Questions for the Harris Jews

On November 6, 2024, former president Donald J. Trump did the nearly impossible by resoundingly winning a second, non-consecutive term as president. He won the popular vote by a large margin and in a rejection of identity politics he received the record setting support from many minority. Bottom line: It was a referendum on Trump versus Harris, and a mandate for Trump’s vision.

The impressive 2024 presidential victory occurred for many reasons, and historians can dig deep analyzing the impacts of Vice President Kamala Harris’s Far-Left beliefs, the mechanics of the two campaigns, the debilitated Biden overthrow with Harris’s ascension, the Walz choice, the Harris flip-flops, her reticence to face press conference scrutiny, and the choice of messaging to the shifting American demographics. It’s a lot to unpack, and the Democrats need to be self-critical.

Disappointingly, exit polls reveal that somewhere between 60% and 75% of Jewish voters chose Kamala Harris. While the Jewish vote now is an outlier disconnected from the American mainstream, it is somewhat less than in recent elections. Beyond all postmortems and all the handwringing by those Jews who voted for Harris, there are hard questions to be asked and answered.

Policy and performance:  Trump’s exemplar first term accomplishments supporting of Israel and American Jews were arguably superior to Harris’s ambiguous postures on Israel’s prosecution of the ongoing war and the antisemitism on American campuses. Despite the early post October 7 support for Israel by President Biden, Harris would have been Obama 4.0 with his biased acolytes placed in positions of power in search of their perverse obsession with placating Iran.

Were Harris Jews willing to gamble with Israel’s safety? Did TDS blind them to the comparison? Did the many influential Jewish institutions cleave to their progressive, Democrat Party roots and not elevate the needs of Israel and Jews above the diffused Tikun Olam sinecure? Did the lesson of “If I am not for myself, who will be for me” go unheeded because Jewish voters lost sight of their better interests, and they wanted to signal support for socially popular causes? Do they not understand the existential dangers to Israel?

The Biden-Harris open borders, defunding police, and softness on crime policies should be viewed from the perspective of Israel’s Gaza Envelope kibbutzim. Israel’s particularist democracy needs staunch allies who appreciate Western, Judeo-Christian values and the necessity of sovereign safety.

Fairness: Americans have a fundamental sense of what is fair and what is not. More than half of all voters chose Trump. The double standards applied to Trump for the last eight years didn’t sit well with many. The wide lawfare abuse he received all contrasted to the Hunter Biden laptop sidestep and the Biden decline coverup. This “stop Trump” campaign was an extension of Hillary Clinton’s wanton Steele Dossier dishonesty.

Jews should feel a common cause when someone is persecuted and treated unfairly. Isn’t there an obvious parallel with the Alfred Dreyfus Affair and the myriad examples of institutionalized hatred and prejudice so often aimed at the Jews? Are we so very far from the days when our parents suffered educational and employment bigotry (e.g., hiring and enrollment quotas), and societal limitations (e.g., NO JEWS ALLOWED)? Why didn’t the many well-funded Jewish institutions see the injustice and call for our country to disavow the leaders who permit the abuse?

Media’s bias: With few exceptions, the Americans press subjected Trump to unrelenting and hyperbolic criticism. Jews ought to see the parallel with how Israel is too often abused by the press. The intersectional formula defining the oppressors and oppressed use “feelings” and bumper sticker logic while avoiding any deeper dive into established facts of history. The dusty mob of keffiyeh wearing rioters marched with a dearth of knowledge and were too often cast as brave revolutionaries.

The New York Times and the other big-city progressive newspapers hung onto the Democratic Party’s fabrications crafted to hinder Trump. The cable news offered two realities with the pro-Harris stations ignoring her history and bleeping over her campaign gaffs. Her avoidance of press conferences should have been the acid test of her thin credentials. The unbalanced coverage of Israel was a daily occurrence.

On the day of the election three Jewish media sources, Haaretz, The Jerusalem Post and The Forward offered snarky pro-Harris articles. They strained to make their case by questioning the low profile of Jared and Ivanka, the positive potential of the very flawed Ilan Goldenberger as Harris’s Jewish liaison, and how Trump’s border criminal deportation was like the Nazi’s relocation of the Jews of France.

Great organizations like AIPAC, StandWithUs and CAMERA work on behalf of Jews and Israel. While they are effective, their support levels among Jews are still disappointing. There is room for better coordination, marketing and outreach to the under committed Jews.

Messaging: The Harris campaign chose to use hateful, toxic accusations of Hitler, fascist, racist, deplorable and garbage to demonize Trump. The Republicans chose to chant “U-S-A”, and when Trump spoke about Israel his audiences always reacted with applause. Middle American voters have a Biblically based respect for Israel and yet somehow Jews don’t reject the extreme anti-Zionist rhetoric.

Aren’t we a people who have faced foul insults? The Harris Jews should be offended by her choices of opprobrium that is sourced so close to our most painful past. The use of the term Hitler and Nazi became the knee-jerk adjective for Trump. Where was the ADL in this firestorm? Where were the JCRC’s and synagogues? Isn’t the danger of a lie told often enough frightened to our generation?

So, we have four years until the next presidential election, and Jews can either apathetically slide along or wise up. We can hope that President Trump overlooks his treatment by American Jews and governs in a just way. We avoided a deep pothole this time.