By Adam Pagnucco.
After ten days, CASA has issued a statement regretting its November 6 tweets about Israel. What happens now?
Let’s recap. Council Member Andrew Friedson was the first person out of the box who condemned CASA’s tweets, which the group took down but not before they were published on Montgomery Perspective. The tweets and accompanying statement quickly drew public protests from Council Members Gabe Albornoz and Natali Fani-Gonzalez, Council Member Dawn Luedtke, all nine MoCo state senators and a group of Jewish state legislators. Additionally, one of CASA’s largest private supporters cut off its funding. All of this played out across local media outlets, including a Friday night report on NBC4.
During that time, CASA engaged in one of the most disastrous attempts at crisis management that anyone here can recall in recent county history. (And we have just been through MCPS’s response to the Beidleman scandal!) After an initial wave of phone calls, CASA began distributing a new draft statement for reaction. Those who saw the draft statement described it not as an apology but rather a restatement of CASA’s earlier tweets with added nuance. There was substantial private criticism of it – some polite and some not so polite. That caused additional time to be spent on reworking it. One elected official commented, “The fact that it took ten days to issue a new statement speaks volumes about what they actually learned.”
Additional irritants were the appearance of a website defending CASA and demanding a retraction of the MoCo senators’ statement, the publication of a Maryland Matters letter to the editor stating the same and a fierce public defense of CASA by the ACLU of Maryland. Fairly or not, all of these events were seen by many elected officials as orchestrated by CASA. The perception of simultaneous “good cop” tactics – making conciliatory calls, circulating drafts and expressing remorse in local media – and “bad cop” tactics of covert pushback made everything worse. Some elected officials will never trust CASA again.
The outcome of ten days of protest, counter-protest and internal deliberations was this statement by CASA on November 16. Council Member Natali Fani-Gonzalez, who had earlier spoken out against CASA’s tweets, had this reaction on Twitter: “I have so much love and respect for CASA. Thank you for this statement. I look forward to continue working with them towards social and economic justice for all.”
Senator Cheryl Kagan, who signed the statement by MoCo’s state senators, told me, “It shouldn’t have taken 10 days to say ‘I’m sorry.’”
Now here are a few off-the-record opinions from elected officials.
“I think it’s a really good statement. We really need to work with them. The problem of deeply rooted antisemitism in the progressive movement is so big.”
“This new statement is an improvement. It acknowledges the nuances and complexities of the situation. Now everyone will be watching to make sure their actions meet their words.”
“I’m glad they issued the overdue statement. Hopefully this leads to a more mission driven CASA.”
“I think it fails to meet the moment personally.”
“This statement does not fully retract disquieting assertions made in the earlier statement. The current statement does not repudiate the notion of the applicability of ‘decolonization’ to Palestine (as a whole; neither statement differentiates pre-1967 Israel from Gaza and the West Bank) nor recognize and accept, contrary to the implication of the earlier statement, that Jews see themselves as indigenous to what is now Israel.”
“How convenient that they finally issued their statement two days after one of their largest funders withdrew all their financial support.”
“[CASA founder] Gustavo [Torres] is – finally, after 10 days of radio silence – saying the right things. But it’s unclear if he really means it. The hurt he and CASA caused is deep. Legislators in Rockville and Annapolis will certainly still be taking a look at reallocating funding. And they will definitely take CASA up on their offer of a full and complete audit. Ultimately, I believe the damage is done and irreparable.”
And so it has been an amazing period in MoCo and state politics. On November 5, CASA was virtually untouchable. While some elected officials privately grumbled about its advocacy group endorsements and lobbying tactics, the organization had enjoyed huge growth in its finances, was awash in both government and private funding and was emerging as a rising national player in progressive politics. And then CASA ventured into the dangerous world of opining on Israel’s war with Hamas, a subject that was a looooong way away from its traditional mission of providing services to immigrants. Its reputation is now damaged and its ability to obtain funding from both government and the private sector is in question.
All of this was a needless self-inflicted wound, an Icarus story for the ages. We shall see what happens in the months ahead.