vermont, ran in the 2004 Democratic presidential primary. His platform on the Israel-Palestinian conflict at the time included support for a two-state solution with “with an independent, demilitarized Palestinian state.” In 2003, he told The Washington Post that he believed in “an evenhanded approach in the conflict.”

Dean’s wife, Dr. Judith Steinberg Dean, is Jewish.