Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) showed up to address the annual AIPAC conference this week and he included a message that’s not going to sell particularly well with the newly energized, far left base of his party. He had a few choice words for those engaged in the boycott, divest and sanction (BDS) movement against Israel. One of the choicest of those words was… antisemitism. (Free Beacon)

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) slammed the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement during his remarks before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s annual policy conference on Monday night, calling it unquestionable anti-Semitism.

Better known as BDS, the movement seeks to delegitimize and economically isolate the Jewish state. The Anti-Defamation League has called the campaign “rampant with misinformation and distortion.”

“We must continue to stand firm against the profoundly biased campaign to delegitimize the State of Israel through [BDS],” Schumer said. “While Iran publicly executes its citizens, Turkey jails its journalists, scores of Arab nations punish homosexuality with imprisonment and torture, why does BDS single Israel out alone for condemnation?”

Here’s the video of the key portion of Schumer’s remarks. The money quote comes when he says, “When there is such a double standard, when the world treats everybody one way and the Jew or the Jewish state another way, there’s only one word for it: anti-Semitism!”

This is an area where Schumer has been at odds with many of his Democratic colleagues. That’s been particularly true of the junior Senator from his state (and potential 2020 POTUS candidate), Kirsten Gillibrand. They’ve been clashing over this subject for some time now, including as recently as last summer when Gillibrand initially co-sponsored but then later refused to support the Israel Anti-Boycott Act. In one of Washington’s classic cases of pandering, Gillibrand initially joined with Schumer for what looked like a slam dunk piece of legislation, but then clearly heard from the hard left portion of her base and backed off. She wanted to make sure that the language of the bill was changed to, “make clear that it does not penalize any efforts by individuals to boycott the Middle Eastern nation.”

Sort of a curious stand, wouldn’t you say? I mean, if Schumer wants a bill aimed specifically at discouraging anyone from boycotting Israel, how do they square Gillibrand putting in a rider basically saying, but if you want to boycott them, that’s fine?

I don’t often find grounds to agree with Chuck Schumer on much of anything, but on this score, we should at least give him credit for being consistent over the years and standing on his principles. He’s been a staunch supporter of Israel from his earliest days and hasn’t wavered, even as many in his party have taken to demonizing that nation and backing those in the United Nations who constantly seek to punish Israel. Well done, Chuck.