Your Republican friends need to know the facts

Only 25% of Jewish voters support Donald Trump. The question is why any Jewish voter would vote for Trump, especially considering the records Harris and Walz have compiled on Israel and antisemitism.

At last night’s presidential debate, Harris reminded a national audience that “on October 7th, Hamas, a terrorist organization, slaughtered 1,200 Israelis, many of them young people who were simply attending a concert. Women were horribly raped.” Harris reiterated her commitment to ensuring Israel’s ability to defend itself, getting the hostages out of Gaza, a ceasefire, and ultimately, a two-state solution–all of which go hand in hand.

In response, Trump said that Harris “hates Israel,” “hates the Arab population,” and repeated false claims about Biden’s record on Iran (see #7 below).

In a way, you have to give Trump credit. I never thought it would be possible for a presidential candidate to answer a question about Israel by telling so many lies within the allotted time and never mention October 7, the hostages, but Trump did it last night. 

Trump and the Republican Party are doing no better among Jewish voters than they did when Trump first ran in 2016. They’d be doing great within the Jewish community if votes were awarded based on decibel level or right-wing rumor-mongering but those efforts, visible as they are, don’t represent or persuade the vast majority of Jewish Americans. Still, 25% is too high. 

With each breathless, pearl-clutching message or video from the influencer du jour,  our Republican friends would have us believe that  Harris and Walz have spent decades compiling unequivocally pro-Israel records and adopting a platform perfect on Israel as a smokescreen to put in place evil actors who will destroy Israel the first chance they get.

Rather than go down their rabbit holes, ask them to consider the following facts. Then ask them how, if they care as much about Israel and antisemitism as they claim to, they could consider voting for Trump, JD Vance, or anyone running as a Republican in 2024.

(1) The 2024 Republican platform does not mention October 7, the hostages, Iran, or aid to Israel. Ask your Republican friends if they’ve read the party platforms. Ask them to compare the Democratic and Republican platforms on Israel and antisemitism.  The Democratic platform is the strongest and most detailed platform on Israel and antisemitism ever adopted by any American political party. The Republican platform tells us how little the GOP cares about supporting Israel and fighting antisemitism.

(2) The vast majority of Republicans voted to cut aid to Israel two weeks before October 7. On September 29, 198 Republicans–90% of all House Republicans–voted for HR 5525, a so-called continuing resolution that would have cut aid to Israel by nearly 30%. Republicans wrote the bill without Democratic input. Republicans brought it to the floor for a vote. Republicans voted for it even though it violated our Memorandum of Understanding with Israel. It failed because 21 Republicans and 211 Democrats voted against it. No Democrats voted for it. Trump said nothing about it.

If your Republican friends are represented by any of those 198 Republicans, ask how in good conscience they could vote to reelect them–or vote for Trump. After October 7, Republicans blocked the Biden-Harris administration’s emergency aid request for Israel for six months.

(3) JD Vance twice voted against emergency aid to Israel. He’s been in the Senate for less than two years. Vance voted against the package that included $14 billion in emergency aid to Israel twice, on February 13 when it could have passed and on April 23 when it did pass. The first time, Senate Republicans voted against the package 26-22 (Democrats supported it 46-2) but the second time even most Republicans supported it, 31-15. Vance was one of the few Republicans who voted against it twice, yet Trump selected him as his running mate. Harris never voted against aid to Israel when she was in the Senate. Walz never voted against aid to Israel when he was in the House.

(4) Trump disrespected Israel and the hostages after October 7. Trump attacked Israel and its leaders days after October 7. Trump said nothing while Republicans were blocking vital emergency aid to Israel for six months. During that same period, the Biden-Harris administration approved over 100 arms sales to Israel.

When Biden and Harris talk about the “hostages” they are working to bring home, they are talking about the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. When Trump talks about “the hostages” who are treated “horrifically,” he’s talking about January 6 insurrectionists held in U.S. prisons who he plans to pardon. Trump has shown no sympathy–only callousness–for the hostages.

Following Hamas’s murder of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi, and Master Sgt. Ori Danino, President Biden and Vice President Harris issued statements on August 31 that reflected our support for Israel and our shared values. Their statements contained no partisanship.

Trump issued a political rant about the hostages on September 1. On September 5, speaking to the Republican Jewish Coalition (a group you’d think might care), Trump could not even get Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s name right. 

(Walz, himself a strong friend of Israel and the Jewish community, issued a statement on September 1. JD Vance said nothing until asked about the murders in a September 4 interview.)

(5) Trump is an antisemite. Trump has a long record of antisemitism and accusing Jews of disloyalty. Those are not the only antisemitic tropes he’s used. Trump dined with Kanye West and white nationalist/Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes. (Not to be outdone, JD Vance refused to condemn Tucker Carlson for legitimizing, publicizing, and agreeing with a Holocaust “revisionist,” leading to a rebuke from every Jewish member of the House of Representatives.)

Trump said that there were “very fine people on both sides” of the 2017 Charlottesville march that featured white supremacists carrying tiki torches chanting “Jews will not replace us.”

At the September 2024 Republican Jewish Coalition meeting, Trump insulted Jews who back Democrats (roughly 70% of all Jewish voters) and leveled false accusations against Biden and Harris. If you’re still not convinced that Trump is antisemitic, read Rob Eshman’s article. 

(6) Trump regularly uses Hitler’s rhetoric. Trump repeatedly invokes Hitler and the Nazis. He called for the “creation of a unified reich” on May 21, 2024. No less an authority than JD Vance once called Trump “America’s Hitler.”

(7) Trump is weak on Iran. Trump walked away from the Iran Deal while the deal was working and Iran was still in compliance. Then his “maximum pressure” strategy failed, his efforts at the UN to continue the arms embargo against Iran failed, and his efforts at the UN to snap back sanctions against Iran failed. Trump’s Iran policy was a disaster.

On September 5, 2024,  Trump reversed himself and suggested that he’d lift sanctions on Iran. He added that he wants “to use sanctions as little as possible.” Trump’s incoherence allows him and his supporters to backtrack and explain away anything he says, so watch for yourself what he said.

Trump is not serious about stopping Iran–or Russia. He doesn’t care about Israel. As former Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton said, “Trump’s support for Israel in the first term is not guaranteed in the second term, because Trump’s positions are made on the basis of what’s good for Donald Trump, not on some coherent theory of national security.”

The Biden-Harris administration has not lifted any sanctions on Iran, a state sponsor of terrorism. Instead, the Biden-Harris Administration has imposed more than 600 new sanctions on Iran and its destabilizing terrorist proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah.

Yet Trump and his Republican allies falsely accuse Biden of giving money to Iran. 

(8) Trump’s policies did not help Israel. Trump’s moving the embassy to Jerusalem made Israel neither safer nor more secure. Few cared where the embassy was until Republicans decided it would bolster the presidential candidacy of Sen. Robert Dole (R-KA). Now it’s Trump’s antisemitic dog-whistle to right-wing Evangelicals.

Anshel Pfeffer wrote that Trump’s recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights was an empty gesture–“just as his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was. It won’t change the status of the Golan in international law and with the exception of a few client-states in Latin America, no other country is going to follow suit.” And as we discussed above, Trump’s Iran policy failed.

These are the facts our Republican friends would like to forget. Don’t let them. The November election is a choice between Harris/Walz and Trump/Vance. Is either ticket perfect? Of course not. But to paraphrase Joe Biden, the choice is not between Harris/Walz and perfection. 

The choice is between Harris/Walz and a ticket led by a 34-time convicted felon who paid hush money to cover up sex with a porn star four months after his wife gave birth to prevent Americans from knowing his true character before an election, a would-be authoritarian with no respect for democracy who stole classified documents, incited an insurrection, refused to accept the results of a lawful election, was found legally liable for sexual abuse, and compiled a terrible record as president. 

Add to that the Trump/Vance record on Israel and antisemitism, and it’s an easy choice.

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