It's time for American Jews to make a rational choice in the upcoming elections - opinion

The latest polling on the presidential race shows Vice President Kamala Harris holding a nearly 3:1 lead over former president Donald Trump among Jewish voters, and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, is even more unpopular.

It was another bad week for Ohio’s junior senator as he learned that the worst wounds in politics are self-inflicted. He shot himself in both feet once again, this time with his response to the latest school shooting and a Holocaust revisionist, and he had an assist from his disgraced running mate.

The latest all-too-common tragedy saw a 14-year-old boy kill two teachers and two fellow students at Apalachee High School near Winder, Georgia, about 40 miles north of Atlanta, with an AR-15-type assault rifle his father had given him for Christmas.

Another day, another shooting, another round of funerals and more thoughts and prayers from the cowards in public office. Anything but action. “This time of mourning is not the time to deal with the problem” is their favorite response. When will be? Never, of course. What’s a few dead kids when millions of dollars in NRA donations are on the line?

Guns are the number one cause of death for children and teens in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC reported that 45,222 Americans died in 2020 in firearms-related incidents, and the victims were disproportionately youngsters. That’s more in one year that the entire Korean War, War on Terror and Gulf War combined.

School shootings are a “fact of life,” Vance said, so “deal with it.” Not “deal with it” in the responsible way – banning assault rifles, extensive background checks, removing bump stocks – but as in “get used to it.” Mass shootings are “increasingly the reality that we live in,” he said.

What would you expect from someone who wants to abolish the Justice Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives? “Clearly, strict gun laws is not the thing that is going to solve this problem,” he said. His solution: bolster security. Harris, Vance warned, “wants to… take law-abiding citizens’ guns away from them.” He wants more guns.

TRUMP HAD a familiar response when he spoke in Iowa last January, the day after a school shooting there. “Get over it,” he told Iowans. “We have to move forward.” Both Republicans have repeatedly declared opposition to any kind of gun regulation, including banning military-style assault rifles, the weapon of choice for school shooters and mass murderers.

Do not touch “our sacred Second Amendment,” Trump repeatedly warns.

The former president, a convicted felon, gun owner and Bible salesman, told the NRA that gun rights are “given to us by God.” The Second Amendment will “never ever be under siege as long as I am your president.”

It’s reactions like that which led the Democratic standard bearers to label the GOP ticket “weird,” which seems more apt given all the nasty insults Trump has conjured up.

Holocaust denialism and antisemitism now familiar to the GOP?

Trump and Vance also seem to have an affinity for Holocaust deniers and antisemites. One of those closest to the GOP standard bearer is Tucker Carlson, who is credited with convincing Trump to pick Vance.

All 24 Jewish Democrats in the House of Representatives issued a statement excoriating Carlson for having “hosted and promoted Nazi apologist and Holocaust denier Darryl Cooper on his podcast.”

Vance, when asked about this, defended his friend Carlson, giving the hatemonger a platform and later going on the podcast himself. The shared affinity of Trump and Vance for guns, neo-Nazis and Holocaust revisionists has driven down their support among Jewish voters at a time of rising antisemitism in this country.

Only 23% of Jewish voters have a favorable view of Trump and 20% like Vance, according to a new survey by GBAO Strategies for Jewish Democratic Council of America. By comparison, Harris’s approval rating is 68% and Walz’s 63%. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, by the way, is at 30%.

The Republican Jewish Coalition announced plans this week for a $10-million ad campaign (on top of $5 million already spent) to win Jewish voters for the GOP, focusing largely on claims that Republicans are more pro-Israel than Democrats. Given past failed promises, that sounds like déjà vu all over again.

Ads won’t win them many converts. Polls consistently show Israel is a low priority for American Jews when deciding how to vote. It is ninth on a list of 12 issues, although 75% of respondents said they feel attached to Israel. Top concerns are the future of democracy, abortion, inflation and the economy, and climate change – nearly all topics where the two parties strongly diverge.

Harris leads the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, which you can bet a second-term Trump would abolish. She and Walz support gun control measures. Trump and Vance are Second Amendment absolutists (and First Amendment softies).

American Jews “have a longstanding aversion to guns,” says My Jewish Learning, a media group. Just 10% of Jews personally own guns, compared to 25% of non-Jews, according to a 2005 American Jewish Committee study. The number of Jewish American gun owners has been rising slightly since October 7 in the wake of antisemitic and anti-Israel demonstrations, according to CNN, but it offers no reliable statistic.

Gun advocates often argue that armed German Jews could have prevented the Holocaust, something the ADL calls absurd.

Israel has no second amendment right to own guns. Ownership is tightly regulated. The country also has a low homicide rate although it has been increasing over the past decade. A February report by the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel said that Israel’s homicide rate within the Jewish population last year was 0.67 per 100,000. By comparison, it was 6.3 per 100,000 of the general population in the United States in 2022.

Only handguns are permitted for private use in Israel; assault rifles are banned and the number of bullets one may own is strictly limited.

In Israel, getting and keeping a gun license requires background checks, weapons training, psychological evaluation and proof of need to have a weapon. As many as 80% of applications are rejected. The United States which has the world’s highest per capita gun ownership. Only about 2% of Israelis own guns, compared to about 30% who are in the US, according to the US Department of Justice. 

No single law will prevent school killings, but continued inaction and negligence will guarantee many more Sandy Hooks, Ulvaldies, Parklands, Columbines and Apalachees – place names that should not be so familiar.

It is time for Congress and political leaders – and voters – to choose between protecting the gun lobby or the children. It is always the right time. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Georgia) said it well: The problem is politicians who do the “bidding” of the gun lobby while it “lines its pockets with the blood of our children.”

And it is definitely time for American Jews to make a rational choice between a presidential ticket that sees neo-Nazis and racists as a core constituency and one that stands for the tolerance and diversity that have been hallmarks of Jewish politics throughout the modern era.

The writer is a Washington-based journalist, consultant, lobbyist, and former American Israel Public Affairs Committee legislative director.