The Banality of ‘Don’t!’

Do you get the feeling that President Biden’s lame duck presidency has reached a new phase of irrelevancy? No one is listening to him—and that includes leaders in Iran and Israel.

He never quite seemed as though he was fully in charge from the moment he took office. After the turbulence of the Trump years, some felt that an experienced politician with a respect for democratic norms is just what the nation needed. There was a kind of post-pandemic, post-January 6 malaise that required a more measured, less rambunctious commander-in-chief.

A firm hand seemed to be missing, however. The botched withdrawal from Afghanistan. A porous southern border and a casualness about an additional ten million unvetted migrants wandering the homeland whose whereabouts, and intentions, were unknown. Rising consumer prices. A dangerous tolerance for street crime. Antisemitic protests and campus takeovers in support of terrorists. Foreign governments hacking into our mainframes. Chinese balloons taking home movies of America. Mixed messaging to our allies. And national security leaks.

Therein encapsulates Donald Trump’s brief to the nation. Nothing better demonstrates just how flawed and unappealing a candidate he is than the dead heat he finds himself in with Harris. With the Biden administration’s poor record, and the deficits that should disqualify Harris from consideration, even a candidate with Trump’s many liabilities should be way ahead in the polls.

This election is evocative of both a divided nation, and a dearth of choices.

This election is evocative of both a divided nation, and a dearth of choices.

The Jewish vote is shaping up as a harbinger of these electoral conflicts. Since the 1930s, American Jews overwhelmingly supported the Democratic Party, which reliably received well over 80 percent of the Jewish vote in both national and statewide elections. But over the past 25 years, Republicans have made the case that its policies toward Israel, and the Democratic Party’s drift away from Israel, should shift the electoral priorities of American Jews.

Donald Trump has been vocal in his astonishment that he is not the favorite candidate among American Jews. Yet, he might actually capture 40 percent of the Jewish vote in this upcoming election. Not a majority, but a giant haul, nonetheless, given past historical election patterns.

George W. Bush has reasons for resentment. He, too, supported Israel, but failed to garner a critical mass of the Jewish vote.

Trump points to many of his favorable decisions that benefited Israel as the reason why his support among American Jews should be greater. But if his numbers improve (a still uncertain outcome), past performance will have little to do with it.

This past year has been a depressing one for Jews around the world, with Israel at war on several fronts and a massacre against Jews on October 7 that was considered unthinkable after Holocaust.

It has been especially alarming for American Jews. For decades they have grown complacent over their relative safety in a welcoming melting pot. Warning signs elsewhere registered little concern here. When there was an uptick in antisemitic violence in other Western nations, American Jews always believed themselves to be impervious.

When the FBI conducted its annual crime statistics and threat assessments, violence against Jews was always much higher than any other ethnic or religious group. But what we have seen since October 7 has been a true revelation—attacks against Jews on city streets, bridges, transports,  college campuses and synagogues, at Jewish-owned businesses and homes, and troubling attitudes among Hollywood elites and large segments of the Democratic Party.

Anti-American terrorists who resorted to barbarism on October 7 were being favored over Israelis acting in self-defense.

Many Americans turned against their Jewish neighbors and fellow employees, or simply turned a blind eye to those who meant them harm. Craven American Jews denounced Israel to impress their “progressive” friends and prove their moral superiority.

Such showboating was not new to world Jewry. Just ask the Jews of Berlin during the 1930s. Oh, I forgot, you can’t: they were murdered a long time ago. Love for the fatherland did not save them from Auschwitz.

The Biden administration, and the record that Harris has inherited over these past four years, has left American Jews with many questions. On the one hand, President Biden has supplied Israel with weapons—including the recent delivery of the THAAD anti-ballistic missile system; deployed naval warships to the region; assisted in destroying Iranian missiles before they reached Israeli airspace; shared intelligence; and declared himself a Zionist.

Would Harris ever make such a declaration?

But there has also been a different Biden, one beholden to the progressives within his party and terrorist sympathizers who are making baklava in anticipation of a caliphate that a Harris administration might help usher in. This Biden threatened an arms embargo, pestered Israel with such refrains as: “show restraint,” “de-escalate,” “diplomatic solutions,” “ceasefires,” “stay out of Rafah,” “do not invade Beirut,” “take the win,” “over-the-top,” and “stay away from Iranian oil facilities and nuclear enrichment sites.”

The very same Biden who repeatedly warned Iran: “Don’t!”

Iran didn’t pay heed. They went ahead and just did. And why wouldn’t they? This is the same administration that released billions in confiscated funds, which ultimately went into the hands of the Houthis and Hamas. Its proxies never took a day off from attacking Israel. Iran itself launched ballistic and cruise missiles on April 13 and October 1.

Biden adopted President Obama’s love affair with the Islamic Republic. He even retained the three architects behind the original Iran Deal, who by now must have achieved the rank of honorary Persians: Antony Blinken, Jake Sullivan and Robert Malley.

Remember Malley, Biden’s Special Envoy to Iran? He’s nowhere to be found these days. He was placed on indefinite leave, his security clearance revoked for mishandling classified information.

Last week we learned that someone else in the Biden administration leaked classified information to Iran—this time regarding Israel’s planned retaliation for the fusillade of missiles launched on October 1.

These leaks (more like floods) that favor an enemy like Iran and prejudice an American ally like Israel should be front-page news. They would be if the mainstream media was not wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Democratic Party.

These leaks (more like floods) that favor an enemy like Iran and prejudice an American ally like Israel should be front-page news. They would be if the mainstream media was not wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Democratic Party.

Israel ignored Biden, too. This past weekend its vaunted air force put on an aerial show, destroying Iranian air-defense systems and missile production facilities—without losing a single aircraft.

Israel has most definitely reestablished deterrence in the Middle East. Its support among Democrats, however, is still up in the air.

Thane Rosenbaum is a novelist, essayist, law professor and Distinguished University Professor at Touro University, where he directs the Forum on Life, Culture & Society. He is the legal analyst for CBS News Radio. His most recent book is titled “Saving Free Speech … From Itself,” and his forthcoming book is titled, “Beyond Proportionality: Is Israel Fighting a Just War in Gaza?”