Chicagoland Pro-Israel Political Update
Calling balls and strikes for the pro-Israel community since 2006
June 14, 2020
142 days till Election Day
If you remember nothing else, remember this:
- Good Americans are making themselves heard, and that bodes well for November.
- The choice between supporting Israel and Black Lives Matter is a false choice. We should support both.
- Trump's plan for peace between Israel and the Palestinians is unworkable.
- Trump's record on Israel is poor.
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Friends,
Remind you of anyone? Writing about George Wallace in 1972, Hunter Thompson reported that alone among the Democratic presidential candidates, Wallace preferred huge rallies to one-on-one campaigning, and that "the root of the Wallace magic was a cynical, showbiz instinct for knowing exactly which issues would whip a hall full of beer-drinking factory workers into a frenzy--and then doing exactly that, by howling down from the platform that he had an instant, overnight cure for all their worst afflictions. Taxes? Nigras? Army worms killing the turnip crop? Whatever it was, Wallace assured his supporters that the solution was actually real simple...the ugly truth is that Wallace had never even bothered to understand the problems--much less come up with any honest solutions--but the 'Fighting Little Judge' has never lost much sleep from guilt feelings about his personal credibility gap...George Wallace is one of the worst charlatans in politics, but there is no denying his talent for converting frustration into energy." No surprise that Trump
paraphrased Wallace when he said "when the looting starts, the shooting starts."
Wallace lost his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. Republicans voted overwhelmingly for Trump, and the Republican Party embraced him more tightly after he won.
Few thought that Trump would go on to win the general election in 2016, so we can be forgiven for thinking that despite massive increases in unemployment, more than 120,000 deaths from a pandemic that Trump chose to deny rather than immediately address, racist and anti-Semitic rhetoric coming from the White House that just happens to coincide with spikes in racist and anti-Semitic activity, and a record that amounts to nothing on addressing climate change, gun violence, and access to affordable healthcare and education, not to mention a presidency marred by corruption, incoherence, and lies, Trump might win anyway.
But I don't think he will. Despite Republican efforts to suppress the vote in last Tuesday's primaries, as well as in Wisconsin, thousands of people waited in line for hours to cast their ballots--difficult under any circumstances, but especially during a pandemic. Thousands took to the streets to protest police brutality and racism. Good Americans have not given up, and despite Republican efforts to deny as many Americans as possible their right to vote, Americans will vote, and enough will vote Democratic to elect Joe Biden.
Partisanship is not the problem with our democracy. Partisanship is a feature, not a bug, of democracy. We all want unity--around
our ideas, which is why calls for unity and bipartisanship ring hollow. We have two parties precisely because reasonable minds can differ on tax policy, foreign policy, social issues, and how to best govern. But where unity is required, where until now both parties have understood that partisanship is not appropriate, is on the nature of government itself and the necessity of putting the rule of law and our constitutional system of checks and balances above all else.
Trump has made a mockery of our system of government. Republicans in Congress have been at best complicit, at worst supportive. Where are the Barry Goldwaters and Hugh Scotts in today's GOP telling Trump to resign? The evidence against Trump is far more damning than the evidence against Nixon, but an entire party is cowering in fear. The only remedy left to the American people is to vote them all out of office in November.
Black Lives Matter. Last week,
Maayan Belding-Zidon explained why, even though some Black Lives Matter protestors and some of their websites support BDS, Jews — no matter their feelings on Israel — cannot sit this out. This week,
Carly Pildis wrote that the choice between supporting Black Lives Matter and supporting Israel is a false choice.
We might disagree with some Black Lives Matter supporters on Israel, but other leaders in the Black Lives Matter movement--which not a centralized movement--are strong supporters of Israel, including Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) and Washington, D.C. Mayor
Muriel Bowser, who led "a trip with JCRC from D.C. to Israel promoting trade and partnership just last year."
Carly writes that "we should stand for racial justice because of our morals, because we believe everyone was created
Btzelem Elohim, because no one’s child deserves to be choked for eight minutes and 46 seconds by a police officer in the street until they die while other officers watch."
In his June 5 sermon about George Floyd,
Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch said that "one overriding Jewish principle handed down to us from the very mists of antiquity is: do not remain neutral. Neutrality is the refuge of cowards. To be neutral, to stay out of the fight — indifference — never helps the good people. It is precisely what the bad people count on: indifference to injustice, indifference to hatred, indifference to racism. Progress requires stepping into the fray. Isaiah demands, repair the breach. Do not simply observe the rupture or mind
the gap or step into the breach— Repair the breach! Restore the path of righteousness."
Rabbi Hirsch went on to note that had the president bothered to read the Bible he held in his hand in front of the church, "he would have read that
God does not command dominating others, demeaning them, debasing them, disparaging them, diminishing them, dishonoring them, disrespecting them, disgracing them, defaming them." And he said all that without losing his synagogue's 501(c)(3) status. Maybe there's a lesson there too.
Opposing racism means opposing Donald Trump. Despite
FBI testimony that white supremacy is behind most cases of domestic terrorism,
Trump continues to side with the Confederacy. Honoring traitors, especially traitors motivated by racism who killed hundreds of thousands of Americans, is not the American way.
Trump's plan for peace between Israel and the Palestinians is unworkable.
Michael Koplow writes that the plan contains "a host of extremely unworkable arrangements predicated on a foundation of fantastic magical thinking that took no account of practicalities" and as a result, Israeli settler leaders are the leading voices of opposition to the plan within Israel--for many of the same reasons that those on the left oppose the plan.
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: This newsletter usually runs on Sunday mornings. Unless stated otherwise, my views do not necessarily reflect the views of any candidates or organizations that I support or am associated with. I reserve the right to change my mind as I learn more. Intelligent, well-informed people may disagree with me; read opposing views and decide for yourself. A link to an article doesn't mean that I agree with everything its author has ever said or that I even agree with everything in the article; it means that the article supports or elaborates on the point I was making. I take
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