Jews and the Democratic Party

Sonny and Cher.  Paulina Porizkova and Ric Ocasek.  Either President Bush and Slick Willy.

There are in the universe imponderable pairings that, in my mind at least, are irreconcilable.  In love, the heart wants what the heart wants.  Politics makes strange bedfellows.

But Jews and the Democratic Party?  Can someone explain this to me?  Please.

The recent travesty of the United States abstaining instead of vetoing the United Nations Security Council vote condemning Israel's settlements in disputed territories and the follow-up speech by our feckless Secretary of State John Kerry immediately struck a chord with me.  Given the longstanding relationship between the United States and Israel, it would have been expected that the United States would veto the resolution, Resolution 242. Instead, the United States abstained, which in normal-speak merely means that we stuck our heads in the sand and stabbed an ally in the back.

Kerry's speech was an insult.  For a man who's more Tin Man/Cowardly Lion/Scarecrow than stalwart politician, it was his typically underwhelming performance delivered in his usual stentorian tone.  But it underscored the true intent behind the administration's abstention.

All that aside, what bewilders me is the response of the Jewish bloc -- unfair, I know, but still -- to this news.  Had this been Ireland that was thrown under the bus, there'd be such an outcry.  Were South Africa to have been betrayed, there'd be riots.  But Israel?  Betrayed by the Democratic Party that is supported, largely, by the Jewish bloc?

Whimpers.

Sure, Alan Dershowitz has chimed in; when doesn't he pipe up?  But where are the Harvey Weinsteins, the Barbara Boxers, the Michael Bloombergs?  Where is the outrage, the cries of Sellout!, the demand for an investigation?

It's nothing but crickets.

I spoke with a good friend of mine, a longtime supporter of the Democratic Party and a Jewess.  She told me that as far as she was concerned, Israel wasn't that important to her although, ironically, it was vitally important to her grandmother, who would always ask if something being done was good for Israel.  For my friend, there are more pressing, local issues -- drug enforcement, education, war on poverty -- that hit closer to home.  I can't disagree -- these are very important issues that affect daily life more readily.  But this is the State of Israel, the home that for so many years Jews fought and died, born finally in 1948, that's at issue. 

Another thing my friend said struck me:  She said that for many Jews, Israel is across the ocean -- in other words, beyond their immediate concern -- and therefore low on the list of priorities.  My retort was that the concentration camps were across the ocean too; should they have been low on the list of priorities?

Along with this is the idea long flouted by Jews relative to the atrocities of World War II:  Never again.  How exactly is that maxim factored into this equation?  Are we to allow the Democrats to sell out the State of Israel and its Jewish citizens while at the same time pointing at the Iranians, the Palestinians, the Saudis and the rest of the Arab world and tell them not to touch Israel?  And why support a party that would destroy the Jewish homeland?  It is inconceivable to me that a party that would offer up the homeland of a voting bloc could continue to rely its political support.  Jews in this country are either selfish and only care about their day to day needs or they give lip service to the issue of an independent and sovereign Israel.  If I were a Jew, I'd be livid, and I wouldn't be voting for the Democrats any time soon.  That doesn't mean I'd be voting Republican necessarily, but I sure wouldn't be voting for the party that's willing to sell my homeland down the river.

I'm not a Jew.  Perhaps I've overstepped.  But I just don't understand any of this.

(c) 2016 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles