The “Judas” of Tisha B’Av – and the 2024 American Elections

Triumphal Arch of Titus – Rome – Wiki Commons

It’s election time.  I, like most Jews, religiously vote.  Jews as a group vote at a higher percentage than almost any group, making the Jewish vote disproportionately important. And like many Jews, I did not always know what the policies of the candidates were.  If a candidate was Jewish, if their name sounded Jewish, or if they were married to a Jew, that was good enough to vote for them.

The Jewish historical rationale was simple.  If the candidate was a Tribal member, they were safe bets to have Tribal interests at heart.

I stopped being “stupid” a long time ago.  Candidates with Jewish connections are not necessarily the best for the Jews.

Monday is Tisha B’Av.  In years past, I would be in Tzefat (Safed) at outdoor evening events, surrounded by children running around. The Book of Lamentations was projected onto huge screens for everyone to read together.  Nearly two thousand years ago, the Romans destroyed the Second Temple on the Ninth Day of Av. The Romans, for days, slaughtered Jews with abandon. They murdered, raped, robbed, kidnapped into slavery Jews.  The trauma of those horrific days has been codified into Jewish memory for millennia.

The Ninth of Av remains a day of infamy in the Jewish soul.

It is no wonder that that the Iranians are rumored to want to destroy the “Third Temple”, the modern State of Israel, on the Ninth of Av.

The destruction of the Temple and of Jerusalem did not occur in one day. Flavius Josephus, the oft-quoted Jewish military leader and Roman historian—some say, apostate turncoat—was born in Jerusalem about 37 A.D. He led the Jews against the Romans and then joined with them, prudently saving his own skin. Josephus wrote the history of the Jewish Wars that culminated in the Destruction of the Temple and the horrors that followed.

Josephus noted that Titus had ordered the Temple not to be destroyed.  As the Temple burned, Jewish Zealots continued to attack the Romans, trying to prevent the fires on the Temple Mount. Many Romans were killed.   The Roman situation was untenable.

Titus was militarily inexperienced.  Vespasian had assigned to Titus a powerful veteran of war, a strong leader, a teacher, a man who knew how to kill to win for Rome. The real commander of the Roman legions that destroyed the Temple and permitted the carnage of Jerusalem was Tiberius Julius Alexander, a Jew.  Vespasian needed a Jew to be the face that would control the Jews.

Tiberius was born into a wealthy, Jewish aristocratic family in Alexandria, Egypt.  His father, also named Julius Alexander, was a religious man who sent enormous donations to gild the Jerusalem Temple in silver and God.  Tiberius’ Uncle was the famed Jewish philosopher Philo. Tiberius’ father had him educated in liberal arts and in Jewish laws and traditions, all preparatorily to join the Roman bureaucracy.  Tiberius chose a different, respectable path as a Roman citizen.  He entered the military.  Many Jews served in the Roman armies.

Tiberius was exceptional as a soldier and later as a Governor of Egypt. He became the highest-ranking and most militarily preeminent Jewish General in Roman history. He may have been a Jew, but he was first a Roman.

Today’s Israel has been forced into a war it did not want.  It is an existential war.  If Israel loses, it will lose everything.

American support for the war is existential for Israel.  Yet American support has not been absolute.  President Biden and now Presidential candidate Kamala Harris have demonstrated reticence at supplying Israel with a long list of weapons it needs to defeat Hamas and Hezbollah, the Iranian hegemonic proxies. Republican senatorial leadership has openly come out and said bluntly the Biden/Harris administration is holding back.

Harris disgracefully refused to be present recently when Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke to a Joint Session of Congress.  She publicly humiliated and demeaned him when they met.

Any criticism of Harris’ Israel position is shrugged off – my husband is a Jew.  She is considering for her V.P. slot popular Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania.  It is the crudest form of political numerology.  Harris needs Pennsylvania to win.  She needs the Jewish vote to win Pennsylvania.

When Shapiro was in college, he spent a semester in Israel.  He worked on a kibbutz. He studied. He claimed for many years he volunteered for the Israeli army. He did not. He performed Sar-El type of service at best. He did not carry a gun.  Later, Shapiro wrote an article about his observations. Distilling what Shapiro wrote – Peace with the PLO is not possible because the Palestinians don’t want peace. They want war.

The uproar in the Harris camp is enormous. They need Shapiro, and Shapiro wants to be V.P.  He is backtracking on his earlier pro-Israel position.  He and Harris are “pivoting” their positions towards the middle about Israel.  Pivoting is a fancy word for lying.

Will the Jews be swayed?

The only candidate who has steadfastly supported Israel is President Trump.  He, rightfully and reasonably, does not understand how any Jew could not recognize he has been and will be Israel’s best friend. America will be there for Israel under Trump.  America has been there for Israel under Trump. Trump understands Israel is America’s defense line.

The Iranians chant death to Israel, death to America.  Israel is the Little Satan.  America is the Big Satan.  They mean it.

If someone is coming to kill you, Jewish law says you have a right to kill them first in self-defense.  Restraint can be suicidal.

The 2024 election is existential for Israel. It is existential for America.  Jews need to stop reading imaginary tea leaves and smell the coffee.  They need to stop voting for the Jewish name or whose spouse is Jewish. Jews must vote for which candidate has and will represent their mutual best interests  – President Trump.