Keep Our Eyes on the Political Ball and Stick With the Democratic Party

 We Must Keep Our Eyes on the Ball

We liberal and progressive Jews must keep our eyes on the ball in the coming elections. We cannot allow Democrats' criticism of Israel or even the antisemitism of some progressive Democrats to blind us to the need to protect our democracy here at home. We must work to elect progressive Democrats in spite of their attitudes toward Israel.

The Antisemitism of Some Democrats is Obvious

The rising antisemitism of some progressive Democrats is obvious, but we need to be clear: criticism of Israel's policies is not antisemitic. Israel is a country like any other, and when it does awful things, it cannot expect to be immune to international criticism or even ostracism. On the other hand, the claim that Israel has no right to exist is antisemitic because such claims are never made against other countries that have committed awful crimes including genocide.

Israel Has Done Things That Are Unjustifiable, but It Has a Right to Exist

I am a Jew and a supporter of Israel. Nevertheless, I share the belief that Israel has done things in Gaza that are completely unjustifiable. The utter destruction of most of Gaza is grotesquely disproportionate to the damage inflicted by Hamas’s raid that killed 1500 people and took 250 hostages. I loathe Netanyahu and his racist supporters. Those who condemn what Israel has done have a perfect right to do so, and I agree with much of what they say.

On the other hand, those who go further and say that Israel has no right to exist are clearly antisemites because they make that claim only against the Jewish state. No one says that the United States should not exist because we dropped atomic bombs on Japan or because of our genocide of the American Indians. No one says that China should not exist because of the genocide of the Uighurs. No one says that Nigeria should not exist because of the slaughter in Biafra. No one says that Turkey should not exist because of the Armenian genocide. Only when the violence is committed by Jews do we hear that they have forfeited their right to a national state.

We Jews Can Support Israel Without Supporting Its Government

We American Jews can continue to support Israel, but that does not mean that we have to support its current government or its actions in Gaza. If you want to do support Israel while opposing its government, you should consider making a contribution to the New Israel Fund. 

We should also remember that Israel and its position in the world have changed since the country's founding almost 80 years ago. Then, Israel was a poor, weak country that barely survived the 1948 assault by its neighbors. Today, Israel is a strong, rich country that is more than a match for its neighbors, and as a strong, rich country, it cannot be exempt from criticism or from international condemnation. We must accept that today, Israel is not merely a refuge for survivors of the Holocaust. It is a normal country with complex politics and social injustices. Israel sometimes does very bad things. So, it is ok to criticize Israel's policies.

We Must Elect Progressive Democrats

In the coming elections, we must stick with the Democratic Party even though many Democrats criticize Israel's policies or call for ending American military support for Israel. We must stick with the Democratic Party even though some of its members are antisemites. We must remember what is at stake here in our own country. We cannot allow Mr. Trump to continue to destroy everything that we love about our country, and the only hope of preventing that destruction is to elect progressive Democrats in November. We must also remember that the antisemitism of the left is much less dangerous than the antisemitism of the right. The antisemites of the right kill us in our synagogues. The antisemites of the left do not.

So, my fellow Jewish Democrats, we must grit our teeth and work to elect progressive Democrats to office. There will be time to deal with the antisemitism after the election.