The Democrats and Their Allies Chime In

Sure, President Biden said that Israel has the right to defend itself.  But if that is the best he can do, it is weak and disappointing.  It is merely stating the obvious - what country does not have the right to defend itself?  I would have liked to have heard harsh condemnations of Hamas.  I would have liked to have heard the threat of withholding aid from the Palestinians.

Here is Democrat Palestinian Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib:  "American taxpayer money is being used to commit human rights violations.  Congress must condition the aid we send to Israel, and end it altogether if those conditions are not followed."  Hamas sends thousands of rockets into Israeli cities.  They have even caused the deaths of Arab Israeli citizens.  But that is of no consequence to Tlaib.  Israel does its best to avoid human casualties.  But Hamas places its rockets in populated areas.  All wars have human casualties.  As a Jew, I do not celebrate the deaths of innocents - be they Palestinians or others.  I wish I could say the same for others.  

Here is Democrat Congresswoman Cori Bush:  "The fight for Black Lives and the fight for Palestinian liberation are interconnected.  We oppose our money going to fund militarized policing, occupation, and systems of violent oppression and trauma."  My guess is that she sees Israelis as white oppressors of brown Palestinians.  But we Jews are a people.  We are white, black, brown and even Asian.  

Here's one branch of Black Lives Matter:  "Black Lives Matter Paterson (NJ) condemns the ongoing violence against Palestinians in East Jerusalem by the state of Israel and stands in solidarity with those fighting occupation."  I doubt that BLM has any clue as to the history of the Middle East.  It is clear, however, that their condemnation of "violence" does not apply to the terrorist group Hamas.  One really needs to take a step back in order to realize that US Members of Congress support a terror group against our ally Israel.  

Here is Democrat Jewish Senator Bernie Sanders:  "The devastation in Gaza is unconscionable.  We must urge an immediate ceasefire."  And:  "My solution is to say to Israel:  'You get $3.8 billion every year.  If you want military aid, you're going to have to fundamentally change your relationship to the people of Gaza."  And this gem:  "We must change course and adopt an evenhanded approach."  The people of Gaza voted in Hamas, a terrorist organization, as their government.  So Israel must change, but Hamas can continue to be a terrorist organization?  An evenhanded approach?  The fact that a US Senator can make such a preposterous comment is well beyond disturbing.  I can only imagine Sanders during WWII:  "I know that Germany is attacking our allies England and France, and has taken over parts of France, but the US should take an evenhanded approach to this war."  

Here is one CNN host to former Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennett:  "How can any strikes on Gaza, which is such a densely populated area, be targeted at military sites only?"  The question, of course, answers itself.  But Bennett had to explain it to this CNN host:  "Perhaps you suggest we just lay back, let them shoot rockets at us, not shoot back, because they are hiding the rockets behind women and children.  Would you do that?"  

Here is Democrat Congresswoman Ilhan Omar:  "Israeli air strikes killing civilians in Gaza is an act of terrorism.  Palestinians deserve protection.  Unlike Israel, missile defense programs, such as Iron Dome, don't exist to protect Palestinian civilians.  It's unconscionable to not condemn these attacks on the week of Eid."  What's unconscionable is the fact that Omar and others like her actually serve in the US Congress.  Omar is upset that the attacks are occurring during the week of Eid, but instead of blaming Hamas for launching rockets during that week, she blames Israel for fighting back and defending itself.  And, of course, the implication is that it is unfair for Israel to have the Iron Dome missile defense system when the Palestinians do not.

Comedian Trevor Noah has a similar idea of fairness.  "If you were in a fight where the other person cannot beat you, how hard should you retaliate when they try to hurt you?"  Noah is expressing one of the left's favored talking points - the issue of "proportionality."  Is Israel's response proportionate to the attack on Israel.  Without the Iron Dome system, the 3000+ rockets launched by Hamas into Israel would likely have killed hundreds, if not thousands, of Israelis.  But it's always a numbers game for the left - enough Jews are not dying compared to the number of Palestinians dying.  Here is how you can have zero Palestinians dying - stop launching rockets into Israel.  Problem solved.  I wonder how people like Noah and Sanders would feel if a violent extremist group moved in next door to them and started firing bullets indiscriminately into their houses.  Would they call the police?  If so, would they ask the police not to use disproportionate force to stop the shooting, or would they insist on the police putting an immediate end to the threat by all means necessary?  Is Noah is fine with millions of Israelis having to live in bomb shelters and not being able to go about their normal lives?  

Here is Kamala Harris' niece, Meena Harris:  "One cannot advocate for racial equality, LGBT and women's rights, condemn corrupt and abusive regimes and other injustices yet choose to ignore the Palestinian oppression.  It does not add up.  You cannot pick and choose whose human rights matter more."  Really?  She clearly does.  Where does she think that the LGBT community has greater protection - Israel or Gaza?  There are gay pride parades in Israel.  Try being openly gay in Gaza.  And women?  It should be easy enough for Harris to research the multiple ways women are discriminated against in Gaza.  But that would not comport with her, and the left's, talking points.  Better to ignore the truth. 

In a March, 2021 Gallup poll, the results clearly show the differences between the two parties and their views on the Middle East.  An overwhelming 80% of Republicans say their sympathies lie more with Israel, with only 10% saying with the Palestinians.  For Democrats, less than a majority (43%) say their sympathies lie more with Israel, as compared to 38% who sympathize more with the Palestinians.  

There are other Democrats in Congress who have spoken out against Israel.. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has.  Jamaal Bowman has.  Others have more gently expressed their "concern" about Israel's actions.  Meanwhile, within Israel itself, there have been attacks by Arabs on Jews and Jewish property in certain cities, with the most reported being in the city of Lod.  It is bad enough for Israel to have to fight an external enemy, but for Israeli Arabs to attack fellow Israelis who are Jews?  Those Arab citizens who are attacking Jews in Israel are doing so in order to demonstrate their support for an enemy of the state.  I would give them a choice - move to Gaza or we will deport you to Gaza.

My support for Israel is not contingent on which party is running the government, or who sits in the Prime Minister's office.  I know that left-wing American Jews  view Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as simply being another Republican.  Well, guess what?  When Israel comes under attack like this, the people of Israel stand united, left and right.  American Jews should do the same.  Am Yisrael Chai!  The people of Israel live!  The Jewish nation lives!     

The Coronavirus 61 Weeks Later - Israel at War - Again

The lead headline in the May 11, 2021 New York Times was this:  "VIOLENCE ERUPTS BETWEEN ISRAELIS AND PALESTINIANS."  Coincidentally, I ran into Violence the other day at the local coffee shop.  Working up my courage, I went up to him and asked:  "Violence, how come you erupted again?"  He asked if I was from the press; I said that I was not but that I do write a blog.  He agreed to talk to me as long as I did not convey his comments to the press.  Violence:  "Look, I really did not want to erupt again.  But, and this is off the record, I was getting a lot of pressure from the Palestinians."  I asked what pressure.  Violence:  "C'mon, man.  You must know that under Trump, the Palestinians were ignored.  This was a way to reassert themselves back into the international dialogue."  How so, I asked?

Violence:  "Remember when Trump said he was going to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Israel's capital city of Jerusalem?  Many people predicted that I would erupt then.  They were nuts.  You think I was going to erupt with a guy like Trump in the White House?"  Me:  "What changed?"  Violence:  "Trump lost.  Biden returned to Obama's policy of appeasing bad guys.  Biden reestablished relations with the Palestinians, and he reinstated aid to them.  And the Palestinians did not have to promise anything - not to stop killing Jews, and no need to recognize Israel as a Jewish state."  Me:  "And so?"  Violence:  "C'mon, man!  Trump helped establish normalized relations between Israel and 4 Arab states.  Unheard of.  Arab leaders were openly stating their frustration with the Palestinians refusal to make peace."

Me:  "I see.  So what is the goal of the Palestinians?"  Violence:  "It's already a done deal.  The Palestinians are now the front and center story in the Middle East.  They're relevant again.  And those 4 Arab countries that normalized relations with Israel?  They now had to openly condemn Israel.  Those 'Abraham Accords' are at risk of being pulled apart."  Me:  "What about the claim that this is about the houses in Sheikh Jarrah, and the clashes at the Al Aqsa Mosque?"  Violence:  "Seriously, man?  We both know that was all a pretext for my erupting now."  Me:  "Why won't you discuss this on the record?"  Violence:  "Listen, man.  The media, the UN, the Europeans, the Arabs, and even Democrats in your country are already blaming the Jews.  Sorry to tell you, but that will always be the easiest narrative.  I gotta run."  Me:  "One more thing.  What would happen if you told the truth?"  Violence:  "I'm Violence, man.  I always have to be seen as siding with the perceived underdog.  Besides, there is no upside to me going against the tide and siding with the Jews.  Later, dude."   

That was quite an illuminating conversation that I had with Violence.  But what about the Arabs being evicted from their homes in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah?  Turns out that  Jews owned those properties since 1875.  But during Israel's war of independence beginning in 1948, Jordan succeeded in capturing the half of Jerusalem later known as East Jerusalem.  The Jews were evicted from their homes, because Jews were not permitted to remain in the territory captured by Jordan; ethnic cleansing of Jews always being permissible.  Jordan then transferred title to some of those properties to Arabs,  Others remained under Jewish ownership.  Then Israel retook the area in the 1967 Six Day War.  As to those properties that remained under Jewish ownership, litigation has been ongoing in Israeli courts for years.  Some of the Arabs living in those homes have been treated as tenants.  The courts were reluctant to evict them as long as they paid rent.  But they refuse to pay rent.  And some are mere squatters, with no rights at all.  In the areas of the West Bank controlled by the Palestinian Authority, it is illegal for Arab owners to sell their property to Jews.  The punishment for doing can be extreme.  Just don't expect any condemnation of that policy from the mainstream media, the left, the UN or the Europeans.

But what about the clashes between Israeli police and Arabs at the Al Aqsa Mosque.  The Mosque sits on the site of what the Arabs refer to as the Noble Sanctuary, often described as the third holiest place in Islam.  For Jews, it is The Temple Mount, the site of  Abraham's binding of Issac, and the site where the two Great Temples stood.  It is the holiest place in Judaism.  For reasons hard to comprehend for this writer, and after recapturing Jerusalem in the 1967 war, the Israelis turned over control of the Temple Mount to the Waqf, which is under Jordanian authority.  However, Israel annexed the eastern area of Jerusalem after the 1967 war, and is therefore responsible for security in all of Jerusalem.  I think the question to ask about the clashes between Arab worshippers and Israeli police on the Mount, is why were the Arabs stockpiling large rocks in their holy mosque?  Why were those rocks thrown at Jewish worshippers at the Western Wall below?  Here is another question:  why are Jews forbidden from praying on the Mount?

The reaction in the mainstream media was predictable.  Nicholas Kristof, one of the chief columnists at the New York Times, made this less than astute observation:  "It's also true that Hamas not only attacks Israeli civilians but also oppresses its own people.  But as American taxpayers, we don't have much influence over Hamas, while we do have influence over Israel and we provide several billion dollars a year in military assistance to a rich country and thus subsidize bombings of Palestinians."  Let me start with this.  Israel is our greatest ally in the Middle East, perhaps in the world.  Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by our State Department.  So according to Kristof, let's punish our ally Israel in order to reward terrorists?   And what does he mean we have no influence over Hamas?  Of course we do, if we choose to exercise it.  Trump knew how to, Biden has no clue.  Unless, you disagree with Violence, and believe it is all coincidental that Violence did not erupt during Trump's term in office, but has erupted mere months into Biden's term?  

Here is Tracy Wilkinson's analysis in the Los Angeles Times.  (As an aside, Wilkinson was single-handedly responsible for my dropping my subscription to the LA Times with her constant anti-Israel reporting during an earlier war between Israel and the Palestinians.)  Wilkinson:  "Trump gave cart blanche to the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and its right-wing nationalist supporters while sidelining and punishing the Palestinians."  As with so many on the left, Wilkinson does not see a difference between Hamas and Israel.  And she clearly does not understand how the withholding of aid can be just as influential as the providing of aid.  Kristof suggested that US aid to Israel could be better spent on providing Covid-19 vaccinations around the world or pre-K at home.  (I will not debate here whether or not the US should ever provide foreign aid.  That is a topic for another time.)

While Iran supplies rockets to Hamas, the US has assisted Israel with financing its Iron Dome missile defense system.  The system was developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries.  As reported by the WSJ, "In 2020 the American firm Raytheon announced partnership with Rafael to build Iron Dome in the U.S."  The US relationship with Israel is far from being one way.  The US benefits greatly from Israeli technology and intelligence.  As I recall, during one of our past wars in the Middle East, a US general praised Israeli intelligence as being worth five CIAs.    

In case readers have any doubt about where much of the mainstream media stands, the New York Times is always pleased to make it clear.  You see, it is not sufficient for Israel to be declared the guilty party in the current war with Hamas.  No, Israel should not even exist.  So says Peter Beinart in a May 13,2021 Op-Ed in the Times.  Beinart is a Jew, and apparently has a great deal of guilt over the fact that Israel exists.  I will not address his points here.  (If somebody wishes to debate those, let me know.)  But, his approach sounds no different than that of the Palestinians: "From the river to the sea, all of Palestine will be free."  From the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea will be Palestine.  Israel will be gone.  Exactly what Hamas and Fatah call for in their charters - the destruction of Israel.  So if you want to know what this current war, and all the wars, have been about, that's it.  The Palestinians desire to wipe Israel off the map.  As Violence told us, there is always a pretext for the fighting, but the pretext is not the truth.