The Democratic Party should be ashamed of itself. Today its members proved themselves to be nothing but partisan hacks who care more about party politics than doing the right thing. While President Obama’s speech regarding Middle East generated much criticism from Republicans, on the Democratic side, even amongst supporters of the Jewish State, there was either positive spin or total silence.

As you know by now the President today gave an address to the nation that for all intents and purposes threw one of our closest allies, Israel, under the proverbial bus. His public call for Israel to retreat to the 1949 armistice lines, broke existing agreements that the United States had made with Israel, probably hurt the quest for an Israeli/Palestinian deal and quite possibly moved the region closer to a new Middle East war.

That 1949 armistice line was created solely because that’s Israeli and Arab forces stopped fighting at the end of the War of Independence (with some added adjustments in certain sectors). It was if the whistle blew and everyone dropped their gear. The line people call 1967 border, is really only a military line. It was never intended for the Armistice lines to mark final borders, and there is plenty of documentation to that fact.

There is not much doubt that at the end of a deal, the two parties will exist with borders somewhere near that armistice border. In fact Israel has offered specific maps of final borders along the lines of what the President said publicly today, once under the Premierships of Ehud Barak the other under Ehud Olmert (in both of those cases the Palestinian leadership rejected the offer).

The difference is that in both of those cases, The return to those”1967 borders” was the end point of negotiations, yesterday Obama severely damaged Israel’s negotiating position by making it the staring point.

Obama took it upon himself to made a unilateral concession on behalf of Israel. There was no negotiation; he gave away a bargaining chip that was not his to give. Should Israel give in Obama it will actually make negotiations more difficult because Israel will have to fight harder on other issues, some of which might otherwise had been easy concessions. If Israel fights Obama on the issue, things might get a bit dicier in the region. Israel’s neighbors might see it as giving attacks on the Jewish State legitimacy.

At this point it looks as if Israel is choosing to take a stand. The Prime Minister all but threw a gauntlet down (diplomatically of course).

“Israel appreciates President Obama’s commitment to peace,” the response began, curtly. “Israel believes that for peace to endure between Israelis and Palestinians, the viability of a Palestinian state cannot come at the expense of the viability of the one and only Jewish state.”

“That is why Prime Minister Netanyahu expects to hear a reaffirmation from President Obama of U.S. commitments made to Israel in 2004, which were overwhelmingly supported by both Houses of Congress.”

“Among other things,” Netanyahu reminded Obama, “those commitments relate to Israel not having to withdraw to the 1967 lines which are both indefensible and which would leave major Israeli population centers in Judea and Samaria beyond those lines.”

Republicans were quick to point out that Obama’s call for a retreat to the 1949 Armistice lines was dangerous to the Jewish State.

Let see what what was said on the Democratic Party side:

The National Democratic Jewish Coalition showed the country why their party is place in front of their religion in their name as they had the audacity to praise the speech saying that the President “demonstrated his unwavering support of Israel”

Also weighing in on the President’s speech was full-time progressive activist, and part time director of the ADL, Abe Foxman who like Chuck Shumer ignored the most distasteful part of the speech.

We support the President’s vision of a negotiated Israeli-Palestinian settlement with strong security provisions for Israel, and a non-militarized Palestinian state. We appreciate his direct rejection of a unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state and his understanding that the Hamas-Fatah agreement poses major problems for Israel.

This should serve as a red flag to anyone who supports the state of Israel. Remember what happened today when the Jewish State most needed the support of our public figures. The Republican party was quick to point out how Obama’s speech put Israel in dangers. The Democrats abandoned the Jewish State to the whims of a President who publicly threw Israel under the bus.

As Edmond Burke said almost three-hundred years ago “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” In a time of great need for Israel, the Democratic Party did nothing. For that they should be ashamed of themselves.

Supporters of Israel should remember that when they enter the voting booth in 2012.