History was made at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. For the first time, a woman, Hillary Clinton, won the presidential nomination of a major party in the U.S. Even those having a hard time coming around to the idea of Clinton as a nominee were moved by the thought of it. But at the same time, outside the convention, a crowd of protesters whose ideology resembles that of the Democratic Party (some would say Bernie Sanders supporters) burned a flag of the U.S. and an Israeli flag. And this, unfortunately, did not make history. The burning of flags has become a commonplace sight at protests. In America, it is common practice to let someone know if they accidentally dropped the flag on the floor (as witnessed by this writer in Cleveland). But then, there are those who would light it on fire. Morality is apparently relative. Overall, one could sense the difference insofar as what we can expect from U.S. foreign policy at both conventions. The Republicans went out of their way to show their support for Israel, including a reference by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in his speech on the final night of the convention to the cooperation we can expect to see between the U.S. and Israel under his presidency. Of course, they didn't forget to point out their desire to strengthen America. The Democrats, however, told a more universal story: The world is good; the bad guys are being been pushed into a corner. Incidentally, the Palestinian flag also made its way to Philadelphia. Outside the conference, protesters even sang, "Long live Palestine." The execution was perfect, much to our regret. It is not just Israelis who might feel uncomfortable at these events. French journalists also left the convention annoyed. A correspondent for French news channel LCI reported that to her surprise, there was no mention at the convention of the terrible murder of the French priest in Normandy two days ago. In France, they were sure that an attack by the Islamic State during the convention would be of obvious concern to Democrats, because Islamic State is not just France's problem, but America's problem as well. It is true that the Democratic convention had much more star power, and maybe that is the reason there was less focus on security issues in Philadelphia. In Cleveland, by contrast, there were fewer celebrities, but there was much more discussion of the issues pertaining to the everyday lives of American citizens. President Barack Obama was interviewed extensively on Wednesday. Of course, the U.S. is concerned over the DNC email leak scandal, which is thought to be the work of the Russians. Obama is furious over foreign interference in American elections (incidentally, Obama's outrage gives us every right to be annoyed next time someone interferes in our elections). Obama also noted that Trump "doesn't know much about foreign policy." Judging by the state of the world today, Obama needs to take a long hard look in the mirror.
