Jewish Americans
It’s a difficult time for the Democratic Party. Let’s be brutally honest about a few things. While the recently deceased Sheldon Adelson was a highly public Jewish man who supported conservatives, including Donald Trump; traditionally American Jews (6.1 million) are a strong “pillar” of the Democratic Party. Not only are 70% of Jewish voters Democrats, but they are also on the “liberal” side of the Party (Pew). (A surprise to my conservative friends – not all Democrats are “liberal” or even “progressive”. There’s a wide range of views, from Henry Cuellar and Joe Manchin to Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders). But, liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican, most American Jews are strong supporters of Israel.
That’s been a problem recently, too. The ruling Likud political Party of Israel is far-right, more like the MAGA Republicans here in the United States. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies are similar to those of the previous President, Donald Trump, not Joe Biden. That’s part of the reason that Trump and Netanyahu got along so well. (Though it didn’t hurt that Netanyahu is the godfather of Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and that Adelson was a strong financial supporter of both Trump and Netanyahu). So, many American Jews were conflicted; support Israel, but condemn Likud and particularly the anti-democratic laws recently passed by the Israeli parliament, the Knesset.
Protest and Outrage
In fact, most American Jews were heartened by the protests against the government in Israel last summer. In a country of only ten million, hundreds of thousands were in the streets demanding that the Netanyahu government withdraw their anti-democratic agenda. Those protests forced the government to delay some of their more egregious changes. Israel, much like the United States, is narrowly divided. While Likud has controlled for almost twenty years, their margin of electoral victory is always very small. In fact, Netanyahu and Likud’s last victory might foreshadow a Trump win in 2024. The Prime Minister faced criminal charges; his easiest way to avoid trial was to win office.
But October 7th changed everything. Most Americans, Jewish or not, united in horror at the atrocities Hamas committed that day in Israel. It wasn’t hard; it could have been our own children at the concert in the desert; our own parents and grandparents dragged into the street and shot at the kibbutz. Many were dismayed at the level of unpreparedness by the much heralded Israeli Defense Forces. The blame for that is clear – Netanyahu’s government. The internal political crisis he created distracted from the ongoing terrorist threat to the South: Hamas.
Getting Hamas
Regardless who was to blame for Israel’s failure to protect its people, the response was clear and inevitable. Israel went to war against Hamas in Gaza, vowing to destroy the infrastructure of the terror group literally embedded into and below the tightly packed cities of the region. Hamas was hiding behind the Palestinian people: to kill them, Palestinians were going to first move or die.
From the first day, the Biden Administration pledged full support to the Israeli government. Two US Navy Carrier Groups were sent to the Middle East to “get Israel’s back” against Iran and Syria, and the US and Israeli’s increased their already high level of shared intelligence. The United States pledged to replenish Israeli munitions, particularly for the anti-missile systems, and provide financial support as well. Biden literally went to the Middle East and hugged Benjamin Netanyahu in sympathy.
Unacceptable Losses
But the ongoing military operations in Gaza are eroding Israeli support in the US. Waging war against Hamas is one thing, the so-called “collateral damage” to the Palestinian people is quite another. Even American Jews are torn between support and retribution for October 7th, and the thousands of dead Palestinians in Gaza. (Regardless that casualty figures in Gaza are entirely controlled by Hamas, clearly the damage is horrific).
Israeli government officials try to place the blame on Hamas for hiding behind the civilians, but it doesn’t change that those civilians are still dying. The most recent attacks on hospitals, militarily justified or not, has made the situation much worse. The pictures inarguably are a Hamas’ propaganda victory, but more importantly, morally unacceptable to the world. It’s hard to justify waging war, even unintentionally, on premature babies.
Collateral Damage
Meanwhile another “Pillar” of the Democratic Party is outraged. In 2020, 64% of Arab-Americans (that includes Palestinians) voted for Joe Biden (AP). While there are three million Arab-American citizens, they had an outsized influence in the Presidential election, particularly in Michigan. And many were Democrats, in part because Trump ran on the “Muslim Travel Ban” which he enforced after he won office in 2016.
It’s hard to imagine that those citizens will change and vote for Trump. And it’s just as hard to think that they’ll return to Biden, after the damage done by Israel in Gaza. So Democrats are in a political, and a moral bind. Politically, how can they “mend fences” with Arab-Americans? Morally, a what point does the United States demand that Israel end the Gaza campaign? And finally, what is Israel supposed to do, with Hamas terrorists on their border, and the anti-democratic government still in charge in Jerusalem? Answering those questions will be the biggest foreign policy issue for the Biden Administration in the next year.
That might determine whether Trump will follow the Netanyahu example, and gain the Presidency to hide from justice. For the United States, that could be the ultimate collateral damage.
