Abe Foxman’s fallacies

Abe Foxman, former head of the Anti-Defamation League, has written an op-ed in which he recalls that in 2020, for the first time ever, he publicly endorsed a presidential candidate, Joe Biden. And he’s making another public endorsement this year for Kamala Harris, because he “believe(s) this upcoming election is the most consequential vote Jewish Americans will cast, perhaps in their lifetimes, and again, I cannot remain silent.”

I would agree that this is a very important vote, but I think Foxman is wrong about the person for whom Jewish Americans should cast their votes, and I also believe his opinions are grounded on fallacies and illogical thinking.

First off, it is astounding that Foxman’s op-ed concludes that “All the evidence makes clear that only one candidate, Kamala Harris, can be the leader Israel needs,” while he never even acknowledges that recent polling confirms that, of 85% of Israelis (both Jews and Arabs) who expressed an opinion, 68% believe Donald Trump would better serve Israel’s interests, while 14% thought Kamala Harris would be better, and 18% thought there was no difference between the two candidates.

So, by a margin of almost 5 to 1, Israelis who have an opinion think that Trump would be better for Israel than Harris, and Foxman never even considers that fact!  The question arises: Why would any intelligent, thoughtful person believe that Foxman knows more than the Israelis themselves know about what is best for Israel? Are millions of Israelis (extrapolating the poll results to the whole Israeli population) so dim-witted, and is Foxman so bright? I, for one, doubt it.

As I’ve said, Foxman never once mentions the fact that the Israeli population overwhelmingly favors Trump. But he does mention and lament that, in his view, Trump’s first term “fueled attacks on Jews and so many others.” He then writes: “It is now four years later, and the volume and sheer brazenness of antisemitic incidents is beyond what I could have ever even have imagined in 2020.”

But it is Biden and Harris who have been in office over the last four years, not Trump. If Trump is somehow personally responsible for rising antisemitism during his administration, then logic compels the conclusion that Biden and Harris are personally responsible for the rise in antisemitic incidents that one could not “ever even have imagined in 2020.”

And remember: Foxman endorsed Biden in 2020. So, even if the recent unimaginable rise in antisemitism is entirely Biden’s fault and not that of his vice president, that unimaginable surge of antisemitism under Biden—Foxman’s 2020 choice—conveys volumes about Foxman’s insight into what is best for Jews.

Foxman also notes that, “[w]hile Israel is fighting a multi-front war, there has been an unprecedented global campaign to isolate her.” Again, Foxman seems to have forgotten that that unprecedented global campaign has proceeded and apparently succeeded during a Biden/Harris administration, not a Trump administration. If Biden and Harris are both such staunch and resourceful protectors of Israel, why have they failed to squelch, or at least to more effectively counter, that global campaign?

Foxman writes: “In the face of significant public pressure, and on the eve of a very close election, Biden and Harris continue to stand by Israel.” Yet just yesterday virtually every newspaper in the world had a front-page story reporting that the Biden/Harris administration had issued an ultimatum to Israel: Unless Israel increases the humanitarian aid (to an unspecified amount or degree) flowing into Gaza, the US will cut off vital military assistance to Israel. Israel is of course concerned that “aid” might include war materiel to re-arm Hamas. And Israel also knows that much of the aid is stolen by Hamas to feed its combatants and to be re-sold by Hamas on the black market, with the funds flowing into Hamas’s coffers.

The Biden/Harris ultimatum, which could result in depriving Israel of weapons vital for her protection (such as US-produced rockets for the Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile defense system), is hardly proof that Biden and Harris “continue to stand by Israel.”  Indeed, the opposite might be true. If the so-called international community protests loudly enough, the Biden/Harris administration might decide to severely damage Israel’s capacity to defend herself.

It also should not be forgotten that, when Prime Minister Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress to discuss the conflict with Hamas, Ms. Harris, who in her role as vice president is the president of the Senate, could not find time to preside over Netanyahu’s speech. She, like scores of other Democrats, did find good reasons to snub Israel’s current head of government.

Many Americans, with various religious or ethnic backgrounds, feel that the main choice presented to us—Harris or Trump—is a very unsatisfactory one. Trump is boorish, self-involved, chaotic, and seemingly ignorant of the constitutional limits of presidential authority. Harris is superficially smooth but seemingly lacking in any substance or principles, and was coronated as presidential candidate without having garnered a single vote in a Democratic primary. For many Americans, it’s not a pretty choice.

But Foxman’s view is that for Jewish American voters who put a high priority on Israel’s relations with the US, it should be an easy choice. Perhaps surprisingly, I agree with him.

When one considers the US recognition of unified Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the cutting off of funds from the monumentally corrupt and terror-aiding Palestinian Authority, the abandonment of the futile “two-state solution” in favor of the Abraham Accords between Israel and moderate Arab countries—all of which occurred under the Trump administration—and, perhaps most decisively, the candidate overwhelming preferred by the Israeli population, it should be obvious that the better choice is Trump.