By Jim Geraghty
Wednesday, August 21, 2019
Making the click-through worthwhile: figuring out what
President Trump meant when he said Jews who vote for Democrats show “either a
total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty”; examining the data on how
American Jews actually feel about Israel; and why Democrats will always find a
way or a reason to avert their eyes from any overt anti-Semitism from Ilhan
Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and their allies.
‘Any Jewish People that Vote for a Democrat, I Think
it Shows Either a Total Lack of Knowledge or Great Disloyalty.’
President Trump, speaking in the Oval Office yesterday:
“Where has the Democratic party gone?
Where have they gone where they’re defending these two people over the
State of Israel? And I think any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat, I
think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.”
Disloyalty to whom?
Disloyalty to Israel? Is Trump suggesting that American
Jews owe a loyalty to Israel? In a year when American Jews have bristled at the
accusation of dual loyalties from the likes of Ilhan Omar, is President Trump
arguing that not only do American Jews have loyalty to two countries, but that
they ought to?
Disloyalty to him? Americans pledge allegiance to a flag
and the country for which it stands, not a particular leader or politician. If
“the choice is binary,” as so many insisted about 2016 and are sure to insist
again in 2020, then Trump’s statement that voting for a Democratic party that
defends Omar and Tlaib is disloyal amounts to a contention that being a “loyal”
Jew requires voting for him.
Disloyalty to themselves or their community, as
Republican Jewish Coalition executive director Matt Brooks argues? This is
probably the most justifiable interpretation of Trump’s remarks – that an
American Jew who ignores, defends, or averts his eyes from Omar and Rashida
Tlaib represents a person acquiescing to the demonization of his own community
and who is betraying himself, his own family, and his fellow members of the
faith or heritage community. (Pardon that clunky description of America’s Jews,
but there are Jews who aren’t religious and there are converts who are not
ethnically Jewish, so this feels like the most accurate wording to describe the
“Jewish community.”)
But the interpretation from Brooks comes uncomfortably
close to the accusation that Jewish Democrats who have not openly opposed Omar
and Tlaib are self-hating members of that community, or that those members of
the Jewish community are not really or authentically Jewish. In many
circumstances, conservatives loathe the notion that holding a particular
viewpoint means you’re not an “authentic” member of a demographic community.
It’s not difficult to understand why many American Jews
will bristle or react angrily to President Trump’s comment.
One of the messages that people are least receptive to
is, “I’m not a member of your group, but I know what is best for your group,
better than you do.” Lots of Americans don’t like it when foreign countries
tell us what our foreign policy ought to be, lots of Catholics don’t like it
when non-Catholics tell them what the faith’s doctrine ought to be, and
conservatives don’t like it when those they perceive as RINO pundits tell them
how they need to change. A chunk of our ongoing political debates are variations
of, “your life experience and group affiliations are different from mine, so
how can you possibly understand what the right choice for me is?”
How Do American Jews Actually Feel about Israel?
Beyond that, pro-Israel Republicans who wonder why they don’t
win more Jewish votes perpetually overestimate how much that the issue of
Israel drives voting decisions among American Jews.
A survey conducted last year by the American Jewish
Committee found significant gaps between the views and attitudes of American
Jews and Israelis:
While . . .”39% of the total Israeli sample say Israel
should be willing to dismantle all or some of the settlements in a peace deal .
. . the figures for the religious subgroups [in Israel] show deep differences:
59% of the secular (exactly matching the percentage of the whole American
sample), 39% of the not-that-religious traditional, 29% of the
religious-traditional, 14% of the religious Zionists, and 12% of the haredim
would dismantle settlements.”
Grossman concluded his analysis in somber terms after
noting that when “Asked to choose a familial metaphor to describe how close
they feel to each other, 31% of the Americans, and 22% of the Israelis went so
far as to respond: ‘not part of my family’ about the other. Only 28% of the
Israelis consider American Jews ‘siblings’ — and that was more than twice as
high as the 12% of American Jews who viewed their Israeli counterparts that
way. Pluralities of about 40% in both groups responded, ‘extended family.’”
Earlier this year, when the same organization asked
American Jews, “Do you agree or disagree with the following statement: “Caring
about Israel is a very important part of my being a Jew,” 38 percent said they
strongly agree, 24 percent said they somewhat agree, 20 percent said they
somewhat disagree, and 15 percent said they strongly disagree.
Asking the family metaphor question again, only 13
percent said “siblings,” 15 percent said “first cousins,” 43 percent said
“extended family,” and 28 percent answered, “not part of my family.” Only 38
percent said they strongly or somewhat approved of how Donald Trump was
handling U.S.-Israeli relations.
It is likely that part of this growing sense of
separation stems from Bibi Netanayhu being a right-of-center political leader
and most American Jews residing on the left side of the U.S. political
spectrum. Trump’s close relationship with Netanyahu, and vice versa, is not likely
to win over many American Jews. Jews who adored President Barack Obama probably
found Netanayhu’s vehement public opposition to the Iran deal an intransigent
obstacle to the administration’s effort for peace. From a 2015 poll:
“By a wide margin, American Jews support the recently
concluded agreement with Iran to restrict its nuclear program, and a clear
majority of Jews wants Congress to approve the deal. In fact, as compared with
Americans generally, Jews are more supportive of the ‘Iran deal,’ in large
part because Jews are more liberal and more Democratic in their identities. It
turns out that liberals (Jewish or not) support the deal far more than
conservatives (Jewish or not), just as most Democrats are in favor, while most
Republicans are opposed.”
There are some American Jews for whom a political
candidate’s policy towards Israel is the paramount issue of their vote, but for
many, particularly the more secular Jews, it’s one of many issues they
consider not that much of a factor at
all.
Those of us who are not Jewish could argue that American
Jews should prioritize this issue, but many Jews will respond, “why should I
trust your assessment of what issues should be most important for me? Who the
heck are you to tell me what issue I should care about the most?”
Republicans should not adopt pro-Israel stances because
they think they will win them votes from Jews in future elections. They should
adopt pro-Israel stances because they think they are the right policies — both
in terms of morally correct and best for U.S. national security interests.
There are other reasons why American Jews are unlikely to
warm up to President Trump. As I’ve
noted before, if President Trump is an anti-Semite, he’s the odd kind of
anti-Semite who is close to his Jewish son-in-law, whose daughter converted to
Judaism, and who moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. But for some reason, many
anti-Semites believe or believed Trump was on their side: David Duke and the Daily
Stormer endorsed him early in the 2016 cycle, his election was celebrated
with Richard Spencer with former MTV star Tila Tequila making Nazi salutes, and
of course the white nationalists marching through the University of Virginia
campus, chanting “Jews will not replace us.” (For what it’s worth, the Poway
Synagogue shooter and the Pittsburgh Synagogue shooter left manifestos
denouncing Trump as a sellout to the Jews. Perhaps some anti-Semites are
awakening to the idea that Trump isn’t really secretly one of them.
But that doesn’t change the fact that plenty of American
Jews believe Trump is secretly or not-so-secretly allied with groups that hate
Jews, and that’s not likely to change anytime soon.
It’s Always Easier to Avert Your Eyes from Idiotic,
Unhelpful Political Allies
If every last Democratic lawmaker and voter was forced to
confront the views, statements, and beliefs of Omar, Tlaib, and their allies,
the vast majority would probably recoil, or declare them beyond the pale. But
they’re rarely if ever exposed to that information, much less forced to grapple
with the ramifications of it.
A lot of Republicans and conservatives don’t like Iowa
congressman Steve King. But you haven’t seen a ton of commentary and discussion
among conservatives about King’s latest asinine outburst, “what if we went back
through all the family trees and just pulled those people out that were
products of rape and incest? Would there be any population of the world left if
we did that?” When King or any other lawmaker goes out and says something
embarrassing, the instinct of most folks on the Right is to publicly express
disapproval or opposition and then move on to other topics. House Republican
leaders have already stripped King of his committee assignments and condemned
him. An attempt to expel him from the House would call greater attention to his
remarks, preempt any verdict of his constituents who will have their say in the
2020 primary and general, and perhaps turn him into something of a martyr for
free speech. (Lots of members of Congress say lots of controversial and
offensive things all the time; why would these particular controversial and
offensive remarks warrant the career death penalty?)
A significant number of Democrats probably have heard
little or nothing about the remarks and allies of Tlaib and Omar. Only the
smallest fraction of Democrats knows about Miftah, the group that wanted to
sponsor their trip, and the organization’s overt and explicit anti-Semitism. To
the extent they choose to think about it, most Democrats probably smell the
same whiff of bull droppings from Omar’s shifting explanations about why she
wants to travel, and her odd refusal to visit her grandmother after Israel
agreed to permit it.
But they’re not interested in dwelling on the issue; that
would involve a difficult clash with political allies. Besides, the president
said something outrageous again, which only happens on days that ends in a “y,”
and sitting around on an MSNBC panel, listening to one talking head after
another say why this is the worst thing Trump has ever done, is much more
emotionally satisfying.
ADDENDA: In case you missed it yesterday, Joe
Biden’s new ad basically skips the Democratic primary; all the African-American
historical figures who get cropped out of the “reframing” from the New York
Times’s 1619 Project; and the bizarre, strangely fascinating Bernie Sanders
cameo in a 1999 independent romantic comedy you won’t want to miss.
No comments:
Post a Comment