Sellouts

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer gave a speech from the Senate floor on March 14, 2024, advocating for new elections in Israel, effectively calling for the end of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. Israel is not due for another election until October 2026, but in its parliamentary system the coalition that keeps Netanyahu in power could collapse any time, necessitating a new election.

Schumer’s call for immediate elections is nothing short of remarkable. Schumer is calling for the removal of a democratically elected leader of a close American ally. It is the kind of statement that if said about the United States by a foreign country would bring out cries of election interference. Add to this the fact that Israel is at war following the worst slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust, and Schumer’s calling for Netanyahu’s ouster becomes extraordinary in its cynicism and betrayal. To make matters worse, one day later the President of the United States, Joe Biden, endorsed Schumer’s speech. This presidential imprimatur indicates that official U.S. policy is to undermine the democratically elected chief executive of one of America’s most important allies during a time of war.

On one level the Biden/Schumer position is baffling. Presumably they wish Israel to replace Netanyahu with Netanyahu’s most likely successor, Benny Gantz. One would think the goal is to change Israel’s war policy. Hamas’s October 7, 2023, pogrom left 1,200 Israeli’s dead, 240 taken hostage (including half a dozen Americans), and included unspeakable horrors such as the use of rape as a war tactic. Not surprisingly, Israel has responded aggressively, much to the chagrin of the pro-Hamas left that has considerable support in elite American opinion. Yet Gantz, head of the major anti-Netanyahu party, has joined the war cabinet as part of a unity government. Gantz has supported Israel’s war effort. A change in Prime Minister would not cause a change in policy. And why should it? While Netanyahu is personally unpopular in Israel, the government’s war policy has support of a super-majority of Israelis.

Why, then, interfere in the internal politics of a close friend when no policy change would result? While American support for Israel is still quite high, when one looks inside the poll numbers one notices something remarkable. Republicans and independent are favorable toward Israel (albeit a slim majority with the latter group), but only a minority of Democrats (47%) indicate a favorable opinion toward Israel. Furthermore, just over a quarter of Democrats signal support for Palestinians. While support for the Palestinian cause does not equate necessarily with antisemitism, one cannot help but notice the prominence of Democrats such as Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Ilhan Omar, two members of Congress who, it is fair to say, are outright antisemitic and pro-Hamas. They represent a small but influential minority in the Democratic party.

Recall that when the House of Representatives considered a resolution denouncing antisemitism in the wake of appalling comments by Ilhan Omar, then Speaker Nancy Pelosi scuttled the resolution, offering up a generic resolution denouncing various kinds of bigotry. A more recent vote repudiating antisemitism got fourteen “no” or “present” votes in the House, all but one from Democrats. Biden and top Democrats believe they must signal that they have serious disagreements with Israeli policy. Yet because they don’t want to alienate pro-Israel Americans (not the least of which are Jewish-Americans) they don’t necessarily want to actually adopt anti-Israel policy. Bashing Netanyahu is the easy out. Netanyahu is popular neither in America nor Israel. By targeting him, Biden and Schumer can placate anti-Israel sentiment in their party without a serious change in genuine policy.

This is the height of political cowardice. The Biden/Schumer position is a mirror image to that taken by Americans mostly but not exclusively on the right, who praise Russia and excuse the murderous dictatorship of Vladimir Putin based on domestic politics. They are willing to at least soft-pedal criticisms of Russia and its aggression toward Ukraine in the name of promoting a non-interventionist or isolationist American foreign policy. In addition, what they perceive as Russian traditionalism and religiosity stands in contrast to what they see as American cultural decadence. So, an autocratic, anti-Western regime that invades a democratic neighbor gets a pass because these skeptics of American support for Ukraine want to stick it to domestic political enemies. They’d rather give tacit (or explicit) support to anti-Western Russia than give a political win to the “neo-cons,” “globalists,” and “hawks.” All the while they cozy up to a murderous dictator because of superficial similarities in worldview.

What is happening with Biden and Schumer is the mirror image of this. While some on the right minimize the cruelty of an American enemy to “own” domestic political opponents, Biden and Schumer would undermine an American ally to placate the worst elements of their own party. Biden is clearly afraid that by seeming too supportive of Israel he’ll alienate the progressive wing of his party. In what looks to be a close election, he can’t afford to lose any part of his base. Naturally, that base won’t vote for Donald Trump, but they might vote third party or just stay home, robbing Biden of dearly needed votes. Appeasing the antisemitic left is no less damnable than apologizing for Putin’s aggression.

So far Biden’s opposition to Israel has been largely rhetorical. In terms of actual policy the Biden administration has been largely supportive of the Israeli war effort. But as Abe Greenwald noted on a recent Commentary podcast, at some point the rhetoric becomes policy. This is despicable for two reasons. First, it sets a terrible precedent that America will subvert friendly democratic governments for short term domestic political gain. If that isn’t bad enough, in this specific instance the American administration looks to be excusing mass slaughter of Jews in order to placate domestic antisemitism. It looks like “never again” gets the caveat of “unless we need to win an election.”

One can be a skeptic about American support for Ukraine without being a Russian stooge. I happen to be such a skeptic. Similarly, one can be a critic of the Israeli government in general or the war effort in particular without being an antisemite. Still, it is increasingly the case that the correlation between criticism of Israel and antisemitism is approaching a 1:1 ratio. For example, we likely have reached the point where anti-Zionism really does amount to antisemitism. Anti-Zionism is almost always now code for “Jews don’t have the right to defend themselves.”

Anyone with any sense of the history of the Jewish people over the last 2,000 years should be thankful that there is a state of Israel, a place where Jews can find safe haven in a world that has historically singled them out for abuse. After the Holocaust, this is a moral imperative. America has historically been an ally to Israel, albeit with waxing and waning enthusiasm. Like any country, Israel has its problems. Still, the existence of the modern state of Israel is almost miraculous. That the Jewish people have managed to secure a homeland, after nearly 2,000 years without one, and that this homeland should be a successful, stable, prosperous democracy amidst a sea of enemies, every one of which is to some degree an authoritarian regime, is nothing short of remarkable. That the leader of the United States Senate, with the support of the President of the United States, would undermine that democratic people in its time of need is disgraceful. As the hashtag goes: #NeverAgainIsNow.