Confessions of a Jewish Democrat in Exile

Despite everything that drives me away from Republicans, there is more that’s drawing me toward them as a Jewish American and dual U.S.-Israeli citizen in 2024.

A pro-Israel rally in the U.S. (photo: Levi Meir Clancy/Unsplash)

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Politically, I am kind of all over the place.

I grew up in Los Angeles in a liberal family and was a proud Democrat through college. Truth be told, my childhood, teenage, and early adult years were not particularly marked by Judaism or Zionism. My priorities and identity essentially consisted of sports, girls, adventures, and pursuing a journalism career.

Then, in 2013 at age 24, I took a trip to Israel (Taglit-Birthright) and within 10 days felt a calling to move there, so I did. Or, rather, I just stayed in Israel after this trip ended, found an apartment in Tel Aviv, and became an Israeli citizen within six months.

It was at this time that my political horizons started to exponentially expand. I quickly realized that sociopolitical priorities were very different in Israel (as they are in different parts of the world) than in the United States.

For instance, security and defense reign supreme for most Israelis — and understandably so. A quick Google search of Israeli history will demonstrate that, despite genuine attempts to live in peace among and alongside the local Arabs, Israelis (i.e. Jews) have had to defensively fight one genocidal war after another just to survive the treacherous Middle East in our indigenous homeland.

As such, I started to veer toward the center with my political views and have remained there ever since. Even then, I voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, but did not vote in the Donald Trump-Joe Biden race four years later. To be honest, I was not all that keyed into U.S. politics from 2013 through October 7th.

Then I woke up.

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Once upon a time, I was an advocate for liberal causes like Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ+ rights, and moderate aspects of feminism.

But after October 7th, as has been well-documented, virtually all of these liberal causes were silent about the October 7th massacres and kidnappings, and some of them even went as far as to take the side of “the Palestinians” (i.e. Hamas). This is when I started to realize that the Democratic Party of 20 years ago and that of today is not remotely the same.

Like the Republican Party, the Democrats feature a growing, influential segment of extremists who have been deliberately enabled by the Obama-Biden Administration and more recently that of Biden-Harris. Three full years into Biden’s presidency, Jewish students are being blocked from their college campuses and being told to stay home and learn remotely; American Jews are increasingly excluded from leadership positions because they are Jewish; and antisemitic incidents and threats across the United States are through the roof.

Is this the soul of a nation healed, as the Biden-Harris presidential campaign promised us in 2020?

Meanwhile, both Biden and Harris have continued to downplay Left-wing antisemitism, often grouping it with politically manufactured “Islamophobia.” Though it is true that most Democrats are not antisemitic, it is also true that many Democrats have also been relatively quiet about the October 7th massacres and kidnappings and its effect on the rising tide of antisemitism in America, choosing to play it politically safe. By doing so, they have enabled (if not in intention then in outcome) the obviously antisemitic factions of the Democratic Party and its voter bases (notably Arabs, Muslims, and so-called “progressives”).

Many Jewish Democrats reflexively point to Harris’ opponent in the upcoming presidential election — the former White House resident, Donald Trump — as justification to ignore or overlook the immense antisemitism that has plagued the Democratic Party since October 7th. Basically, the thinking is that, regardless of what those in my party do and say, they can do and say no wrong because of the big, bad wolf known as Donald J. Trump.

I find this to be pathetic case of identity politics mixed with cold, hard brainwashing. (More on the brainwashing part soon.) Politicians currently in office ought not to be exempt from criticism or critique because of their competitors. Or, as the famous leftist talk show host Jon Stewart recently said: “The stakes of this election don’t make Donald Trump’s opponent less subject to scrutiny. It actually makes her more subject to scrutiny.”¹

Then there are the “but Harris’ husband is Jewish” argument which some Jewish Democrats love to make. That is true, but do you know what else is true? Many Black Americans will tell you that their lives did not materially improve during the eight years that Barack Obama was president. Plus, our current Secretary of State is Jewish, and his handling of Israel since October 7th has been nothing short of disastrous from a Jewish point of view.

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We hear a lot from Democrats and “progressives” about the dire necessity of defending “our democracy” against the menace of Trump, the American Hitler. Are they serious, though? How can they possibly make that argument when on their own side of national politics, mobs waving the flags of terrorist organizations are assaulting and harassing Jews on the streets of our cities and on the campuses of our universities, and unapologetically calling for genocide “from the River to the Sea”?

Instead, many Democrats are letting mainstream media brainwash them into fearing the Orange Boogeyman. The same media that profusely lies about Israel; the same media that tried to convince us Biden was perfectly capable of serving a second presidential term; the same media that said if Trump won in 2016, he would start World War Three and that the economy would collapse.

I am not a fan of Trump by any means, but I am well-read enough to know that many (most?) politicians of all persuasions are not of great character, and many of them would be subject to felony convictions if they were tried in a court of law as well. Thus, I do not judge politicians solely based on their personal character or legal trials — because, if I did, they would all be rotten and I would have almost no one to vote for.

Instead, I judge them on the intersection of their sociopolitical track record and my personal sociopolitical priorities at the given point in time. Today, for me, they are the economy and the U.S.-Israel relationship.

Since this platform is called “Future of Jewish,” we will leave the economy aside for now. As it pertains to the U.S.-Israel relationship, it is quite clear to me that this alliance has, during both the Obama-Biden and Biden-Harris presidencies, been severely downgraded. And the consequences are profound: The Middle East has become a far more dangerous place, with an emboldened Islamist Iran and a weaker Israel.

Being both a Jewish American and dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, I care that Israel (the only democracy in the Middle East and a cornerstone of the Western world as we know it) is unequivocally strong and supported as such by the United States.

Many people blame Netanyahu for this downgrade of the U.S.-Israel relationship, and I have no doubt that he and his government have played at least some part. But if you study Israeli history and the U.S.-Israel relationship, the current downgrade is not entirely a symptom of each country’s current leadership; rather, it is indicative of how the Americans have long treated Israel (and how the Americans treat most of their allies) — as a puppet that “works” for the United States, often in contradiction to the interests of these allies and the greater Western world.

Thus, Netanyahu is nothing but a convenient scapegoat for people who want to excuse the Democrats’ horrendous foreign policies regarding Israel and the Middle East, which have put the Jewish state in danger, and thus Jews across the world in danger. My belief is that the Jewish Diaspora is only as strong and safe as is the Jewish state.

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The idea that one U.S. political party or another has a monopoly on support for Israel and Jews in America is bogus. There is one predominant reason why both Democrats and Republicans have championed support for Israel and Jews in America: to garner Jewish political donations and votes. No politician is acting from the goodness of their heart, nor should we expect them to be.

However, many Jews in America think that the Democratic Party is their indisputable safe haven and, as such, blindly vote for such candidates. I find this naive allegiance to be a profound mistake. During the last 2,000 or so years, Jews in various countries have all been subject to adverse conditions precisely because they were Jews and no matter how loyal they were to various political groups.

To think that the U.S. will forever and always be good to and for Jews is wishful thinking at best. Indeed, there was a lengthy amount of time in the U.S. when Jews were not treated so well throughout the 1700s, 1800s, and early 1900s.

Historically, anti-Jewish policies and practices emanated from Right-wing groups; today they are largely coming from the Left. Again, many leftists are not antisemites — but they are also not shutting down Left-wing antisemitism. Silence and whispers are complicity and ultimately enable Left-wing antisemites, no matter how many or few they are in numbers.

Unsurprisingly, Right-wing politicians have noticed these anti-Jewish trends and are trying to seize upon them to court political donations and votes from Jews. Just as it is naïve to think that Left-wing antisemitism is insignificant and just as pernicious as its Right-wing variants, it would be foolish to think that Right-wing politicians are acting from the goodness of their heart as they increasingly emphasize support for Israel and Jews in America. All politicians across the board are making sociopolitical calculations through and through.

As such, I believe it is imperative on us Jewish Americans to make sociopolitical calculations of our own. If one political party or another wants our donations and votes, they must work for it, prove themselves time and again, and not take Israel and the Jews in America for granted.

It seems to me that the Democratic Party, under both Obama and Biden, and presumably under Harris, has taken Israel and the Jews in America for granted — and it is incumbent on Jews in America to keep them honest, so long as we want Israel to remain strong and for Jews to continue thriving as a minority group in the United States.

Hence why I cannot bring myself to vote for Harris’ Democratic Party this time around, and I hope more Jewish Americans will join me in making the Democrats realize that there is a heavy price when taking Jewish issues for granted. The same goes for the Republican Party; if the Republicans win next month’s presidential election, we must ensure they put into practice everything that they have preached about support for Israel and Jews in America.

Otherwise, I will have no problem hearing what the Democrats have in store for us and giving my vote to them if I feel it is more conducive to a better future for the U.S.-Israel relationship and Jews in America.

At the same time I fully understand that Jews in America are multifaceted voters who have a variety of sociopolitical priorities, much of which are not related to Israel, Jewishness, and the Jews’ “place” in America. As such, I fully respect how each Jew in America votes (or does not vote) according to what they feel is most important to them, no judgment or strings attached.

I also wonder if many Jews in America are poor students of Jewish history. The more I read about our history, the more I realize that Jews in many countries were deceived into thinking that they finally found a safe place, only to be rudely awakened with some pogrom, persecution, unfair laws, or societal distress that scapegoats the Jews.

It is hard for me to imagine that Jews in America will be markedly different from Jews in Spain or Germany or Iraq or Egypt of previous generations. There is more than enough sample size to realize that the fate of Jews in America will probably end up like the Jews in those countries.

However, there is a caveat: The U.S. is different today than, say, Germany in the 1920s because we have a relatively strong democracy, which means that we Jewish Americans can leverage our sociopolitical powers (donations and votes) to keep parties and politicians honest about their support for Israel and Jews in America. And we can shift these powers to different parties and politicians according to whichever ones are offering us a “better deal” at any given point in time.

To me, it is this type of back-and-forth seesaw strategy that will ensure the greatest future for Jews in America and the U.S.-Israel relationship. This is why, from a Jewish and Israeli-American lens, I hope the Republicans will win next month’s presidential election.

I am still not fully comfortable making this proclamation; I have migrated in this direction despite sometimes having to suppress my cringe reflex when observing parts of the Republican Party. And I still celebrate many liberal positions.

But of late, the Democratic relationship with truth and knowledge has gone to hell. Spending time talking to new-age Democrats (the party’s future) makes me realize how socially conservative I am. I do not mean socially conservative in the way that this term gets used to describe certain stances on cultural hot topics like gay marriage or abortion. (On those topics, I have what would be considered “progressive” positions.)

Rather, I am a social conservative in that I believe the universe has a moral order to it, that absolute right and wrong do exist. I also believe that the strength of our society is based on the strength of our shared moral and social foundations. And I believe that any nation’s moral culture comes before politics and economics — but when the moral culture frays, everything else falls apart.

Despite everything that drives me away from Republicans, there is more that’s drawing me toward them as a Jewish American and dual U.S.-Israeli citizen in 2024.

“Woke” is a poisonous swamp of lies, revengeful conspiracy theories, bigotry (disguised as “anti-racism”), and scorn for plurality. It is a cult in every sense of the word. You are either all in or all out. I am all out, but the Democratic Party has been trying to have it both ways: one foot in the door and one foot out. I want no part of that.

Second, I have come to appreciate the Republicans’ long-standing traditions of family values, limited government, national defense, law and order, and immigration control. Another set of qualities now drawing me toward the Republicans: patriotism and regular Americanness. This one has surprised me. Until recently, these qualities have been more associated with flag-waving, unhinged nationalists than with cosmopolitan members of liberal aristocracy.

All of this leaves me on the periphery of Team Republican, precisely on the edge of the inside — which is where it seems the healthiest and most productive parts of American politics now live.

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1. “The Daily Show.” Comedy Central.