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April 26, 2026
Key Developments and What We're Discussing Today:
- The Democratic Party remains the home of Jewish Americans not because it is perfect, but because on the issues Jews care about, including Israel and antisemitism, it is better than the Republican Party. The vast majority of Jews know it.
- Our Republican friends and their media outlets love to highlight the fringes of the Democratic Party. We should not ignore anything that occurs within the Democratic Party that is inconsistent with our values. Neither should we fall into the trap of drawing false equivalencies between isolated but well-publicized events in the Democratic Party and the words and actions of Republican Party leadership.
- Democrats remain committed to Israel's safety and security, which explains their opposition to Netanyahu's policies, including his embrace of Trump and his support for the Iran War. Supporting Israel by blindly supporting Netanyahu's policies makes as much sense as supporting America by blindly following Trump's policies.
- If you are easily offended by partisanship, ask yourself when was the last time anyone but a Democrat or a Republican was elected to Congress in your state or district, let alone to the presidency. Elections are partisan. We have two choices. The issue isn't which party is perfect, but which party is better. We are called upon to decide every two years, whether we like it or not.
- Plus some items in the ICYMI section that could have been full newsletters of their own.
This is the non-fiction version of Jewish Insider. If you can and if you want to, support my work by chipping in via credit card or PayPal, Venmo @Steven-Sheffey (last four digits, 9479), or check. Thank you.
Greetings!
William Faulkner once criticized Ernest Hemingway for using simple words. Hemingway replied, "He thinks I don't know the ten-dollar words. I know them all right. But there are older and simpler and better words, and those are the ones I use."
I know the rhetorical tricks. I choose not to use them. I know that people hate partisanship. I know that criticizing your own side can enhance credibility.
This newsletter is not about rhetoric. It's about facts.
Elections by definition are partisan. We have two parties. The ballot box is not a restaurant where you can mix and match to get exactly what you want. You have two choices. That's it. The question is not which candidate or party is perfect. The question is which candidate or party is better.
If you want to play the both sides and false equivalency game, read Jewish Insider for examples, real and imagined, of Democrats behaving badly. The question isn't whether the Democratic Party comprises flawed candidates and factions we disagree with. The question is how those flaws and disagreements compare to what we see across the aisle.
If you're looking for someone to defend the Michigan Democratic state convention, you're reading the wrong newsletter. We cannot minimize what happened or how those who were there felt. Neither can we jump to the conclusion that what happened there is typical of the Democratic Party. Anyone who paid a small fee could attend. The fact--and it is a fact--that unelected anti-Israel activists can hijack an event like that does not mean that they control the Democratic Party.
Earlier this month, the Democratic National Committee rejected resolutions unfairly criticizing Israel and replaced a resolution focusing on AIPAC with a resolution criticizing all dark money.
At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 2024, a stadium filled with more than 20,000 Democrats from across the country, many elected to serve as delegates or other officials by Democratic voters, not fringe activists, repeatedly applauded Rachel Goldberg-Polin's speech and spontaneously broke into chants of "bring them home now." No booing at all. The same convention approved the most pro-Israel platform any American party has ever adopted.
That convention nominated Kamala Harris for president. Say what you want about her, but she never says anything antisemitic, misogynistic, racist, or hateful. Compare the last three Democratic nominees, Clinton, Biden, and Harris, to the last three Republican nominees, Trump, Trump, and Trump. The GOP can't get enough of someone who repeatedly traffics in antisemitic rhetoric.
Trump is the leader of the GOP. No amount of both-sidesing can make that go away. The leader of House Republicans is Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA), who displays a Christian Nationalist flag outside his office and "is deeply connected in political practice and philosophy to Christian Nationalism, more so than any other Speaker in American history," as documented in a Congressional Freethought Caucus white paper.
The Democratic Party has its bad apples. The Republican Party is rotten to the core. Unlike the Republican Party, the Democratic Party does not elect its worst to leadership positions.
The question isn't which party has any antisemitism problems or Israel problems. The question isn't which party exhibits trends that one day could change that party.
The question is which party is better. Jewish voters know the answer. A poll conducted in late March by GBAO Strategies for J Street found that 67% of Jewish voters plan to vote Democratic in the midterms, while 24% plan to vote Republican. A poll conducted around the same time by the Mellman Group for the Jewish Electorate Institute found 71% of Jewish voters saying they'd vote Democratic and 24% voting Republican.
Efforts by the vocal 24% to make us more concerned about the fringe of the Democratic Party than the mainstream of the Republican Party create noise but are not changing many minds.
Jews have a home in the Democratic Party. If you consider yourself homeless, you need to look at your entire home, not a couple of rooms that need work. And you have to look at your only alternative, the house across the street, which should be condemned because it is not fit for habitation.
But what about Israel? Let's try a thought experiment. Suppose that Israel was not yet the "start-up nation" and was the economically underdeveloped country it was in the 1950s. Suppose Israel were a militarily weak country, not the nuclear-armed regional superpower that it is today. Suppose that at its narrowest point, only nine miles separated Israel's western border from the Mediterranean Sea, as it was before 1967.
Suppose that Israel's government made clear that its occupation of the West Bank was temporary and that it wanted to cede most of the West Bank in return for peace, as it did until it rejected a two-state solution. Suppose Israel's government did not include right-wing messianic religious fanatics like Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir.
Suppose its prime minister for nearly all of the past 30 years had not advocated for the war against Iraq, openly sided with Republicans, spoke before Congress against the Iran Deal, the signature foreign policy initiative of a Democratic president (our only African-American president), advocated for the war against Iran (according to the State Department, "the United States is engaged in this conflict at the request of and in the collective self-defense of its Israeli ally"), and aligned his government with Trump.
Suppose Israel was not credibly accused of genocide and apartheid. Suppose fewer than 39% of Jewish Americans thought that Israel committed genocide and that more than 37% of Jewish Americans identified as Zionists.
Do you think that maybe, just maybe, Democrats might feel differently about the policies of Israel's current government?
On Thursday, Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) released a must-read Statement on U.S.-Israel Relations that explains the importance of supporting Israel's right to defend itself and certain reasonable limitations on military aid to Israel.
There have always been Americans, on the left and the right, who hate Israel and want Israel to disappear. No one denies that.
Maybe you think that the Democrats (including seven of the 10 Jewish senators) who voted against two specific sales last week suddenly fall into that category.
Or maybe you think that it was a charade all along, and now that the political winds are shifting, they are shifting with them. If you think that, then you disagree with AIPAC's contention that pro-Israel (by its definition) is good politics. If you think that, then you must be puzzled by statements from Democrats explaining their votes that reiterate their strong support for Israel and their commitment to Israel's safety and security.
Some of us find it easier to think Democrats have changed than to admit to ourselves that Israel has changed. Israel today is not the Israel we remember or wish that it still was, even if we still see it that way. We cannot blame others for seeing Israel as it is today and not as it was yesterday.
The moves toward annexation of the West Bank and settler violence are impossible to ignore. Israel's support for Trump's Iran War is impossible to ignore. Advocating for continued U.S. financial support for Israel under these circumstances is a hard ask, especially when Netanyahu himself wants to phase out U.S. aid. Adocating for sales to Israel that contravene U.S. policy is a hard ask.
We could take AIPAC's all-or-nothing approach to what it means to be pro-Israel. If we do, we will be left with nothing. Or we could take a more measured approach, similar to the one we saw last week, where specific sales are considered in the context of support for Israel and regional stability, neither of which needs to come at the expense of the other.
Better yet, we could redefine what it means to be pro-Israel. Supporting the ambitions of the current Israeli government or the dreams of right-wing Christians in the U.S. is not pro-Israel. Pro-Israel means supporting measures that strengthen the U.S-Israel relationship and facilitate progress toward a two-state solution, the only path toward peace in the region and the only ultimate guarantor of Israel's future as a safe, secure, Jewish, democratic state.
We must work to hasten the day when Israeli, Palestinian, and American leaders reject fantasies of one-state solutions or wars to end all wars and embrace a vision that looks to a different part of our shared heritage, a vision where nation shall not lift up sword against nation and neither shall they learn war anymore. If we will it, it is no dream.
In Case You Missed It:
- If you're Jewish and you think that your political home is the party of Christian Nationalism, then the Republican Party is the place for you. Last week, Trump participated in a Bible-reading event and read a verse often used to support the claim that the U.S. should be a Christian nation. In fairness, it really was from the Bible, and not from Pulp Fiction. Next month, Trump and other leading Republicans will participate with mostly Evangelical Christians in an event on the National Mall to rededicate America to God.
- Does Israel have a right to exist as a Jewish state? Before you ask or answer that question, writes Adam Serwer, define "Jewish state."
Tweets of the Week. Ben Jacobs and James Acton.
Facebook Post of the Week. I've interviewed Israeli author Alex Sinclair about his books for this newsletter. His novels are great, and his non-fiction, Loving the Real Israel, helped shape my thinking about Israel. He is a mensch. Read about what recently happened to him at the hands of Israeli police and then read this from Yair Golan.
Jewish Insider Fail of the Week. The subject line of Tuesday's Daily Kickoff was "U.S. Senator Roots Against U.S. Navy." We learned in the opening paragraph that JI was reporting "on Sen. Chris Murphy's praise for dozens of Iranian ships that bypassed the U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz." Murphy was being sarcastic. This should have been obvious to anyone not salivating at a "gotcha" moment against Democrats. Even after being informed that Murphy was being sarcastic, JI kept the same headline but issued a backhanded clarification. Judge for yourself.
Video Clips of the Week. Jimmy Kimmel Roasts Trump & His MAGA Minions at Our Alternative White House Correspondents’ Dinner and this short SNL clip from 50 years ago that for some reason I remember watching live (and wondering who Lorne Michaels was).
Vintage Music Clip of the Week. From the first episode of MTV Unplugged: I'm A Believer - Jules Shear, Syd Straw, Chris Difford, Glenn Tilbrook, and Elliot Easton.
The Fine Print. I read every reply to this newsletter. I reply as often as I can. All I ask is that you read the fine print before you reply or send me anything.
For those new to this newsletter. This is the newsletter even Republicans have to read and the original home of the viral and beloved Top Ten Signs You're At a Republican Seder (yes, I wrote it).
If someone forwarded this newsletter to you, your luck continues. You can subscribe and get it in your inbox every Sunday for free. Just click here.
Be sure to read my posts on distinguishing anti-Zionism from antisemitism, how to heal the generational rift on Israel and antisemitism, and the IHRA definition of antisemitism.
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