Maybe now the threat of anti-Semitism – government-sanctioned anti-Semitism, to be specific – could be slackening with Bernie Sanders’s slackening presidential campaign.
American Jews feared that a Bernie Sanders presidency would intensify the anti-Semitic movement that has been haunting our country, especially during the past few years. Had Sanders swept Super Tuesday states last week, we should still be worried.
Considering his allies in Congress and his past statements about Israel, people are concerned that he could apply presidential power to harm Israel – ironic in that he could be our first Jewish president. In the last two weeks, the majority of voters in 14 states declared they want Joe Biden nominated to run against Donald Trump on Nov. 3. On Tuesday, Biden clobbered Vermont’s junior senator in Michigan and three other states.
As the conventional wisdom goes, the former vice president has a far better chance of defeating Trump’s attempt to win a second term, and Sanders could lose because of his branding as a “democratic socialist.” Perhaps Sanders can oust Trump, but he seems likely to hinder Democratic candidates from winning enough Senate seats to seize the majority. If Republicans remain in control of the Senate, they will probably obstruct both his agenda and that of more pragmatic Democrats in Congress.
Neither the nomination nor the general election are decided, but Sanders’s quest for the nomination looks almost shattered.
Interestingly, AIPAC CEO Howard Kohr spoke too soon when he warned of the prospect of institutional anti-Semitism Sunday morning, saying, “For decades, we have built a broad and bipartisan consensus as the foundation of support for Israel in America.
“It is a foundation that has endured no matter who was president,” Kohr noted during the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. “Today that foundation is in danger of being rocked as it never has been before. A growing, highly vocal and energized part of the electorate fundamentally rejects the value of the U.S.-Israel alliance. Its most radical views are bending the political conversation and commanding attention.”
Fifteen months ago, it was understandable to fear that anti-Semitism could be fused with our political system. Britain’s Labour Party was overtaken by Israel-bashers and anti-Semites in 2015, and it was possible that the same could happen here to the Democrats. While some members of Congress had questionable attitudes about Israel, there was nothing to question about the attitudes of Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib.
Both were elected to the House of Representatives in November 2018 after already voicing hostility toward Israel. Omar, who represents Minneapolis and some of its suburbs, once warned of the “evil doings of Israel.” During her first month in office, Tlaib said that two senators “forgot what country they represent” when they proposed legislation to battle the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
Both Omar and Tlaib, who represents part of Detroit, are Muslims. Omar moved to America after escaping oppression in Somalia, and Tlaib was born in Michigan after her family left Israel’s West Bank territory. Their behavior can make one wonder if they reflect the feelings of all Muslims in the United States, though I do not believe that.
Consider what could happen if the majority of congressional Democrats shared their approach to Israel. It could be a repeat of the Labour Party’s fate.
In December, what remained of Labour’s power came crashing down when the Tory Party creamed them in parliamentary elections. In any other election year, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government might have been defeated, but Labour’s insensitivity to Jews and other Brits who made Labour what it was saved Johnson’s political career. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s operation drove out MP’s (Member of Parliament) like Joan Ryan.
“I can look myself in the mirror every morning,” Ryan told the website Jewish Insider. “It’s almost like a relief that…I did have the moral courage to do the right thing…I’m not a fan of Boris Johnson’s politics, and I think life might be very tough for a lot of people going forward.
“But there are some things that are not policy matters,” she continued. “There is a political price to be paid for being anti-Semitic, and it’s not wrong that Labour has paid that price and will continue to pay it if it doesn’t reform itself, visibly and transparently.”
Among his latest acts, Sanders hired Phillip Agnew as a senior adviser despite his leadership of Dream defenders, which has repeatedly promoted the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which has been a U.S.-designated terrorist group since 1997, as reported by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Agnew also labeled Zionism “a racist , exploitative and exclusionary ideology” in a 2015 article for Ebony magazine, according to JTA.
Even before Tuesday’s round of primaries ended, Sanders played a blame game reminiscent of Captain Queeg, the paranoid skipper in The Caine Mutiny” when he told The New York Times, “What was very clear from the media narrative and what the establishment wanted was to make sure that people coalesced around Biden and tried to defeat me.”
Never mind his commendable but unrealistic domestic agenda and deep fears that he would undermine Israel’s security. Never could average voters have legitimate reasons to block the rise of Prez Bernie.
Republished from San Diego Jewish World