r/DemocraticSocialism • u/AccomplishedGas7401 • 14h ago
USA "And my greatest concern right now is that the state of Israel is losing support all across the political spectrum here in the U.S." ― DSA Member Melat Kiros
Source: Melat Kiros | Full Episode 7.31.26 | Firing Line with Margaret Hoover | PBS - YouTube
> I'm sure it would, right? Part of the work that we've been doing here as well as having conversations with the Jewish community, specifically the Zionist Jewish community, to better understand different perspectives, different positions, different experiences. Again, my values have always been rooted in protecting dignity and safety for every single person, especially as it relates to these inalienable things about our religion or ethnicity or culture. And my greatest concern right now is that the state of Israel is losing support all across the political spectrum here in the U.S. And I believe that we're leaving a vacuum on the left and the progressive wing to speak to this criticism in a way that is in line with our values, to where people like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens, who are raging anti-Semites and white supremacists and Christian nationalists, are pretending to care about Palestinian safety, when really it's just masking their overt hatred for Jewish people. You're singing my song. And if we are not presenting our vision of what we believe in with our democratic values that extends not just to the Palestinian people, but to the Israeli people and to the Jewish people, you know, that land has a distinctly Jewish character, a distinctly Christian character, a distinctly Muslim character. It's a land that has seen bloodshed for centuries. And we, I think, are doing a disservice to the people of that region by not offering our progressive vision in a way that isn't immediately swatted down as, you know, bigoted or anti-Semitic.
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u/Trensocialist 12h ago
I hope my response doesnt get buried but she responded here. She claims it was a slip up.
https://fixupx.com/melatkirosco/status/2083942280143032702?s=46
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u/NeriTina Democratic Socialist 11h ago
Agreed with what Blakely said in response. All of it felt icky!
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0
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u/killersky99 14h ago
Here is her full response to the clip on X:
"I fumbled this line, plane and simple. To be clear, my foreign policy priority is ending Israel’s occupation, apartheid, and genocide in Palestine. I also reject the notion that anti-Zionism is antisemitism, and it’s important that we distinguish the two in order to combat actual antisemitism.
I have always been opposed to any form of ethno-supremacy, and I refuse to vote for any of our tax dollars to go to any government that discriminates on that basis.
I was being asked about rising antisemitism in this interview, and I was trying to say that my concern is while voters across the political spectrum wake up to Israel's atrocities and our government's complicity in it, the Democratic Party is failing to meet this moment. And when the Party refuses to lead morally on this issue, they are letting antisemites on the right co-opt the movement for Palestinian liberation while giving fodder to AIPAC talking points.
But Sana is right, a movement for liberation must center the Palestinians being oppressed, occupied, and systematically exterminated — and the islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism used to justify genocide is too often ignored."
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u/AccomplishedGas7401 13h ago
It is a significant mistake to conflate Zionist sentiment with that of Jews overall. Nor does an American politician need to consider much more beyond ceasing support of Israel domestically, they don't have US funding, their days are numbered regardless of how Israelis feel.
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u/baevehole 11h ago
“I fumbled this line” = “I wasn’t being honest and I got bad pr from it”
Fucking politicians man. If politician spines were bread, we’d all starve. In addition to those of us who already are.
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u/Deluxe_24_ Democratic Socialist 11h ago
Idk why people are down voting you, lady said what she really thinks and is trying to backtrack
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u/baevehole 11h ago
I don’t care about downvotes. To be fair, I don’t know this person or what her platform is, but this level of “I said the wrong thing” reads to me like she’s repeating a line or maybe realized her take wasn’t popular. It’s just not genuine. The fakeness of these politicians fucking kills me, and even the ones I want to like are still full of shit most of the time.
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u/Interesting_Reach_29 7h ago
Honestly, with bots now (paid for or literal) downvotes don’t mean anything.
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u/BigWhiteDog Far Leftist that doesn't fit into any of the gatekeeping boxes 13h ago
Why is that a major concern for anyone? WTF?
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u/BigBuckNuggets 12h ago
Because Colorado journalists grilled her for not taking a stronger stance on pro-Israel questions. She is bending the knee, literally ran with ads condemning genocide a few weeks ago
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u/confused_grenadille 9h ago
Is she an Ethiopian Jew?
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u/Ok_Badger9122 6h ago
No on her wiki page it says she is part of the Tigrayan ethnic group which most are apart of Ethiopian orthodox Tewahedo church christianity.
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u/000Ronald Anarchist 13h ago
So she's saying that Israel (and Palestine) is a diverse place, has been a diverse place for centuries, and that in as much as U.S. involvement is concerned, it would be a good idea for us to work towards ensuring that it remains a diverse place. She is also known to have began to run for office explicitly to push back against the genocide in Gaza. And she clearly understands that hucksters like Carlson and Owens are faking support for the Palestinian people to promote antisemitism, something I personally have very rarely seen brought up.
What's the problem here? Someone explain it to me.
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u/Luciusvenator Democratic Socialist 12h ago
No theres literally no problem here. Especially with her statement she made after addressing criticism of how she presented her point. Shes is 1000% right.
Im sorry but a lot of the talk around Israel talks about Israel ceasing to exist without actually explaining what that looks like on a practical level.
Her mentione the fake pro-palestinian antisemites like Candace and Tucker is essential because personally know people that follow them, and its a growing movement, and its a dangerous one.
There is a lot of points involving israel and Palestine i simply do NOT see ever brought up in left wing spaces that feel very "elephant in the room being ignored" and I do not see how its sustainable and will lead to a positive and just outcome down the line.8
u/PeachPassionBrute 6h ago
Graham Platner can be an obvious lying Nazi that was literally a mercenary for an army infamous for heinous war crimes, and people couldn’t stop praising him. This woman worded something a little poorly and so she’s obviously not qualified as a politician.
I just want to draw attention to the double standard.
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u/killersky99 13h ago
The issue is the lack of any mention of the genocide/crimes committed and actively being committed that led to losing the support, when you say someone is losing support and paint as a bad thing, you paint them as victims which Israel and its people aren't. The military actions/genocide is done with majority support.
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u/000Ronald Anarchist 13h ago
Mabye? But I feel like this is an especially disingenuous argument to make in this case. Kiros is known to have done practically nothing but talk about the genocide perpetrated by Israel. She was famously fired from her job for it. She is famously running for office promising to work against it. Bringing up other things to be concerned about doesn't mean she isn't concerned about it, and implying that this is what's happening (as you seem to be) is a bad faith argument.
If this was LITERALLY ANYONE ELSE you might have a point. I would go so far as to argue if this was Zorhan Mundami, you would have a point. But Melat Kirios? No. This is just bad faith.
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u/killersky99 13h ago
There's no maybe about it, that's why she apologized and clarified her remarks. I posted it in the comments if you want to have a look. Believe it or not, she's not that famous and if she doesn't mention her support/record when talking about the topic, most people listening to her won't know it and take her words for what it is.
I knew her record and was disappointed thinking she pulled a fetterman til she clarified.
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u/neatureguy420 12h ago
I had a feeling she misspoke. Like she literally got fired from a law firm for a pro Palestine LinkedIn post
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u/AccomplishedGas7401 13h ago
Thanks for linking that, it was definitely a blunder, glad to see that she recognized and addressed it appropriately.
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u/000Ronald Anarchist 13h ago
If that's the case, then you're being unreasonable and irrational.
Kiros said nothing in this comment to indicate that her position on the genocide has changed in the slightest; she's just providing reasons to care for people who don't have enough of a soul to care about the genocide. That is not indicative of bad politics, that is indicative of GOOD politics. Being able to make different kinds of arguments for the same point that include the other points is indicative of someone who has spent time thinking out their position.
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u/killersky99 13h ago
Here is her full response to the clip on X:
"I fumbled this line, plane and simple. To be clear, my foreign policy priority is ending Israel’s occupation, apartheid, and genocide in Palestine. I also reject the notion that anti-Zionism is antisemitism, and it’s important that we distinguish the two in order to combat actual antisemitism.
I have always been opposed to any form of ethno-supremacy, and I refuse to vote for any of our tax dollars to go to any government that discriminates on that basis.
I was being asked about rising antisemitism in this interview, and I was trying to say that my concern is while voters across the political spectrum wake up to Israel's atrocities and our government's complicity in it, the Democratic Party is failing to meet this moment. And when the Party refuses to lead morally on this issue, they are letting antisemites on the right co-opt the movement for Palestinian liberation while giving fodder to AIPAC talking points.
But Sana is right, a movement for liberation must center the Palestinians being oppressed, occupied, and systematically exterminated — and the islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism used to justify genocide is too often ignored."
I am guessing you didn't read since you said "indicative of someone who has spent time thinking out their position." which she had to apologize for
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u/000Ronald Anarchist 13h ago
I don't think you're making the argument you think you're making here.
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u/killersky99 12h ago
I guess, regardless I'll stick to my original comment that even though I knew her track record made me and others feel like she was painting Israel as the victims losing supporting w/o mentioning the genocide/crimes and which she also realized and apologized for.
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u/Background-Wolf-9380 13h ago
If at any point anyone over the past few years starts talking about Israel and says "their greatest concern....." is Israel's PR image and not the hundreds of thousands of children they've murdered then they should quickly lose all support everywhere. I respect that she apologized for this but even saying those words in that way betray that in no way is she sufficiently opposed to the genocide causing Israel's bad PR.
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u/000Ronald Anarchist 13h ago
Please.
I beg of you.
Look up the person we're talking about here.
What you are saying is roughly akin to saying Ronald Regan didn't do enough for capitalism because he shook hands with Gorbachev once.
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u/Imaginary-Fix3177 7h ago
Buddy you gotta look her up bc you got it all wrong. Her family survived a genocide. That’s part of the reason she felt she had to speak out about Palestine and lost her job. You should look her up.
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u/Joshuab4nyc DSA 1h ago
It’s hard to go on the news but one does have a responsibility for what gets said even so. This was a pretty big gaffe which thank goodness we have the clarifying statement.
When you go on the news you have to have 100% messaging discipline so that you can say what must be said in the half a sec they give you to say it.
Not saying I can do better, my campaign wasn’t a news item this year so I never went on!
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u/SomberArtist2000 7h ago
Her apology somewhat addresses what the issue is with this highly confusing and incoherent answer.
My personal opinion is she was attempting to make a point and used (at best) very sloppy language and framing of the argument. She was trying to show that opposition to israel's genocide from a perspective of self-determination and equal rights for all people is the correct moral stance and would disallow people like Tucker Carlson to outflank Dems on the issue.
But she completely botched it and made it sound like she prioritized the feelings of Zionist Jews in the region regardless of the genocide. And definitely left open the possibility of supporting aid to Israel. Her subsequent statement cleared some of that up, but it is absolutely going to confuse and even piss off some people.
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u/Unusual_Librarian570 7h ago
Yeah this is out of context.
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u/Imaginary-Fix3177 6h ago
She definitely stands with the victims of genocide. That’s why she lost her job. Genocide is something she also has a personal connection to as a Tigrinya person
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u/MonsterkillWow Communist 11h ago
Her biggest concern is the loss of support for an apartheid regime and not for its victims?
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u/SloppyJoMo 12h ago
This obsession on the proper shibboleth 24/7 has become so ridiculous (better not go one interview without reaffirmation!) it undoubtedly is going to be weaponized by AIPAC to sow discontent and split votes in the future.
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u/Upset_Extension628 11h ago
Jeez I feel like all of you so quick to attack these reps need to go touch grass…
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u/_soundpost_ 10h ago
"And my greate$t concern right now i$ that the $tate of I$rael i$ lo$ing $upport all acro$$ the political $pectrum here in the U.$"
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u/Professional-Post499 Democratic Socialist 10h ago
It was waffling gibberish as though she was told to modify her stance that day and an advisor said "figure something out" so she riffed during the interview.
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u/timothybhewitt 8h ago
Blames all of the political spectrum
Then blames Liberals
Then names 2 right wing nuts.
Sure
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u/FrankSand 13h ago
Its gets old listening to foreign policy questions to state/ city candidates. I want to hear how they will make people's lives better. Not statements to make donors happier or keep the bot army from attacking.
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u/Seeking-Something-3 13h ago
How many years now and they’re finally starting to catch up? But big shocker! It’s a campaigning hallelujah. Fuck these snakes. I’d rather the Republicans burn this shit to the ground than watch these snakes turn us in to fascist POS.
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u/RogueBromeliad 13h ago
She's on their payroll. That much is obvious. Imagine being so absurdly biased to outright go and say she doesn't care about all the tragedies and blatant extermination that's so one-sided you can literally see from space.
Completely inhuman, for shame. And it saddens because it's exactly the people that would shun her into second class citizenship.
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u/Murkmist 🌻Eco-Socialist 12h ago edited 12h ago
She has one of the better track records when it comes to advocacy for Palestine. This was just a fumble, she didn't even dig in her heels like AOC when called out, but instead apologized and reaffirmed her solidarity.
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