Israel, Hamas, Trump, the Democrats, Anti-Semitism and the Jews

Today, Israel's Ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, spoke at the annual AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) convention. Dermer: "For the first time in many years, perhaps even many decades, there is no daylight between our two governments." That was, perhaps, an oblique reference to President Obama's 2009 comment about relations between Israel and the U.S over the prior eight years: "When there is no daylight (between the U.S. and Israel), Israel just sits on the sidelines, and that erodes our credibility with Arab states." It was, of course, a total lie as Israel offered a state to the Palestinians in 2000 and 2008. But that was simply the beginning of Obama creating as much daylight as possible between the U.S. and Israel, including the enabling of Iran's nuclear weapons program, and ending with Obama's selling out of Israel at the U.N. in December, 2016.

In the March 20, 2017 Wall Street Journal, Andrew Stein and Douglas Schoen, jointly penned an opinion piece entitled "Democrats Turn Against Israel." As these two Democrats wrote: "The Democrats used to be the pro-Israel party." They continued: "President Obama created an atmosphere of outright hostility between the U.S. and Israel." They concluded by asserting that they, along with many other Jewish Democrats, "may decide that the time has come to find new political affiliations," if the Democrats do not reaffirm support for Israel. I don't see it.

The current Palestinian leader of Hamas in Gaza recently said this: "Hamas will continue in the path of Yassin (Hamas founder, killed in an Israeli airstrike) for the liberation of all of Palestine - we will not surrender even a morsel" of the land. By "Palestine," he means all of the land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. They will never give up their terror attacks and wars against Israel as long as the Jews possess even one "morsel" of land.

Yet, 187 of the 193 voting Democrats in the House, with two non-voting Democrats and two Republicans, signed off on a letter to President Trump urging him to stand with the two-state solution. Twenty of the twenty-one Jewish members of the House signed the letter. What two-state solution do these people have in mind? There's Israel, Hamas in Gaza and Fatah in parts of the West Bank, along with Israel in parts of the West Bank. So, a three-state solution? And why continue to push a fantasy? Given the quote from the leader of Hamas in Gaza, can the idea of a two-state solution be characterized as anything but a fantasy?

Anti-Semitism continues to grow on college campuses here in the U.S., and throughout the Western world. When the student newspaper at McGill University in Montreal refused to print a pro-Israel article by visiting professor Gil Troy, he decided to post it online. The paper, according to the professor, has a policy of not publishing any article promoting a "Zionist worldview." As for the intolerance of the left to contrary views, Professor Troy said it best: "...you wrap your bigotry in a mantle of self-righteousness, mocking the progressive thought you claim to embrace." For the Left, anti-Israel and anti-Semitic attitudes are central to their worldview - liberalism, tolerance to opposing views and open debate are not.

As for Zionism, Professor Troy again said it best: "Zionism has three fundamental propositions: that the Jews are a people; that the Jewish people have one historic homeland, the land of Israel; and that like all other peoples they have collective rights to establish - and now perfect - a country in that homeland." As much as I would like to believe that Stein and Schoen are right - that the Democrats leftward shift away from support for Israel will result in Jews abandoning that party - I just don't see it. I see Jews clinging to their leftist ideology, and showing total contempt for Donald Trump, even when he expresses his strong support for Israel.

After Obama lied about Israel sitting on the sidelines, after he enabled the Iranian nuclear program, and after he sold Israel out at the U.N. as a lame-duck President, I believe the same percentages of Jews who voted for Obama twice would vote for him a third time, if they could. Not only is the Democratic party not reaffirming their support for Israel, they nearly elected the radical leftist/socialist, Bernie Sanders, to head the Democratic ticket. They nearly elected the radical leftist and Muslim anti-Israel Congressman, Keith Ellison, to be the head of their party. He is now vice chair of the party. In no way do I view the party as moving back towards support of Israel. It is a party moving further and further to the left. As with the rest of the Left, it is leftism over Zionism, and leftism over Judaism. For the Democrats to again become the party that supports Israel, they would need to return to classical liberalism. The trend, however, as noted above, is in the opposite direction.