Politics to Go

There was ‘Jewicide’ in the 2018 midterm vote

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According to exit polls conducted by Pew Research Center and CNN, in last week’s midterm election, 79 percent of Jewish voters chose a Democratic candidate, and only 17 percent voted for Republicans.

Thus, by helping to elect at least 35 Democrats to the House of Representatives, Jewish America decided to significantly expand the power of the anti-Israel Democratic Party, putting many of the worst offenders in key leadership positions. With their heavily Democratic vote, Jewish America may have committed Jewicide.

New York’s 14th district, the eastern Bronx and parts of north central Queens, elected Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who claims that Israel is “occupying” Palestine, saying, “I also think that what people are starting to see at least with the occupation of Palestine is the increasing crisis of humanitarian condition.” She has said Israel deserves to defend herself, but of the weekly Hamas attempts to storm the Gaza border tweeted, “This is a massacre. I hope my peers have the moral courage to call it such.” Ocasio-Cortez has also claimed not to understand the geopolitics of the area.

The new congressional representative for the Hudson Valley and Catskills regions is Antonio Delgado (NY-19). He was supported by J Street and stated in a debate that Israel was not a democracy, “given the fact that we have settlements currently in the region. It is not deemed a nation of Jewish democracy until we deal with the settlements.” Delgado obviously misses the fact that all citizens of Israel have the right to vote no matter what their background.

The winner in Michigan’s 13th district, Democrat Rashida Tlaib, is also no fan of the Jewish State. After her primary win, she told “In These Times” that she no longer believed in the two-state solution. To celebrate her win, at her victory party, Tlaib wrapped herself in a Palestinian flag.

The winner in Minnesota’s 5th Congressional district is Democrat Ilhan Omar, who in 2012 tweeted that Israel had “hypnotized the world” to ignore its “evil doings.” Defending that tweet during the 2018 election season, she said that calling attention to the “Israeli apartheid regime” was not anti-Semitic. But her description of Israel as apartheid is anti-Semitic, and so is her support of the BDS movement.

Now that they have the House majority, Democrats will occupy powerful chairmanships of congressional committees. Many of these new chairmen have anti-Israel or anti-Semitic tendencies.

Adam Smith, Armed Services Committee (WA-9): His 2018 platform supports the UN resolution demanding an end to Israeli settlements in the West Bank and the blockade of Gaza. He also introduced a one-sided bill to “prohibit U.S. assistance to Israel from being used to support the military detention, interrogation, or ill-treatment of Palestinian children in violation of international humanitarian law.”

Maxine Waters, Financial Services Committee (CA-43): Earlier this year, a video was released of Waters embracing Louis Farrakhan. Asked multiple times whether she still supports the anti-Semitic Nation of Islam leader, Waters refuses to answer. At a 2012 luncheon, she said she won’t take money from AIPAC because AIPAC runs Congress.

Jim McGovern, Rules Committee (MA-2): Supported Obama’s 2017 abstention from a U.N. resolution condemning Israeli settlements, and wants Israel to negotiate with Hamas despite its continued terrorism and refusal to recognize Israel. He also claimed that Netanyahu’s March 2015 speech to Congress in protest against the Iran deal was meant as a deliberate slight to Barack Obama.

Other reelected Democrats whose seniority will place them in positions of power include:

James Clyburn (SC-6), who is part of the Democratic caucus leadership, shared a stage with Louis Farrakhan in 2011. After Jewish organizations criticized Clyburn taking part in an event with Farrakhan, the South Carolina Democrat brushed off their criticisms. Clyburn told “Final Call” — a Nation of Islam publication — that he was “not bothered in the least bit” by the objections.

Danny Davis (IL-7) received 88 percent of the total vote in his district despite being a friend of Farrakhan. The Daily Caller reported that “Davis went on the record twice to defend and praise Farrakhan.” He called Farrakhan an “outstanding human being,” and says he regularly visits him, including at home. Davis has also said he wasn’t bothered by Farrakhan’s answer to “the Jewish question” — in other words, his anti-Semitism.

Making matters worse is the attitudes of the Democratic Party leaders. I’m not suggesting that the Democratic Senate Leader, Chuck Schumer, or the probable next Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, support the anti-Semitic or anti-Israel positions held by many in their caucuses. But they haven’t rebuked those who have them. They were silent during the eight years of the Obama administration, and have not criticized today’s anti-Israel or anti-Semitic members of Congress. Their public silence gives the impression of consent.

Jewish organizations in America will tell you that it is important not to make Israel a wedge issue, but most of those organizations put their allegiance to progressive politics before their loyalty to the Jewish people. How can support of Israel not become a wedge issue when one party is laden with anti-Semites and people who do not support the Jewish State?

Obviously, there are many other policy reasons this conservative writer is not happy with the vote that put Democrats in power. But from a strictly Jewish perspective, putting the Democrats in power, electing new Israel haters, and placing supporters of Louis Farrakhan in key chairmanships, American Jewry’s support of the Democratic Party is just as bad as the silence of Schumer and Pelosi.

When those newly powerful Democrats start exercising power, perhaps the 79 percent of American Jews who supported them will realize that with their 2018 vote they committed Jewicide.