Time for US Jews to embrace the Republican Party - opinion

For American Jews still faithful to the Democratic Party, the writing is on the wall, and it has increasingly begun to look like antisemitic graffiti.

For decades, a majority of US Jews have loyally cast their ballots for the Democrats, irrespective of how much the party has been waffling on issues close to their hearts.

The time for change is long overdue.

For their own sake and for the sake of America and for Israel, American Jews need to embrace the Republican Party and make it their new political home.

The transformation that the Democratic Party has undergone was on full display a week ago when Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who, as of this writing, is considered a possible running mate for Kamala Harris, had to apologize for a 1993 college essay he penned that some deemed to be “too pro-Israel,” whatever that means.

And just what was it that Shapiro wrote that raised the ire of so many far-Left Democrats?

In his paper, Shapiro insisted that “peace is not possible” in the Middle East due to the Palestinian leadership and that the Palestinians were “too battle-minded to be able to establish a peaceful homeland of their own.”

In other words, he told the truth, and it is as true today as it was decades ago.

Incredibly, after the Philadelphia Inquirer reported on Shapiro’s essay, he quickly became the target of a torrent of harsh vitriol from many of his fellow Democrats who were incensed by the support he expressed for the Jewish state.

The response was so brutal that even some Democrats were shocked by the treatment meted out to Shapiro and did not hesitate to label it antisemitic.

On Monday, in a CNN interview, Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.) denounced “the overly online Left who are attacking Josh Shapiro’s pro-Israel positions in a different way than they are attacking non-Jewish veep contenders’ positions,” adding that “there’s a strong undercurrent of antisemitism.”

“Holding him to a different standard because of his religion,” Auchincloss said, “simply isn’t who we are as a Democratic Party.”

Apparently, that is precisely who they are.

On July 26, in a post on X, Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) noted that while “every potential nominee is pro-Israel,” there is “only one, Josh Shapiro, who has been singled out by a far-Left smear campaign calling him ‘Genocide Josh.’ The reason he is treated differently from the rest? Antisemitism.”

The state of the Democratic Party and the fact that it has been taken over by radical forces were summed up best by the satirical site Babylon Bee, which posted a headline on August 6 declaring, “Democrats worried choosing Jewish vice president may cost them the all-important ‘Death to America’ vote.”

Democrats becoming anti-Israel

THE DEMOCRATIC slide toward anti-Israel hostility has not gone unnoticed by many American Jews, and a growing number are already making the switch.

As the Algemeiner Journal reported on August 1, a survey conducted by pollster Richard Baris found that 45.9% of American Jews now back former president Donald Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris.

That is the highest percentage of Jewish support for a Republican presidential candidate since Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956. It marks a jump of 15% in Jewish backing for Trump since 2020, when he pulled in 30% in the presidential election.

For anyone who has been paying attention, this should not come as much of a surprise in light of how Harris has treated Israel.

Just last month, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was invited to address both houses of Congress, Harris demonstrably refused to preside over the session, citing the need to attend a sorority convention.

In an interview with The Nation, a far-Left paper, Harris expressed empathy for student protesters who took over college campuses, harassed Jewish students, and disrupted classes.

“They are showing exactly what the human emotion should be, as a response to Gaza,” she said.

Earlier this year, on March 3, Harris became the first Biden administration official to publicly call for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza. She chose to make the demand during her speech commemorating the anniversary of “Bloody Sunday” in Selma, Alabama, when police beat civil rights activists in 1965, and then she went on to peddle the lie that Gaza was on the verge of famine.

This pattern of behavior by Harris stretches back years. In September 2021, when she was accosted by a student at George Mason University who accused Israel of committing “ethnic genocide” against Palestinians, the vice president nodded along and then offered the student encouragement, telling her, “And again, this is about the fact that your voice, your perspective, your experience, your truth cannot be suppressed, and it must be heard.”

Does anyone who supports Israel honestly think that Harris’s track record is comforting or encouraging?

For all his faults, and they were numerous, President Joe Biden at least identified as a Zionist. But Kamala Harris? 

To borrow a phrase she has used far too often, Harris is “unburdened by what has been.” And that includes support for Israel.

The sad fact is that the Democratic Party of 2024 is no longer the same party it once was. It has drifted further and further into the hands of its increasingly vocal and radical progressive wing.

It no longer stands for law and order, a secure southern border, or fiscal responsibility. And it has most assuredly become a party that can no longer be counted on to stand by Israel, America’s closest ally in the Middle East.

Hence, for those American Jews who cherish the Jewish state and want to see a stronger bond between Washington and Jerusalem, the choice at the ballot box in November is clear.

Only by voting Republican and keeping Kamala Harris out of the White House can the US-Israel relationship continue to deepen and blossom. 

The writer served as deputy communications director under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.