Hard to believe, but the elections do not center around the Jewish community, its anxieties, wishes and aspirations.
But this doesn’t mean that Jewish issues are off the table, or out of the stump speeches both candidates have been delivering in their endless rallies these past days.
One of Donald Trump’s favorite lines when addressing Jewish American or Israeli listeners, is that if he ran for office in Israel, he’d get “98 percent” of the votes.
He’s not exaggerating by much.
Just as the remarkable life she lived, Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s passing on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, sparked a mix of awe, appreciation and political controversy. And the coming days will provide much of the same: a celebration of the life of a trailblazing legal giant who served for many as the nation’s moral compass, and at the same time, a fierce partisan battle over the appropriate timing of choosing Bader Ginsburg’s successor.
Remember when Donald Trump first ran for office in 2016 and promised that “we’re going to win so much, you’re going to be so sick and tired of winning”? Well, it’s a matter of anyone’s political persuasion to judge just how much America has been winning in the past four years and whether there really are people out there who are sick and tired of winning.
But to paraphrase Trump’s promise, could people be sick and tired of too much Middle East peace?
Donald Trump has been actively drawing God into his campaign for the past few weeks. It started with the claim earlier this month that his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, is “against God,” has “no religion” and will “hurt the Bible, hurt God.”
“The bottom line is that Iran will remain a thorny issue for the next president, regardless of who wins the elections. Trump’s promise of an Iranian capitulation waiting around the corner is hard to believe, and Biden’s hope for a quick fix on the previous deal is also way more difficult to achieve than it seems, in part due to changes already happening on the ground. Iran and its nuclear ambitions are not a “first day in office” project for the next president but rather an issue for years of talks, sanctions and—perhaps—even negotiations.”
There’s a foolproof way of knowing election season is here—just wait for someone to make a Jewish money reference. The tighter the race, the more likely you are to hear something along the lines of “outside donors” or “Wall Street money,” or just the casual listing of top donors, all of whom happen to be Jewish.
The outcome of the platform debate over Israel will give Biden a good sense of how the party views the issue and where he may want to stand in order to avoid conflict with the base.
“This doesn’t mean that the Jewish pro-Israel left is about to win its fight against annexation. But it does show that their voice is strong enough to sway staunch AIPAC supporters to speak out against the Israeli government’s line, and that, perhaps in a marginal way, they will make Netanyahu listen, if not to American Jews, than to pro-Israel American lawmakers.”
Israel, regardless of whether Engel gets to spend another term in Congress or not, is running out of hawkish Dems to build the bridge it needs to a bipartisan recognition of Israel’s importance as an ally to America. The party is shifting leftwards, while Israel is going right.
“For all the tightrope walking, the carefully formulated nuanced comments, and the impossible straddling between wishing to allow Israel to make its own decisions while providing cautionary input from abroad, American Jews and their views don’t really move the needle in Netanyahu and Gantz’s decision-making process.”
