Knowing Who Your Friends Are

Jewish Americans have traditionally been good liberals. After all, if that paragon of liberalism, FDR, had not been president during the Hitler years, there might have been a Holocaust of European Jews. So to speak.

Now, with the current events in Israel, Jews have discovered that their erstwhile allies, the groups they stood up for, have abandoned them.

Bret Stephens described what was tantamount to a betrayal:

At some point, an awakening of sorts occurred. Perhaps not for every American Jew, but for many. I’ve called them the Oct. 8 Jews — those who woke up a day after our greatest tragedy since the Holocaust to see how little empathy there was for us in many of the spaces and communities and institutions we thought we comfortably inhabited. It was an awakening that often came with a deeper set of realizations.

One realization: American Jews should not expect reciprocity.

Few minorities have been more conspicuously attached to progressive causes than American Jews: Samuel Gompers and labor unionism; Betty Friedan and feminism; Harvey Milk and gay rights; Abraham Joshua Heschel and civil rights; Robert Bernstein and human rights. A proud history, but whatever we poured of ourselves into the pain and struggle of others was not returned in our days of grief. Nor should we expect much understanding: In an era that stresses sensitivity to every microaggression against nearly any minority, macroaggressions against Jews who happen to believe that Israel has a right to exist are not only permitted but demanded.

Often, the denizens of the political left have aligned against Israel. From Tommy Friedman doing his best to undermine the authority of Israel’s wartime prime minister to Kamala Harris refusing to declare Benjamin Netanyahu a valued ally, the writing is clearly on the wall. The more they talk about a cease fire, the more they make it the basis for their policy, the more they are calling on Israel to surrender.

A Harris administration will sell out Israel, perhaps by putting an arm embargo on the nation, without fearing any backlash from American Jews.

Now, Karol Markowicz looks at the problem from a slightly different angle. Our nation has had large numbers of Christians who have stood up for and defended Israel. And yet, Jewish organizations, she says, have largely ignored them.

It is useful to know who your friends are. And it is even more useful to treat your allies well. 

But where were the invites and awards for the conservatives who had unwaveringly stood by us? Where was Megyn Kelly? Where were Clay Travis and Buck Sexton? Dan Bongino? Xaviaer DuRousseau? Erick Erickson? Dana Loesch? Glenn Beck? Guy Benson? Sohrab Ahmari? Stephen “RedSteeze” Miller? Kurt Schlichter? Mary Katharine Ham? Pretty much everyone on Fox News?

She paints a portrait of ingratitude:

These people went above and beyond and got no official thank you from the American Jewish community at all, not a single Jewish organization celebrated them. It’s sickening. These mensches didn’t benefit one iota from standing with Jews and with Israel. They took shots for us, they suffered abuse for us. They’ll say they don’t need the praise. They did it because it was right. But how dare we not say thank you?

Support for Israel extended to Republican politicians. Democratic politicians, not so much. Yesterday, Senator Elizabeth Warren droned on about how bad the Israeli attack on Gaza was. 

Nearly every Republican politician effusively stood up for Israel and demanded the protection of American Jews. Where is Ted Cruz’s award? Ron DeSantis’s? Tom Cotton’s? Where is Donald Trump’s? 

What explains the ingratitude? Why Markowicz explains, it is party loyalty:

Most Jewish organizations are dinosaurs, committed to Democrats just as the Democrats make clear they are not at all interested in them. That’s the problem with tying your religion to a political party. The political party can tell you that your enemies, who want to destroy you and murder your children, “have a point” and you’ll just take it.

You have to performatively hate Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, and celebrating the successes of Israel would place you on the wrong “side.” Your politics have separated you from your people. It’s pathetic. I feel sorry for you for having to live your lie.

The case of Donald Trump is most indicative. Has any American president done more for Israel? For that, Jewish groups have declared him to be Hitler. It takes a special kind of stupid to consider Trump as Hitler:

The American Embassy is now in the capital of Israel, in Jerusalem, where it should be, because of Donald Trump. You don’t care about that? You’re into peace? The Abraham Accords normalized relations between Israel and UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan. There hadn’t been a peace agreement in nearly 30 years but Donald Trump got one done. Democrats see Israel as a problem to solve. Donald Trump sees Israel’s enemies as the problem. They are not the same.

What will it take for American Jews to wake up? It is a good question. Hats off to Markowicz for raising the issue.

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