As a Democrat, and as a Jew, I have heard from too many friends regarding their concerns that Democrats, specifically those on the left, are too tolerant of the virulent anti-Semitism that has broken out into the open in the wake of Israel’s response to the slaughter of 1,400 Jews by Hamas terrorists who hide among their own civilians and then exploit humanitarian concerns whenthose Palestinian civilians are caught in the middle of Israeli counterattacks.
It is bewildering to me that those Jewish friends, mostly Democrats, are thinking of rejecting President Joe Biden – arguably the best friend Israel has had in the White House in recent memory – in this year’s elections, even though his response to the Hamas attack has earned a 95 percent approval rating in Israel itself.
That would be a disaster for Israel, for the United States, and frankly for Jewish Americans. But Democrats, who recently have been on the defensive on Long Island because of voter concerns over criminal justice and the influx of migrants, ignore those concerns at their peril. Democrats have a left-wing problem over perceptions that opposition to the Israeli government has morphed far too easily into protests on college campuses and in the streets that have been seen as anti-Semitic in their rhetoric, and their targeting of people and places that have no connection to the Middle East.
It is a sad fact of recent history that the far left and the far right share an anti-Semitic streak that threatens to drown out the sensible center where tolerance ruled the day. It’s identity politics run amok, where pride in our diversity morphs into tribal warfare exploited by extremists who seek to profit politically and, in some cases financially, from division.
There is a longtime cost to allowing that division to rule the day. Anti-immigrant Right Wing Republicans in Congress keep tying changes to border policy to critically needed support for Israel and for Ukraine in its on-going heroic resistance to the Russian invasion.
That linkage is both short-sighted and cuts deeply against American interests in the Middle East and eastern Europe. President Biden, with the support of congressional Democrats, has taken unilateral steps to rearm Israeli defense forces with $106 million in funding for supplies for their tanks being used to flush out Hamas.
Congress should vote up or down on each policy. That is what Americans deserve. That is what Americans need.
Fensterman is the managing partner of the Abrams Fensterman law firm based in Lake Success.
