What the Jews Keep Getting Wrong About Politics

The results of last week's weighty U.S. election for the White House are irrelevant to Jews in America. And the rest of Diaspora Jewry ought to take notice.

The Western Wall in Jerusalem

Please consider supporting our mission to help everyone better understand and become smarter about the Jewish world. A gift of any amount helps keep our platform free of advertising and accessible to all.

---

You can also listen to the podcast version of this essay on Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, YouTube, and Spotify.

---

Editor’s Note: This essay is based on a previous one published a few weeks ago, updated following last Tuesday’s U.S. elections.

Even as an initial exit poll showed Democratic Party candidate Kamala Harris earning 79 percent of the nationwide Jewish vote, Jews in America should not get overly upset about the Democrats’ defeat (or excessively ecstatic about the Republicans’ victory).

Of course, many Jews in America have multifaceted identities that make them more aligned with the Democrats or the Republicans, and I find that to be perfectly acceptable, whichever side of the political spectrum and whatever their reasons.

But we must also recognize our identity as Jews — whether religious, ethnic, spiritual, historical, mystical, cultural, national (i.e. Israeli) or some combination thereof. It seems to me, and I could be wrong, that all the other issues in America (and other Western countries) are insignificant so long as Jewish life in these countries continues to be threatened on the scale that it has since October 7th, primarily from Left-wing components.

Hopefully this loss by the Democratic Party will conclude the era of hatred, divisiveness, and intolerance that has become the Left’s morally twisted and corrupt hallmark. Leftist parties, politicians, and everyday people championing “Black Lives Matter” and “Stop Asian Hate” and indigenous and women’s rights — but not offering remotely the same support to Jewish people after October 7th — is profusely hypocritical.

I know that the same can be said about Right-wing parties and people — that they also propagate many hypocrisies — but I am not a quintessential Right-wing voter. I grew up in a liberal household in a liberal city (Los Angeles), so I expect leftist parties, politicians, and voters who have for decades preached “the same rights and opportunities for all” to do and be better. Whatever Right-wing parties do and say is irrelevant.

Excuse the tangent, but this reminds me of my uncle who justifies problems in his family with: “Well, every family has issues.” This is bonehead thinking because two things can be true: Every family has issues, and he can also work to resolve the issues in his own family. Yet many Diaspora Jews do not want to admit that the political parties they have long supported are profoundly plagued with antisemitism because: “Well, every party has antisemitism issues.”

But not every party incessantly preaches “the same rights and opportunities for all.”

Today, as I look around at the United States and other Western countries, I see antisemitism engulfing some of the most liberal spaces: academia (both students and faculty), the media (both legacy and new), social media (and, by extension, many other tech companies), Hollywood, and corporations of all sizes.

“Anti-Zionism,” do I mean? I am not privileged enough to live with such naivete. How many times do we have to repeat that “anti-Zionism” is absolutely antisemitism — if not in intention, then in outcome.

“For a Jew to be accepted in the literary world now, they have to pass a purity test and throw their own people under the bus,” wrote Michigan-based Howard Lovy, a book editor and journalist. “I’m sure I’ve lost opportunities because of my Jewish activism, but the older I get, the fewer f*cks I give. Many talented Jewish authors cannot get their work published. Agents and publishers have cited the ‘current climate’ as the reason. This is happening to Jews who don’t even write about Israel.”

And, in the past couple of weeks, American billionaire entrepreneur David Friedberg (who is Jewish) revealed that he has been “privy to behind closed doors where senior people have been passed over because they are Jewish and because of the concerns of someone Jewish being viewed to be in a leadership position in an organization and the impact that that might have.”¹

Friedberg said that, essentially, the main justification behind such anti-Jewish decisions is that these organizations do not want to deal with the “pro-Palestinian” (really, anti-Jewish) mayhem which now targets anything related to Jews and Jewish people, even when it has nothing to do with Israel or even Judaism.

By cowering to these violent, thuggish, racist, and fraudulent so-called “pro-Palestinians,” Western societies will continue to exclude their Jews from leadership positions, meaning Jews will have exponentially fewer seats at the proverbial table — and thus fewer advocacy, assurance, and insurance to guard against antisemitism and its particular societal effects.

And whatever happens in America’s liberal spaces tends to spill over to those in Canada, Europe, Australia, and many other places. Yes, this essay began with a focus on Jews in America — but, in many respects, it is relevant to Jews across the Diaspora.

---

So, where do we go from here?

First, we must update our beliefs. Any Jew who, for whatever reason, still believes that Left-wing antisemitism pales in comparison to Right-wing antisemitism is living in the increasingly distant past. And their inability or unwillingness to update their beliefs with new, factual information — plus a massive sample size — poses as much a threat to Jewry as antisemitism does.

Second, we must acknowledge an uncomfortable reality: Every country not named Israel is a Jewish guesthouse that becomes more or less welcoming based on outside factors (e.g. economic volatility, social unrest, political revolutions, natural disasters) which are completely unrelated to Jews and Israel.

Accordingly, Jews across the Diaspora must realize that the politics in their countries is relatively insignificant. There is no political party, such as but not limited to the Democrats and Republicans, that truly has the Jews’ best interests at heart. Whenever politicians court “the Jews” in their country, they are doing so out of pure political favorability and nothing more. It is populism at its finest.

In many countries, there are Jewish politicians and political appointees. Heck, in Ukraine and Mexico, both presidents are Jewish. And in the U.S. state of North Carolina last week, a Jewish candidate was elected to be the next governor. In fact, Jews continue to make up 6 percent of the members of U.S. Congress, a greater share than they do of the general U.S. population (2 percent).

But this is deceiving.

Jews think that, because some of our people are in positions of power, they will do what is best for Jews and even Israel.

Not so.

A Jewish politician or political appointee is chiefly responsible for serving their jurisdiction; hence why, for example, the current U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (who is Jewish) has not exactly been Israel’s best friend since October 7th. Indeed, his job is to look after American interests, not those of Israel or Jews. And when American and Israeli interests inevitably diverge, he and anyone else in that role must pursue what is best for America, no holds barred.

Yet many Jews in the Diaspora feel indebted to certain political parties and politicians. During this much-hyped U.S. election cycle, for example, Jews willingly played the identity politics game of Right versus Left, liberal versus conservative — enamored by and convinced that their almighty fate is tied to certain political factions.

A plentiful sample size of Jewish history screams that this is a profound mistake. Political parties and politicians do not care about anyone but themselves. They will do whatever it takes to achieve and remain in power, including walking all over those who have previously shown great loyalty to them.

With an influx of Muslims into Western countries, they are gaining more money, more people, and thus more sociopolitical sway. This is not a conspiracy theory. This is a demographic fact, and it is precisely how the democratic world is meant to work. Western countries need immigrants for various reasons, and immigrants eventually get to vote like the rest of us. Indeed, many of us or our ancestors were immigrants once upon a time.

photo: Hugo Breyer/Unsplash

Jews, on the whole, tend to be pretty tolerant of others (since we do not attach strings to our sociopolitical desires that purposely harm other groups). Hence why many Jews sincerely vote for leftist parties and politicians.

Many Muslims, on the other hand, do not think the same way. They may vote for leftist parties and politicians, but not for the sincere reasons that many Jews do; these Muslims simply know that, even though they quite a few handful of Right-wing beliefs, Right-wingers in the West will not tolerate their anti-Western nonsense.

There are a few reasons for this: First, Islam is not just a religion. It is a political doctrine which perceives infidels and women as sociopolitically inferior.

Second, a successful, welcomed Jewish state (even if in the Jews’ indigenous homeland) indicates that the Islamic world is regressing, meaning that Muslims have withdrawn from land they once colonized, which is not how the Islamic story is supposed to go. Islam must be expanding, not contracting. A sovereign Jewish state on land that once belonged to the Islamic caliphate is an admission of defeat, a terrible debacle.

As such, there is far more “anti-Zionism” on the Left today than there is on the Right. However, it is critical to distinguish between Islamist “anti-Zionism” and non-Muslim “anti-Zionism.” The latter tends to feature anti-colonialism, Palestinian nationalism, dubious claims of Israeli “apartheid,” or classifying Jews as part of the “White oppressor class.” Islamist “anti-Zionism” is rooted in a 1,300-year-old Islamic narrative that is deligimitized if Israel is not.

This is why Left-wing antisemitism is tremendously on the rise, marked by the notorious “Red-Green Alliance” — a political and ideological coalition between Left-wing (often socialist or Marxist, represented by “red”) and Islamist or Muslim-oriented groups (represented by “green”). This alliance was borne out of both group’s shared opposition to Western imperialism, capitalism (which they allege is controlled by the Jews), and Zionism (which they claim is a more recent iteration of Western imperialism).

At the same time, we already know enough about persistent Right-wing antisemitism, which still very much exists, even if it has been predominantly reduced to societal fringes thanks to post-Holocaust guilt across the West. Indeed, what binds Right-wingers and leftists are their shared loathing of the Jews.

Hence why it is an act of self-sabotage for Jews in the Diaspora to wholeheartedly align themselves with any political party or politician. I am not saying that Diaspora Jewry should refrain from being politically involved and passionate. Of course they should be. But they ought not to be confused by the intoxication of identity politics. The way I see it, there is only one group that truly has the Jews’ best interests in mind: the Jews.

In other words, it is ultimately irrelevant that some Jews are Right-wingers and others are leftists. And we, as Jews, can harp on and on about how much of a multifaceted identity each one of us has — that we are not just Jewish, but also (and perhaps more so) American or Australian, liberal or conservative, entrepreneurial or academic, and so forth — but throughout our 4,000-year history, non-Jewish societies have always made it abundantly clear: A Jew is a Jew is a Jew.

Of course, Jews can hide this portion of their identities in hopes of sheltering themselves from any backlash, discrimination, prejudice, or persecution. This would not be the first, second, or third time that Jews have attempted to do so, and there is nothing wrong with that. Self-preservation matters.

But I think we can all agree that self-preservation has a higher likelihood of success when the self is part of a group. And so, when push comes to shove, Jews can hide their Jewishness all they want, but they will be doing so alone. The other option is to proudly and proactively participate in and contribute to the Jewish People so that we can truly be there for each other if and when things that are out of our control take a wrong turn (e.g. economic volatility, social unrest, political revolutions, natural disasters).

This is made all the more prescient by the fact that Western societies are undergoing notable changes (as they always have). The United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, and even South Africa are so prominently ever-changing countries of immigrants, owing their colors not only to illegal immigration that is the focus of present-day election campaigns, but also to legal immigration.

As a result, Western societies are exceedingly multicultural, multi-racial, multi-ethnic, and multi-religious, as well as increasingly open to gender equality in the broadest sense of the word. Westerners, especially the younger ones, take for granted interracial and inter-ethnic marriages, as well as same-sex marriages. In addition, as always, due to socioeconomic reasons such as inflation, most Westerners of all ages are constantly busy with the struggle for daily economic sustenance.

Even if they do not hate Jews, expecting these people to support us in their day-to-day lives is faulty thinking. For three generations after the Holocaust, it seemed that Western support for the Jewish People — and, by extension, Israel — was taken for granted. But October 7th taught us that, even if this was true in the past (and I think it may have mostly been an illusion to begin with), today this support is quickly fading.

Remnants of it exist among the generation that still manages some of the political decision-making across the West, but it is quite possible that in the near future there will be miniscule traces of this support. The State of Israel and Jewish People must prepare for this ahead of time. Our very existence in the future could very well depend on it.

That is why we Jews must unite, not in homogeneity, but in homeostasis; engage more with “other” Jews (religious, Israeli, Diaspora, and so forth); learn to increasingly appreciate the wide spectrum of Jewry; and realize that our enemies (and they absolutely exist) do not care where we are on the sociopolitical or geopolitical spectrum.

Only when each of us Jews takes these challenges more seriously will the Jewish People confidently be safe and sound — when we are united and strong as a people.

Eastern European Jewish immigrants arriving in New York (photo: Frank Leslie's illustrated newspaper/Wikipedia)

---

Like Charles Darwin said long ago, the most cohesive and cooperative groups generally beat the groups of selfish individualists. (Darwin’s ideas about group selection fell out of favor in the 1960s, but recent discoveries are putting his ideas back into play, and the implications are profound.)

All you have to do is look at the IDF as a prime example. They are utterly destroying the antisemitic Iranian axis of jihad because they are united in the Jewish state’s mission — to protect and serve all of Israel. I have heard multiple Israeli soldiers tell me that, while the rest of Israeli society bickers about sociopolitical differences during this war, no one in the IDF talks about them. They all recognize the importance of buying into the mission and acting as a cohesive, cooperative group.

(To be clear, soldiers do indeed have strong opinions about social and political issues, but they have the discipline to check these opinions at the proverbial door when they put on their uniforms and go to serve.)

The IDF is an interesting microcosm because it very much depicts the Jewish world’s promising potential. What makes compulsory army service in Israel so unique is that the IDF takes Israelis from all over the country, from every possible socioeconomic background and level of religiosity, and puts them into one system that does not discriminate or demonstrate favoritism based on who you are and where you came from. Every soldier is treated and expected to perform the same according to a common set of goals.

Likewise, the Jewish world is a concoction of diverse groups and people who, when we are at our best, buy into something bigger than factions and individualism can accomplish separately. Just like the IDF would not be effective if it had the same people performing the same roles in the same places, the Jewish world would not be effective if we were all of the very same ilk.

Our day-to-day differences — religious and secular, Israeli Jews and Diaspora Jews, liberal and conservative, new immigrants to Israel and sabras (born and bred Israelis), older and younger, Jewish-by-birth and Jewish-by-conversion, and so on — make the Jewish world remarkable.

However, it is not enough to just be different. Each of us must embrace these differences with increasing levels of tolerance and curiosity, and decreasing amounts of judgment and contempt. I firmly believe that most every Jew has something which they can both teach and learn from others. “Who is wise?” asked the ancient sage Rabbi Simeon ben Zoma. “He who learns from every person.”²

But embracing differences is difficult, especially in the age of mass misinformation, identity politics, and each person’s multifaceted identities which tug in different directions at their heartstrings.

Thus, this requires a “test of wills” — akin to the wisdom of David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s founding prime minister and a first-rate strategic genius.

It was January 1948, four months before the State of Israel declared its independence, and Palestinian Arab militias were carrying out murderous attacks aimed at thwarting the United Nations partition plan calling for two states, one Jewish and the other Arab, in British Mandate Palestine.

Plus, the Zionists’ four Arab neighbors and Iraq were expected to launch a war with this same aim in mind as soon as the British concluded their Mandate that May. The situation was even more dire than what a far more powerful Israel faces today, but the similarities are still evident.

While various factors played a role in determining how Israel’s War of Independence would end, Ben-Gurion singled out one, saying: “What will determine the outcome is the test of wills. … Whoever’s will reaches its maximum level will withstand the test and remain alive.”

Ben-Gurion concluded that the resources of the Jewish community in Israel had to be focused overwhelmingly on prosecuting the war, even if that meant temporarily neglecting areas of enormous significance, such as Jewish immigration and settling the land.

But decisions on allocating resources made by the leadership, and the fighting carried out by the men and women in the front lines, were insufficient. Rather, he laid out two crucial imperatives for Israeli society, beginning with one incumbent on every person:

“We shall not withstand the test until each of us understands that the front is not ‘there’ or ‘here’ — but rather inside each of us, that it is not this farm or that point that are at the front, but rather every man and woman, every youth and elderly person … and we are called to a supreme effort that includes each of us.”

---

1. “Yen Carry Trade, Recession odds grow, Buffett cash pile, Google ruled monopoly, Kamala picks Walz.” All-In Podcast.

2. Pirkei Avot 4:1