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In the last week, we wrote an item about how things stand in Israel, we had a piece from reader P.B. in St. Louis, MO, about the geopolitics of the Middle East, and we answered a question about why conservative Jews might vote for Donald Trump.
These pieces generated a lot of responses. It was more than we could fit into the Sunday mailbag. On top of that, we wanted to take some time to think about how to proceed. The decision is that we are going to have some of the messages about P.B's piece later this week, along with responses from P.B. In addition, we got some responses from Jewish readers, who are in a better position to speak to some of these issues than we are. So, we thought we would share some of those today:
M.S. in Newton, MA, writes: K.E. in Newport asked: "Why do so many conservative Jews give Donald Trump a pass on antisemitism, when their religion is a crucial part of their identities?"
I am a politically conservative, orthodox practicing Jew who will be voting for Donald Trump. For me, I couldn't care less about who he dines with, who he might have to deal with to get things done, or any of the "political" moves he needs to make. I look at the man, himself, and the actions he's taken.
First, moving the embassy to Israel's capital of Jerusalem. I don't care what the U.N. or any other organization says, the only body that gets to decide its own capital is the country itself, and Israel says it's Jerusalem. For some reason, Israel is the only country in the world that doesn't get to decide that for itself. How would the U.S. feel if every country in Europe moved their embassies to Atlanta for some arbitrary reason? Trump catering to an extremely small percentage of the U.S. population wasn't good politics, per se, but it was the right thing to do.
Second, his daughter converted to Judaism, married an orthodox Jew, and therefore he has Jewish grandchildren. I know people who grew up with Jared, and know the family now, and Trump's love for his family (and their religious beliefs) is for real.
Third, the Abraham Accords made Israel safer, and Jews in the region safer, and that was on Trump's watch. I was in the United Arab Emirates after the Accords and saw Kosher restaurants, a synagogue, and men walking down the street in yarmulkes. That was all due to Trump, and by extension, his son-in-law, Jared.
I would ask Jews not voting for Trump what they see in the Democratic Party, and what they see in Kamala Harris, that makes them vote that way? I see the party of Omar, AOC, Tlaib, Code Pink, J Street. I see a party full of militant anti-Israel and antisemitic activists, and I see a party that wil not be there for Israel and not be there for the Jews.
R.L. in Alameda, CA, writes: M.R. in New York City wrote "the canceling of 'Zionists'—which is really all American Jews because the belief of a Jewish state in Israel is nearly universal among Jews—is one of the most troubling things we've seen against our people in our lifetime." (Emphasis mine.) I'm not addressing M.R.'s or Electoral-Vote.com's possible reasons why (politically) conservative Jews are leaning towards Trump. In my view, there is probably some truth to everything both of you wrote. What I need to push back on is the section between the hyphens that I italicized—that is, that all American Jews are Zionists.
First, to set the stage, I am a second-generation, Conservative (religious) movement, Ashkenzazi Jew. I was raised and educated (some would say indoctrinated) to be a Zionist. It is accurate to say that this is the experience of most American Jews, being indoctrinated to be Zionists. I never wore the label, but I now realize that it fit me until perhaps about 6 months ago.
For as long as there has been Zionism, there have been anti-Zionist Jews (and non-Jews). I would argue that Zionism itself is antisemitic. Zionism is rooted in the belief that a pluralistic society in which Jews and non-Jews live together in the same country is impossible and the only solution is to remove the Jews and put them in their own country. Christian Zionism pre-dates Jewish Zionism by about 4 decades, as removing Jews was the solution that antisemitic Europeans proposed as early as the 1840's. This movement has evolved into today's Evangelical Christian movement, which is pro-Israel but not necessarily opposed to antisemitism. Jewish Zionism was borne out of the writings of Theodor Herzl in the 1880's. Even then there was push-back from labor unions (the Polish Bund is one) and others on what we would today call the political left.
I don't have numbers to cite, but I can say with confidence that the belief of a Jewish state of Israel is common but not universal. There have been organizations, such as Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP) and If Not Now (among others), in existence for decades pushing back against Zionism. October 7 and the Israeli response has caused many Jews like me to re-examine our beliefs. I have come to the conclusion that I was lied to as a youth, that Palestine was not an "empty land seeking a people to live there," and that Israel has been a racist, apartheid state from the start. One thing the Zionist movement has done very effectively over the years was to equate Zionism and support of Israel with being Jewish. They have created today's environment where any criticism of Israel will be responded to with charges of antisemitism. I implore all of your readers to understand that Israel is not Judaism and that criticism of Israel is not antisemitism. The state and the religion are two very separate things.
I've been taking a class offered by my local chapter of JVP devoted to teaching the true history of Zionism, the creation of the state of Israel, the Nakba and the impact on the Palestinian people. They are using plenty of primary sources, so I am confident this is not propaganda. Anecdotally, the facilitators of this class have told me that, since Oct. 7, they are seeing a lot more people like me in the class, people who are newly discovering how much we were lied to in the Jewish education of our youth. I conclude that not only is Zionism not universal (or even nearly so) among American Jews, but that more and more of us are becoming anti-Zionist.
To the Zionist Jews reading this, go ahead and accuse me of being a self-hating Jew. I've heard it all before. That doesn't change the facts of history or the facts on the ground today. For anyone who is curious to learn more about what my indoctrination looked like, I highly recommend Israelism, a documentary film (filmed, produced and released before Oct. 7) which describes my childhood Jewish education exactly. I could go on. This is a huge topic, but this letter is long enough.
R.E.M. in Brooklyn, NY, writes: To my fellow Jewish NYC'er M.R., I respectfully suggest an argument you could make to your friends who are considering not voting for Kamala Harris because of the rise of antisemitism on the far left. It certainly exists, and it's certainly disturbing. But Kamala Harris is not the far left. She is not supporting antisemitic words and actions. As a former prosecutor (and one married to a Jew), she also doubtlessly is opposed to antisemitic violence. So to "punish" the far left by not voting for Harris—or worse, voting for Trump (who famously spoke of "very fine people on both sides," including the side chanting "Jews will not replace us")—would be, in a word, meshugga. Remember when these same Looney Lefties decided to "punish" centrist Democrats by voting for Ralph Nader in 2000 and Jill Stein in 2016? How'd that work out for them and for our country?
Now, for those who think Trump will be "better" for Israel, that's true only if you believe Benjamin Netanyahu should have a green light to do whatever he wants to Palestinians, including a one-state final solution to Gaza and the West Bank (and I choose that phrase with all of its implications). To me, anyone who believes such a thing is, again in a word, a shonda without empathy or decency—in other words, the perfect Trump voter. As Jews, I believe we have an obligation to history—and, if you are religious, to G-d—to be better than that.
B.J. in Arlington, MA, writes: I am an American Jew. Just for context, I am also an atheist; my sense of Judaism is cultural.
As a (male) teenager in the 1980s, a female friend/crush of mine told me one day that she had recently gone to a feminist talk/rally and had her "consciousness raised." I had never heard that phrase before. I do not remember anything else specific about the conversation, but my understanding at the time was that it involved improving her awareness of her own value, the possibilities for her life, the ways in which society attempts to limit her, and so forth. I recall being surprised at the idea that someone would need "consciousness raising" because it had not occurred to me yet how society trains people to limit their sense of their own value. The conversation made a big enough impression that I remember it 40 years later.
Since shortly after Oct. 7, I have been following blog posts by an Israeli woman whom I am loosely connected to via mutual friends on Facebook. She wrote about current events, provided historical context, included a fair bit of very justified ranting, and, I now realize, was also helping me raise my consciousness. She stopped posting several months ago after announcing that she was exhausted and demoralized, but she did post again on Oct. 7 this year. In that message, she wrote: "Now we are finally, a year later, responding to Lebanon—which attacked us, unprovoked, in solidarity with Hamas terrorists on October 8, and has continued to attack us for an entire year, sending our northerners fleeing for refuge—and the world, which stood impassively by during their brutal assault, now that we are suddenly responding, is already crying for a ceasefire."
This woman's posts have been helping raise my consciousness.
Lebanon has been attacking for a year, but the calls for a ceasefire only started when Israel—Jews—fought back. The world does not really care that much about violence, suffering, and death. But the world objects very strongly when Jews defend themselves.
One aspect of antisemitism is holding Jews and/or Israel to a higher standard than any other people or country, and criticizing them for actions that get no objection when anyone else does them. No country in the world would not have responded to an attack like Hamas' on Oct. 7 with less than war; certainly the United States responded similarly to 9/11 which, proportionally, was a substantially smaller attack. Electoral-Vote.com recently posted that the best estimate is that casualties in Gaza are equal parts military and civilian, which if true means that Israel has caused at least THREE TIMES fewer civilian casualties than is typical in warfare, and this against an enemy that intentionally sacrifices civilians as part of its strategy, and yet is still vilified for it. Israel's presumed attack against Hezbollah via exploding pagers and radios was an incredibly risky and targeted attack exactly against its militant enemies, and yes, of course there were some unintended civilian casualties, there always are, but any kind of conventional attack on the same targets would have caused far worse, and yet still Israel is accused of war crimes for doing so.
As an American Jew, I think that Joe Biden's clear support for Israel, compassion for the innocent victims in Gaza, and clear identification of Hamas as the true enemy was a miracle. Kamala Harris seems to be largely on the same page, though less strongly so, but obviously I unambiguously support her. However, I am deeply worried about the trendlines in progressive politics. I have been repulsed by Republicans since I became politically aware in 1992 and do not see that ever changing, but if today's American youth push the Democratic Party towards antisemitism, who will I support then?
As an American Jew, I am deeply anxious about the future.
Thanks to all of you for your thoughts.
Note that we will be happy to receive, and run, some responses, should readers feel so inclined. However, those responses must be substantive and respectful. Anything that has the faintest whiff of "screed" will be discarded.
Also, every time we run a piece like this, we get a few messages saying "Yeah, but what about the Palestinian/Arab perspective?" Surely any regular reader knows that if we get those messages, at comments@electoral-vote.com, we will run them. (Z)