The antisemitism problem within the Democratic Party

Most American Jews over the last 100 years have stood firmly with the Democratic party, and here’s the reason why.  

Jews, who were fortunate enough to immigrate to the U.S. early on, or who were born there, found it easier to identify with a liberal-leaning party that tended to reject conservative values in favor of embracing whatever the then mainstream society had adopted. The same was true for Black Americans who had, for so many years, also been the object of scorn and prejudice. Consequently, both of these groups became mainstays of the party. 

Fast-forward 100 years later and the switch has been stunning. Many Black Americans have come to realize that not only did the party not do anything for them, but their own representatives allowed them to languish in crime-ridden cities whose inferior educational system did nothing to lift them out of the deep poverty from which they were unable to emerge. It was only during election times that these representatives showed their faces in these poor communities, while they continued to promise improved conditions, without ever delivering.

American Jews, on the other hand, suddenly discovered that the progressive wing of the party was filled with Jew-haters, either from Muslim backgrounds or others whose woke politics had no appetite for Israel, Zionism or even ordinary Jews, who didn’t necessarily align strongly with the Jewish state. While disturbing, it became intolerable in the aftermath of Oct. 7, when spontaneous pro-Palestinian demonstrations spilled over into unabashed Jew hatred.

It was as if, in one sweeping moment, the party revealed its innermost feelings; abandoning a large and loyal base which had faithfully done its bidding for so long. So where do these Jews go now that they seem to have been betrayed by their own political home?

On the Oct. 28 broadcast of his weekend program, "Life, Liberty and Levin," host Mark Levin, asked the perplexing question: “If you’re Jewish, why are you still a member of the Democratic Party?”

He answers the question by saying, “Let’s take this issue of Israel and what’s going on in the United States today.” He begins by addressing two groups CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) and the Muslim Brotherhood, which he claims are both tied to the Democratic party as has been proven in litigation, extrapolating, from there, that Hamas is part of the Democratic Party since they are supported by CAIR, a group which has been used for Democratic outreach. 

Making the case that those who are carrying signs in the streets that read, “Exterminate the Jews” and other such hateful messages directed towards Israel are not Republican voters. He cites the media, as well as many university professors, as also being among those who have turned bitterly against Jews, classifying them as nothing more than umbrella groups for Islamists.

Levin says that the Democratic Party has done nothing to stop these antisemitic groups that are fomenting the hate. Instead, he claims, “It funds them. It gives tenure to their professors.” He also notes that the U.S. Biden administration has been “undermining Israel’s war effort.” 

So how can Jews ignore these present positions, which are being fully supported by the party they once looked to as a bastion of freedom and those dedicated to the preservation of rights for the downtrodden? Because Israel, which was brutally attacked on Oct. 7 by Hamas and its slaughter of innocent civilians, and the country which is now fighting to have more than 200 Israeli hostages set free, is not at all looked upon as the “downtrodden.” 

To the contrary, Israel, to hear it from the extreme wing of the party, which already comprises a great many Democratic devotees, are labeled as oppressors, colonizers and those who have sought to impose apartheid upon Palestinians. There is no mention of the fact that no other Arab nation in the Middle East has been willing to provide sanctuary or safe passage to these very people who border our country. Nor is a word spoken about Hamas, their own governing party, as being the real perpetrators, who are using these “oppressed people” as human shields in a war of Hamas’ own making. 

The one-sided, libelous coverage is breathtaking, excluding important facts and historical context of who has truly caused the oppression of the Palestinian people since the days of Yasser Arafat, when he cleverly adopted their “new name” through a stolen identity because the title “Palestinian” given to the Jews by the Roman Emperor Hadrian, had been his idea of a slur – denying them their rightful connection to the land of Judea. 

These are all important but dispensable truths which inconveniently stand in the way of cynical and ideologically hate-filled agendas intended to draw in unsuspecting, low-information people who think it’s cool to follow the trends without ever understanding what it is that they are embracing. And who are those trend-setters?

Some of them are America’s members of Congress, who comprise The Squad: Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Omar Ilhan of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Cori Bush of Missouri and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman, both of New York. Ironically, given their strong anti-Israel positions, none of these individuals would be capable of defending their vicious claim of ill treatment toward Palestinians, nor would any of them be able to give a fact-based account of how Israel became the only Jewish nation or their historical and biblical claims to the land. 

They would also not be able to defend the shameful exploitation of a people which, for decades, have been being manipulated and kept subservient to a tyrannical, terrorist government that cares nothing about them. 

Of course, the same can be said of Jordan’s Queen Rania, who, rather than take pity on her own people, since she, too, is identified as a Palestinian, has, instead, chosen to ignore the heart wrenching and cruel atrocities that were committed by Hamas terrorists. 

As recently as Oct. 25, when countless media reports had already disclosed the full extent of these monstrous actions, the queen stuck to her claim that these acts had not yet been, “independently verified.”

So, what do you do with people who have no desire to see the truth, uncover the lies and false claims or even call out terrorism when it hits them right between the eyes? 

These are the positions that have now been publicly adopted by America’s Democratic Party that will, undoubtedly, see a mass exodus of their Jewish constituency, that is, other than Bernie Sanders who, from all appearances, seems to be a self-loathing Jew. But any others, who once looked upon the party as their stalwart defenders, must now take a step backwards and understand that in order to remain in the party, it will require a denial of their people, their homeland and the need to embrace the evil of antisemitism, which has now become the party’s flagship emblem.