1.
Either I am talking to the wrong people, or very few Republican voters expect their candidate to win this November. My guess: I am talking to the wrong people. That is to say – at least yesterday, I was talking mostly with Jewish Republicans.
With some of them I had prearranged meetings. With some I spoke on the phone. Meeting people in a crowded downtown by accident is tricky. And the police keeps getting in the way. What most of you see on television is quite misleading. A very small area is where all the action – if you want to call it that – takes place. The rest of the city is quiet and, as far as I can tell, most of its residents are paying little attention to the proceedings.
I met some of the Jews who came to the convention for off-the-record conversations in the Beachwood area, where many Jewish Clevelanders live. And what I heard from them (all in all, there were 4 meetings) was a mixture of the following observations (this was before the Cruz drama):
A. Trump is probably going to lose.
B. But it is important for Jews to stand with the party – if they believe that the GOP should be the party of choice for Jews.
C. They are not sure what Trump would do with Israel if he becomes President, but they have no doubt that the party of choice for Israel should be the Republican party.
D. They did not encounter any sign of anti-Semitism during the convention – and they assume that if there’s anti-Semitic sentiment among some Trump supporters, it is mostly a fringe element (one of them said: “anti-Semitism is much worse among Sanders supporters”).
E. Most of them are not completely comfortable with some of Trump’s positions and statements, but believe that there is a measure of hypocrisy in the way the Jewish establishment – by which they mean the Democratic-leaning establishment – talks about Trump.
2.
Writing for a Jewish newspaper, or for an Israeli newspaper, from a convention in which the Jews and Israel play a negligible role can be awkward. On the one hand, you are tasked with looking for the things that the other media does not cover intensively. On the other hand, the things you are looking for can be quite marginal.
Israel is good example. If I counted correctly, Israel was mentioned yesterday by three of four speakers at the convention. It was mentioned in passing, not as a major concern but rather as one item in a long list of items that need to be mentioned. True, the delegates cheered when the party’s vice-presidential candidate Mike Pence said that “if the world knows nothing else, it will know this: America stands with Israel.” But that’s all it was. One sentence. One sentence that was more about “the world” than about Israel – for Pence, Israel is one item with which to educate, or annoy, a western world that does not understand reality.
3.
I’ve written many times in the past about the conflicting feelings that Israelis have when it comes to the American political system’s tendency to “love Israel, support it, and commit themselves to protecting it.” Israel likes the attention, but also dreads it. Israel knows that at times it is better to be left alone – rather than have to deal with the obsessive interest of American administrations in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It also knows that, often times, the attention is crucial to keep Israel secure – for example, when America, year after year, is generous with its financial support for Israel’s security needs.
I had mixed feelings when I heard Newt Gingrich talk about Israel, a place, according to him, in which “average citizens fear for their lives whenever they leave their homes.” On the one hand, I appreciate the sentiment, know Gingrich’s intentions are good, and assume that using such language increases the chances that Republican delegates will keep supporting Israel the way they do (and they do – it is rewarding and pleasant to say you are an Israeli in a Republican convention). On the other hand, what Gingrich said is not exactly true. Most Israelis, most mornings, do not “fear for their lives whenever they leave their homes.” Nor should they. Israel needs American support, but is also relatively safe.
4.
Ted Cruz was the main course in yesterday’s drama – finally, drama! (Sorry, the borrowed paragraph in Melania Trump’s speech does not deserve to be called drama). Ted Cruz also mentioned Israel, in one of the few lines that were not booed by the crowd. The context was Iran, another issue that is not front and center at this conference. When Rudi Giuliani spoke about Iran two days ago, he referred to “our allies” without specifically saying “Israel.” Trump, he said, “will make sure that any agreement with Iran meets the original goals of the U.N and our allies: a non-nuclear Iran.”
Why is Israel mentioned so little in this convention (I think it was more front and center back in the 2012, and 2008 conventions, and it was definitely more front and center in the primary debates)? One reason: there is nothing much to say. No issue in which Israel plays a significant role is currently on the table. Another reason: unlike Obama, Clinton is careful with Israel – she plays down any notion that she will be aggressive in dealing with the Israeli government. Another reason: if some Republicans once toyed with the idea of convincing some Jewish Americans to switch their political loyalties based on the GOP’s better record on Israel, they know that this is not a good year to try and do this. Clinton is not the right rival (had it been Sanders, the story would be different) – and Trump is not the right candidate (had it been Rubio or Cruz, the story would be different).
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