Could a structural disconnect in the Democrat party cost Harris the elections?
by Gol Kalev; Reprint from the The Jerusalem post, November 1 2024
(photo credit: Adam J. Dewey/Anadolu via Getty Images)
As more and more experts speculate that Jewish Democrats in Pennsylvania and other swing states could decide the election, the opposing strategies of the two campaigns could be indicative of a rift within the liberal Jewish community.
While both campaigns talk about the threat to Jews and Judaism, Harris talks about Hitler, and Trump talks about Iran.
Answering a question about fighting antisemitism in a CNN town hall meeting in Philadelphia, Harris said, “If the president of the United States, the commander in chief, is saying to his generals in essence, ‘Why can’t you be more like Hitler’s generals’…This is a serious, serious issue.”
Harris contrasted this to her own commitment to fighting antisemitism: “As Attorney General, I actually published a hate-crime report on a regular basis, and antisemitism was amongst the highest forms of hate.”
The undecided voter asking the question, Beth Samberg, was disappointed by Harris’ answer. In an exclusive interview with the Jerusalem Post, Samberg, a lifelong Democrat, reflected: “She spoke about a report from 10 years ago, but did not address what is happening now.”
That now is an unprecedented dual assault on Judaism – a physical one in the Middle East and an ideological one in the West, which Samberg explains manifests itself in an intolerable environment on college campuses.
Democratic leaders, however, showcase the crafting of a national strategy to counter traditional antisemitism – the threat to Jews and Judaism of the 20th Century – which was led by Harris’ husband, Douglas Emhoff.
Jews in swing states vote differently
Republicans seek to capitalize on this apparent rift between Democratic Jewish donors in New York and Democrat Jewish voters in swing states.
Sam Markstein, the National Political Director for the Republican Jewish Coalition, told the Jerusalem Post that while Jews voted 70%-30% for Biden in 2020, data shows that in swing states, those numbers were much closer.
In Georgia it was 50-50%. Markstein expects this discrepancy to be even bigger in 2024: “Pro-Israel Jewish voters in swing states were open to voting for Biden because he had a 50-year track record, dating back to meeting Golda Meir in Israel in the 1970s. Harris does not have a similar well of built-in support.”
Samberg, still undecided, said she sees a clear pattern among her Philadelphia Jewish Democratic friends, “We all agree on the issues. What we disagree on is how we prioritize them. Jewish friends who prioritize social justice issues vote for Harris. Jewish friends who prioritize antisemitism and Israel issues vote for Trump.” This, Samberg says, is a byproduct of October 7th.
“October 8th Jews” vs “two-states solution Jews”
Indeed, the rift within liberal Democrat Jews widened over the last year. There are the so-called “October 8th Jews” who reengaged with their Jewish identity through standing firm with Israel, while there are those who infuriated Israelis by arguing that the response to October 7th should be the establishment of a Palestinian State.
“Two-state solution Jews” resurrected this 1990s template, sacred in Democratic Jewish donors circles, but rejected by Israelis and Palestinians alike, as well as by experts such as Henry Kissinger.
I once tried to challenge the sacrilegious nature of the two-state solution by explaining that the world does not begin in West Hampton and end in East Hampton. I was corrected: “In an election year, it does.” And so, the 1990s two-state solution, along with 1940s Hitler, made it to the top of Harris’ talking points.
This might be too detached for actual 2024 Democratic Jewish voters. It both cheapens the magnitude of last century’s attempt to eradicate Judaism and ignores this century’s assault on Judaism. All in the name of the “balancing act conception” between being pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian.
This is why one of the policy recommendations in my new book, The Assault on Judaism, is to disassociate the Assault on Judaism from the Palestinian issue. While they are interdependent (war crimes indictments need a war), the existential threat to Judaism originates from the West and is a proxy for an Assault on America.
For this and other reasons, it should be treated by the National Security Council and not by an antisemitism committee or report. The South African foreign minister even pledged: “America is next”.
Yet, Democratic donors in New York – some of them are my friends – remain in their old conception: They refuse to use their enormous leverage to pressure Harris to sanction the International Criminal Court as it lays the ground for the arrests of Israeli soldiers and political leaders.
They defend the administration sanctioning Israeli Jews, which instills Jewish insecurity on a national level, while they continue to fund US universities, which instills Jewish insecurity on a personal level.
Actual Jewish voters, on the other hand, like Samberg, view this insecurity as intolerable.
Renewed Jewish insecurity
This prompted a new initiative led by the Tzemach David Foundation, in partnership with Israeli university presidents and other donors, to prepare Israeli academic institutions for the possibility of a massive influx of American Jewish students who seek to study in a safe and inclusive environment.
Markstein thinks this is the key issue for Jewish voters: “They ask who is keeping us safe as Jews here in America? And they ask who will be there for Israel when it needs America…Harris supported an embargo.”
While Harris was trying to retain Jewish voters in Pennsylvania by talking about Hitler, Trump was in a town hall in Georgia, scolding Biden’s preventing Israel from attacking Iran’s nuclear and oil facilities.
This was in response to a question from a young non-Jewish voter, Jack Hogan, “How do you plan to support and protect Israel and the Jewish community?” which Ayer, a small-town mayor in rural Georgia, defined as “one of the most pressing things on a global scale.”
In the early 20th Century, the Jewish masses rebelled against their adamantly anti-Zionist Jewish leadership and instead aligned themselves with the non-Jewish Americans in steadfast support for Zionism.
Are we on the eve of another populous Jewish revolt against its leadership – this time within the Democratic party? November 5th could give an indication of that.
Gol Kalev is the author of the new book The Assault on Judaism: The Existential Threat Is Coming from the West. He is chairman of the Judaism 3.0 Think Tank and author of Judaism 3.0: Judaism’s Transformation to Zionism.
This article appeared in the Jerusalem Post on November 1st, 2024
Europe and Jerusalem has been featuring Gol Kalev’s geopolitical analysis since 2015: Europe and Jerusalem
Related Jerusalem Post analysis – October 2024:
The Jewish vote in swing states may determine the winner in the US elections (Jerusalem Post, October 26, 2024)
American Jews silent on Israel’s survival as they fight antisemitism from the past (Jerusalem Post, October 20, 2024)
Who decides: Who will live, who will die? (Jerusalem Post, October 7, 2024)
The assault on Judaism: Will the US hold Macron accountable as France takes the lead (Jerusalem Post, October 6, 2024)
Related interview: “Europe should decide: It’s either ICC or DC”
Related article: Response to antisemitism: Show the world that Judaism has become Zionism (Jerusalem Post, April 12, 2024)
Related books:
The Assault on Judaism: The Existential Threat is Coming from the West (October 2024)
Judaism 3.0: Judaism’s Transformation to Zionism (March 2022; updated July 2024)
Read an excerpt and Summary of the Assault on Judaism: Jerusalem Report Cover – September 23, 2024
The cover the September 23, 2024 issue of the Jerusalem Report features Gol Kalev’s new book:
Reprints from The Jerusalem Report, September 23, 2024, By Gol Kalev
Judaism is facing its greatest survival challenge since the Jews were deported from Judea, as a nuanced, layered, yet fast-paced assault is coming from the West.
Every few centuries there is an attempt to eradicate Judaism, using destruction mechanisms that are relevant to the time. Sometimes, it is done through an attempt to kill Jews by Jews, such as in Europe during the 20th century and during the Crusades of the 12th century. Sometimes it is done through an attempt to destroy Judaism collectively, as an idea, such as in Spain during the 15th century and by the Greeks during the 2nd century BCE.
Today, Hamas, Iran, and its proxies are attempting to destroy Judaism Jew by Jew through a physical assault. However, they do not have the capabilities to eradicate Judaism. Those destruction mechanisms are housed in the West and are carried through an ideological assault on Judaism.
Like previous large-scale assaults, the attack is being channeled through the most relevant aspect of Judaism at the time. In our era, this aspect is Zionism, which has become the anchor of Judaism.
In my 2022 book Judaism 3.0: Judaism’s Transformation to Zionism, I showed that we are in the midst of a historic transformation of Judaism. I identified Israel-bashing as an existential threat to the survival of Judaism. I argued that recognizing that we are in Judaism 3.0 could help counter the threat, as the Israel-basher must stay in Judaism 2.0 – the illusion that Judaism is merely a religion. This allows the attacker to express “zero tolerance to antisemitism” (the threat to Jews and Judaism in the 20th century), while partaking in Israel-bashing (the threat to Jews and Judaism in the 21st century).
The Jerusalem Report dedicated the cover of its 2022 New Year issue to the book, with an article titled “Judaism’s transformation to Zionism – Countering the Israel-bashing movement,”which summarized the main thesis of the book. Since then, October 7 turned Judaism 3.0 from a thesis to a depiction of day-to-day life.
In my new book, The Assault on Judaism, which is being released in September, I describe the path to destruction of Judaism that was triggered on October 7. I show the interdependence between the physical attack and the ideological attack that followed, including how inevitable it was for friendly Western governments, which ferociously defend the Jewish state from physical attack, to partake in the ideological assault on Judaism.
I show the gradual activation of the destruction mechanisms. This includes the ICC and the ICJ setting the legal groundwork for the arrest of Jews en masse, and of Western governments, such as France, pledging in advance their collaboration – just as they did 80 years ago, the last time arrest warrants were issued against Jews en masse.
I show how an ecosystem is being developed for collective destruction of Judaism through DAS – demoralization, attrition, and sanctions. I also show how just like in the previous large-scale assault, there is an understandable, yet laughable, attempt to carve out “Good Jews” (Jews in America) from “Bad Jews” (Jews in Israel/Jews in the IDF/Jews in settlements).
Throughout my analysis, I draw not only on lessons from previous large-scale assaults on Judaism but also on the wisdom of Theodor Herzl, whose frameworks are becoming more and more relevant today. Indeed, just as Herzl identified back then, the lethal part of today’s assault does not come from the hard-core Israel-bashers on the fringe but from mainstream people in positions of power, who control the destruction mechanism. Those “Israel-bashers lite,” some of whom are my friends, are certainly not “organic antisemites” but are influenced by the pressure generated by the Israel-basher movement.
The ideological assault on Judaism has turned into a threat to global stability, but it has been all but ignored. A paradigm shift is needed – abandoning old conceptions and crafting long-term and short-term defense strategies correlated to the existential threat.
This is what I do in the last few chapters of the book, focusing on different stops along the path to destruction of Judaism, and tailoring a different strategy to counter each of those stops. I am glad that the book is already making an impact, and grateful that some of those in governments and media partaking in the assault invited me to present the arguments in the book, even before it was published.
Now The Jerusalem Report readers have the opportunity to be among the first to read an edited excerpt from the overview to the section of the book that outlines the strategies to intercept the path of destruction of Judaism.
BOOK EXCERPT:
Disrupting the path to destruction
Putting together an effective defense strategy against a large-scale assault involves three basic elements: acknowledging that indeed there is an assault; determining who is committing the assault; and identifying the arena in which the assault is being carried out. In the October 7 physical assault on Judaism, it was quite clear: We were indeed under a large-scale assault. It was carried out by Hamas, and the arena was Gaza. The same clarity exists for the ideological assault on Judaism: We are indeed under a large-scale assault on Judaism. It is coming from the West, and the arena for the attack on Judaism is Zionism.
Point of attack on Judaism: Zionism
To state the obvious, Zionism is not the reason for the attack on Judaism. It is the vehicle through which the ideological assault on Judaism is being made. That is because Zionism has become the anchor of Judaism.
Historically, large-scale attacks on Judaism have always been carried out through the most relevant aspect of Judaism of that time. When Judaism was anchored in the Temple, the Greeks tried to eradicate Judaism by desecrating the Temple, and the Romans by burning it. When Jews were organized in insular communities and bound together through the religious aspect of Judaism, the assault on Judaism was carried out through its theological and religious aspects. When Jews were given rights and lived freely in Europe, the attack was on the emancipated Jews – their success, freedom, and power.
Now that the Jewish state was reestablished and is thriving, Israel-bashing and anti-Zionism have replaced traditional antisemitism as the vehicle of opposition to Judaism. This is quite natural, as more and more of the world’s touchpoints with Judaism are now through Israel and Zionism.
Theodor Herzl, the father of Zionism, wrote: “How can we tell the power of an idea? When we see that nobody can ignore it – whether he is for it or against it.”
Zionism today is the one aspect of Judaism that cannot be ignored, including in opposition. Indeed, criticism of Israel has become the number one Jewish-related activity for many American Jews, by far more than going to synagogue, thinking about the Holocaust, or engaging in Jewish cultural activities.
In previous chapters of the book, I outlined the path to the destruction of Judaism and showed that we are already far along this path. To intercept that path of destruction, we need to have a deep and nuanced understanding of the various stops along this path, and tailor a defense strategy for each of those steps:
• The hard-core Israel-bashers who are leading the assault on Judaism through “pro-Palestinian” activities and slander the Jewish state and its citizens
• The Israel-bashers lite, who may not be organic Israel-bashers but are influenced by incitement in the media and by the pressure of the hard-core Israeli-bashers
• Governments that ultimately have the capabilities to activate the destruction mechanism of Judaism but also have the capabilities to defend Judaism
Each group along this path has its unique motivations, characteristics, and vulnerabilities.
Hard-core Israel-bashers
The hard-core Israel-bashers are the ones who drive public opinion against the Jews. They are the face of the assault on Judaism. They carry the “From the river to the sea” banners and accuse the Jewish state of genocide. They are the most vocal part of the assault on Judaism. However, they do not possess the destruction mechanism.
While they are not a homogeneous group, the crux of that part of the assault on Judaism are young progressives, driven by DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) and woke values. They are characterized by strong conviction. To their credit, most of them act on a strong belief that they are doing the right thing, per their understanding of the world.
While they have strong convictions, most of them lack content. They are not acting based on firsthand experience or independent research but rather on secondhand sound bites they get from their social networks, their friends, and their “clergy” (be they progressive professors, liberal news organizations, popular social media influencers, or opinion leaders). They express their opposition to Judaism through being “pro-Palestinian,” which in their social circles is akin to being pro-women, pro-minorities, or pro-justice.
A Catalan separatist once told me that the primary problem of their separatist movement is that they are occupied by Spain and not by Israel. If they were occupied by Israel, the entire world would be pro-Catalan, and nobody would have ever heard of Palestine.
Indeed, most of those hard-core Israel-bashers waving a Palestinian flag could not find Palestine on a map. But that is utterly irrelevant.
Western pro-Palestinianism has become a culture, a fashion, and a social trend. This, for example, was expressed in the September 2023 University of Pennsylvania festival Palestine Writes. For an American to write about a longing for a physical Palestine that he has never been to, nor heard much about, is rather absurd. However, he can write about injustice, about how he can imagine life under occupation, about the travesty of oppression, the cancer of fascism, and the malaise of Zionism – and, by extension, of Judaism – which, after all, represents a counter-diversity, counter-inclusivity concept to him.
Indeed, hard-core Israel-bashers, expressed through the Western pro-Palestinian movement, are driven by their opposition to colonialism, racism, suppression of freedoms, and the violation of human rights. Palestinians are merely a vehicle.
The way to address this group is to demonstrate that the Western pro-Palestinian movement is a Western colonialist movement that hijacked the plight of Palestinians for its own benefit.
While the intention of many Western pro-Palestinians is good, they should be aware that when they put on their keffiyeh, wave the Palestinian flag and head to the protest, they are engaging in Islamophobia, bigotry, racism, and white colonialism.
Palestinians and pro-Palestinians are two different, competing movements. They have different long-term objectives, short-term goals, cultures, symbols, ethos, mottos, and banners. In the clash between the interests of pro-Palestinians and Palestinians, it is clear who wins. The Western pro-Palestinian movement is well funded, organized, and structured, with access to resources and power.
As will be discussed in Chapter 11, this is reflected in Western pro-Palestinians systematic suppression of basic Palestinian rights, such as freedom of employment, freedom of consumption, property rights, and even the right to control their assets.
Western pro-Palestinians even engage in an act of racism when they wear their keffiyeh. Indeed, the keffiyeh is today’s blackface – a demeaning stereotype of an Arab of a previous century – not of today. Such dehumanization continues when it comes with the Western pro-Palestinian attempt to deny Palestinian refugees in Gaza the right to choose whether to stay or flee the war zone. The Western pro-Palestinian movement is dependent on the misery of their Palestinian victims, and hence acts to perpetuate it, to the tune of millions of dollars.
The most effective way to defend against the attack from hard-core Israel-bashers is to bring the battle to them, and that is what Chapter 11 in the book describes: “Arena shifting: Bring the battle to the Israel-bashers’ turf.”
Israel-bashers lite
The Israel-bashers lite may have no organic interest in the assault on Judaism, but they are influenced by the pressures created by the hard-core Israel-bashers and act on it.
Unlike the hard-core Israel-bashers who show their opposition mostly through rhetoric, since they do not have a destruction mechanism, the Israel-bashers lite can assault Judaism in both rhetoric and actions – they are the ones who possess the destruction mechanisms of Judaism. They are normative people in government, media, and international organizations.
They are sensitive to public sentiment and to their assessment of where “the wind is blowing.” The politicians in this group need to get reelected; civil servants need to execute the will of those they serve; journalists need to provide information to the public that reflects the public sentiment. As that journalist who rationalized the distorted headline “Israel kills dozens of Palestinians” put it, “This is what Europeans want to hear.”
This group is not only normative, but they want to stay normative. They are therefore risk-averse and vulnerable to social pressures. They do not want to separate from the prevailing wisdoms and the presumed principles of their milieu. As a result, this group is easily influenced by incitement against the Jewish state. Israel-bashers lite are not “organic Israel-bashers”; they are “reactionary Israel-bashers.”
Unlike the hard-core Israel-basher, the one thing the normative Israel-bashers lite fear is being perceived as antisemites. While being anti-Zionist and an Israel-basher is socially acceptable and even encouraged in certain circles, being anti-Jewish is a career-ending taboo.
Israel-bashers lite operate in an echo chamber that assures them that their participation in the assault on Judaism is not antisemitic.
Once there is a broad recognition that Judaism has transformed and Zionism is now the anchor of Judaism, Israel-bashers lite will be deterred. In Chapter 12, I describe how Israel-bashers lite can come on their own to the realization that the world increasingly now views Israel-bashing and Jew-bashing as synonymous.
Governments
Hard-core Israel-bashers fueled the assault, and Israel-bashers lite activated the destruction mechanisms. However, Israel-bashers can only go so far down the path to eradicate Judaism. They need to engage the full power of governments.
This was the case in previous episodes of assault. The antisemitism ideology that became popular in Europe in the early 20th century was mostly in rhetoric until a government – the German government – stepped in. Haman’s strategy to eradicate the Jews in the Book of Esther would also been in theory only, had the Persian king not decided to engage the full force of the Persian government.
This is the case today. As it became clear in 2024 that European and other governments opted to participate in the contemporary assault on Judaism, it is now left up to the United States to intercept the path to the destruction of Judaism.
The good news is that those other governments that partake in the ideological assault are dependent on the United States for their economic, political, and national security. The US has enormous leverage.
Assault on Judaism as proxy for assault on America
Let’s be clear: The assault on Judaism is also a proxy for assault on Americanism. This is both conceptually, in an attempt to negate the principles of the American Revolution and its Judeo-Christian basis.
The infrastructure that is being set by the ICC and the ICJ to arrest Israeli soldiers and political leaders can also serve as a “plug and play” template to be used against American soldiers and political leaders.
Just as Iran views the Jewish state as “Little Satan” and attacks it in part as a proxy to attacking America – “Big Satan,” the same is with the ideological assault on Judaism. If Israel, which international military experts state has the most moral army in the world, is “Little war criminal,” America in the attackers’ view is “Big war criminal” and can be next.
Indeed, on May 28, 2024, South Africa’s Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor revealed that her country was planning to do exactly that: The US is next, she promised. Similarly, the assault on Judaism destabilizes the world and triggered a series of unrelated conversation under the “pro-Palestinian” banner – from the nascent discussion of Spanish occupation of the Iberian Peninsula to disruption of the American higher education system.
For this and other reasons, the assault on Judaism should not be treated as a matter of antisemitism but as a US national security issue. As discussed in Chapter 13, the assault on Judaism is a way to “launder” an attempt to destabilize America.
If one can intercept the assault on Judaism, one prevents the subsequent assault on America.
The US has the ability to intercept the destruction mechanism of Judaism; for example, by sanctioning the ICC and those who collaborate with it.
This is not the first time the US faced such a decision. During the previous large-scale assault on Judaism in the 1940s, the US had the ability to intercept the destruction mechanism used at the time. President Franklin D. Roosevelt evaluated the proposal to disrupt those mechanisms in the context of the range of threats the United States was facing at the time.
For the United States, neutralizing the death camps where the Nazis carried out their plan to eradicate Judaism by killing Jew by Jew would have taken resources from other crucial operations. FDR made the prioritization call and allowed the path of destruction to continue.
In our era’s assault on Judaism, it is the reverse: Disrupting the destruction mechanisms of Judaism is defending America. As discussed, the assault on Judaism embodies both a short-term and a long-term threat to America.
Unlike in the 1940s, the United States today has the capability, capacity, and pressing national interest to disrupt the assault on Judaism on its multiple levels, using various tools at its disposal and in so doing, defining America. Chapter 13 discusses those tools and offers some simple and immediate measures the US government can take to disrupt the assault
Gol Kalev is author of Assault on Judaism: The Existential Threat Is Coming from the West (TheAssaultonJudaism.com). He is chair of the Judaism 3.0 Think Tank and author of Judaism 3.0: Judaism’s Transformation to Zionism (Judaism-Zionism. com).
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The Assault on Judaism was launched on October 14th, at an event hosted by the Begin Center in Jerusalem. See clips, read summary: Press Release
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