Jewish delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago are eager to see what Vice President Kamala Harris has to say. American Jews are amongst her most prominent donors, and many want to vote for her. Historically, 70-80% of Jews voted for the Democratic presidential candidate. But for the first time in American political history, there is broad Jewish hesitation.
There is growing fear amongst the Democrats that the 2024 election for Jews might turn out to be what the 1964 election was for southerners – a historical switch from Democrat to Republican – a reluctant one in this case, driven by basic human survival instinct.
Judaism is in the midst of a dual assault – a physical one coming from Hamas, Iran, and its proxies, and an ideological one coming from the West. The ICC and ICJ are setting up the legal ground to arrest Israeli Jews en mass. European countries, like France, have already announced that they would collaborate – just as they did 80 years ago when arrest warrants were last issued against Jews.
The Biden Administration took a strong stance supporting the Jewish state’s defense from the physical attack from Iran and its proxies. However, this is not the case when it comes to the ideological attack from the West.
The US has yet to take action against the ICC and the ICJ, and in a move that is only now beginning to get attention, has instituted an open-ended sanction regime against Israeli Jews.
A campaign theme and a popular chant in the Democratic National Convention and Harris rallies is: “We are not going back,” but Jews are indeed now facing the risk of going back to a dark era of history. This is something that President Trump picked up upon, stating that any Jew who votes for Kamala Harris, “should have his head examined.”
Going back: Sanctions against Jews
For centuries, Europeans have been imposing sanctions against Jews—sometimes individually, sometimes collectively. Inappropriate Jewish behavior was “punished” by more sanctions. Even if the sanctions targeted a subset of Jews on the fringe, such as in 17th Century France against “Jewish beggars”, the message was heard loud and clear: Jews were placed on notice and should feel insecure.
The February 1, 2024, Biden executive order was initially misunderstood to be about sanctioning four Israeli criminals who engaged in deplorable violence against Palestinian Arabs, including vandalism and stone-throwing.
But as the year progressed, the bigger impact became evident: The executive order gave a “license to sanction” Israeli Jews to the Treasury and State Departments, and indeed they have been using this lethal “license”. For example, sanctioning organizations that raised money for the defense of individuals sanctioned.
That executive order also set the grounds for theoretical sanctioning of the propensity of Israeli Jews, explaining that sanctions are imposed against those who: “undermine the foreign policy objectives of the United States, including the viability of a two-state solution.”
While the two-state solution is sacrosanct amongst the Democrat donor base, the majority of Palestinians and Israelis – on the Left and Right alike – are vehemently opposed to this template. Some mock it as Western ignorance, and many experts, including Henry Kissinger, have urged policymakers to move away from this outdated 1990s framework.
This is treated with humor in Machine Yehuda market in Jerusalem when a customer is paying with a credit card, “Now we’ll find out if you too were sanctioned by Biden,” the merchant jokes. But this is no laughing matter.
The “license to sanction” Israeli Jews was followed by putting a creative spin on the Leahy Law and using it in an attempt to defund units of the Israeli army in the midst of war. The first unit targeted was Netzah Yehuda. This was not due to actions in Gaza but due to one criminal incident involving a handful of its soldiers in 2022. (In comparison, there were 3,700 criminal investigations opened by the US Navy in that same year. Does this imply there are plans to defund the Navy?)
Moreover, the unit, compared of Ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) soldiers, is a role-model for inclusivity. It allows Haredi, who do not typically serve in the army in part due to the secular nature of the military, to serve. But it is not the counter-DEI nature of the defunding threat that leads to Jewish insecurity, it is the alleged counter-religion one.
The Israeli religious population is divided into two groups: Ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) and National-Religious. Some viewed singling out Netzah Yehuda as an indirect act against Haredi Jews. The move against the National-Religious component is more direct.
For seven months now, leaks (“threats’) have surfaced that the political leaders of the national religious sectors are next on the sanctions list. Sanctioning elected officials, who received 10pct of the Israelis’ votes, is not only a powerful “Jews, you are going back” signal but also a warning sign about the intensity of the assault on Judaism – so tenacious that the Administration is apparently willing to compromise a core value of the American Democracy – “one man, one vote.”
Stunningly, at the same time that speakers at the Democratic National Convention talk about voter suppression, the Administration seems to be threatening to engage in deliberate, overt “Jewish voter suppression” in Israel – doubling down on the message to Jews: “You are going back!”
Going back: Instilling Jewish Insecurity
As the ideas of Zionism were percolating through his subconscious in the early 1890s, Theodor Herzl wrote a short story about a young Jew planning to commit suicide. Right before doing so, the Jew approaches a European police officer. Now that he is going to die anyway, he can walk over to the European and “tell him off.” This, in Herzl’s view, symbolized the restoration of Jewish pride, taken away through two thousand years of European suppression and Jewish insecurity.
The Biden Sanctions, along with the ICC and ICJ investigations, that have been fishing through Israeli citizens’ private WhatsApp messages and Facebook posts, work in reverse of Herzl’s story: Jewish self-confidence, free speech, right to vote, and mostly. Jewish security is being targeted – we are going back!
Harris’ choice
Trump says that Jews need to have their heads checked if they vote for Harris, and Jewish Democrat voters and their supporters are telling Harris: We are not going back!
Notwithstanding accusations that she did not pick Josh Shapiro as her running mate because he is Jewish, Harris is not an antisemite. Moreover, there is no doubt that Harris fully supports the Jews’ quest not to go back. The only question is how is she going to go about it.
Is she going to condemn the “going back” actions of the Biden administration, take a bold stance against the mushrooming culture of Israel-bashing, and assure Jews that the idea of sanctions against Israeli Jews will never ever happen again when she is President?
Or is she going to tell Jews that the only way for them not to go back is to vote for the other side?
Gol Kalev is the author of Judaism 3.0: Judaism’s Transformation to Zionism, and chair of the Judaism 3.0 think tank (Judaism-Zionism.com). For his geopolitical articles: EuropeAndJerusalem.com
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