A Fort Lauderdale rally headlined by anti-Israel eliminationist Rep. Rashida Tlaib on Friday became a showcase for the antizionist politics powering the Democratic left, with candidates treating anti-Israel demonization as a platform plank alongside Medicare for All, a $25 federal minimum wage, canceling student debt, and abolishing ICE.
The venue that hosted the anti-Israel speakers, Sidewalk Bottle Shop, is a Fort Lauderdale wine bar and event space. Sidewalk’s website identifies David Lopez and Walter Navarro as natural-wine sommeliers behind the operation. News coverage has identified Lopez and Navarro as Sidewalk’s co-owners, while earlier coverage identified Lopez and Nicolas Riveira as co-owners.
The Democratic Socialists of America-sponsored “Chomp the Oligarchy” rally featured Tlaib, the Michigan Democrat censured by the House in 2023 over her antisemitic rhetoric; Florida state Rep. Angie Nixon, an anti-Israel state representative from Jacksonville and U.S. Senate candidate; Oliver Larkin, a Democratic Socialist and anti-Israel activist challenging Rep. Jared Moskowitz; and antizionist Elijah Manley, a Democratic Socialist challenging Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Moskowitz and Wasserman Schultz are Jewish Democrats who support Israel.
Two Fort Lauderdale venues had previously canceled their bookings for the rally after Jewish community members flagged the antizionist bigotry and antisemitic rhetoric of scheduled speakers.
Some of the most extreme rhetoric of the night came from Nixon, who falsely linked Americans’ struggles with health care, student debt, and economic inequality to U.S. support for Israel, the world’s only Jewish state and home to about half of the world’s approximately 15 million Jews.
Nixon did not say “Israel” in the key section of her speech, nor did she need to. She described Washington sending money to “a country that has universal health care,” “a country that has free college,” and “a country that is okay with dropping bombs on babies” and “wiping out entire bloodlines”—rhetoric that sent the antizionist crowd into a frenzy.
State representative Angie Nixon speaks while Rep. Rashida Tlaib, left, looks on./X