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Jewish Journal

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November 5, 2024

Netanyahu Fires Defense Minister Yoav Gallant Amid Domestic Tensions and a Multi-Front War

Israel, News /

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, saying he no longer trusted him, a drastic step while Israel is fighting on multiple fronts, faces domestic political turmoil and is contending with regional and global uncertainty.

The decision — the second time in as many years that Netanyahu has announced Gallant’s termination — comes as Iran is threatening to strike Israel in response to a previous round of bombing. It also comes amid a growing investigation into leaks of classified material from a Netanyahu aide, in which the prime minister’s office has denied participating in any leak and suggested that the probe was “arbitrary.”

Gallant’s firing was announced on Election Day in the United States, whose result will determine the next four years of the U.S.-Israel relationship. Gallant was one of the most trusted Israeli government officials in Washington.

In a video message,  Netanyahu said he could no longer work with Gallant due to irreconcilable differences over the war.

Netanyahu Fires Defense Minister Yoav Gallant Amid Domestic Tensions and a Multi-Front War Read More »

As They Barricade D.C. and Prepare for Civil Unrest, Thoughts on the Day After

Editor's Note /

There’s a nervous vibe in the air, especially in D.C.

“America locked and loaded: White House is barricaded, stores board up and there’s a chilling warning as election tensions soar,” is the headline of the lead story today in the Daily Mail (DM).

“Americans are braced for civil unrest amid scary predictions of ‘blood’ during Tuesday’s knife’s-edge presidential election that appears to hinge on the results in just seven swing states,” the DM reported.

Already, they are reporting that “fights have broken out at polling stations and election workers have prepared for gun attacks, amid a flurry of threats to blow up political offices and other sensitive sites ahead of election day.”

The potent mix of fear and anger that has marked this election season has reached a peak on Election Day. It shouldn’t surprise us, then, if it feels as if a civic volcano is about to erupt.

I felt only slightly better when my friend historian Gil Troy shared some historical perspective. Writing in The Hill, he notes that The New York Mirror called the 1852 campaign “disgraceful to the country.”

And a century ago, “Republicans accused liberal Democrats, especially Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt, of imposing a dictatorship. And when Martin Van Buren lost his reelection bid to the inexperienced William Henry Harrison in 1840, one Democrat, Dillon Jordan, wrote: “Truth and justice and our sacred Constitution lay prostrate and bleeding at the foots of fraud and falsehood.”

Like I said, this made me feel only slightly better, because I do think there is something uniquely dangerous about civil strife in the age of social media, especially with candidates as deeply polarizing as Trump and Harris.

So, what to do?

If street riots are in the cards, that will be in the hands of our leaders and law enforcement, not us. And legal challenges will be in the hands of the lawyers.

What we can do is minimize any turmoil in our own little worlds, whether in our communities or families. Winners need not gloat; the pain of losing is sharp enough.

One of my fondest memories of presidential elections is from 2008. At the time, I was following the blog of a hard right-winger who kept warning his readers of the danger of an Obama presidency. As I opened his blog on the day after Obama won, I was expecting a dark and bitter post-mortem.

Instead, I was stunned by what I read. I’m paraphrasing, but it went something like this: “Congratulations to our new president. He wasn’t my choice, but he’s my president now.”

How far we’ve come. It’s hard to imagine many “losing” voters feeling this way in the next few days.

In any case, regardless of who wins, I will carry with me my personal mantra about politicians and politics: However great or bad or powerful they may be, they don’t have the power to make me happy.

Good luck tonight.

This article has been updated to remove mention of Beverly Hills stores being boarded up. We regret the error. 

As They Barricade D.C. and Prepare for Civil Unrest, Thoughts on the Day After Read More »

4 Jewish Questions for Election Day 2024 and Its Aftermath

News /

On Nov. 15, 2022, Donald Trump announced that he would be running for president for a third time.

Today, 721 days later, voters will finally choose between him and Kamala Harris. And it may be days longer before we know the winner.

For Jews, it has been a long campaign season filled with never-ending debates over which president would be better (or, more often, worse) for American Jewry, Israel and those who wish them ill. Many Jews have watched and experienced the campaign through the lens of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, the wars that it launched and the surge in antisemitism that has followed.

As we head into Election Day and whatever comes next, here are four questions Jews are asking — including the one on everyone’s mind.

How will Jewish Americans vote, and how much will it matter?

This question gets asked every four years, and it’s getting harder to answer. This time, that might be especially true.

Before 2020, a consortium of leading publications joined in something called the National Election Pool, which conducted exit polls and posted its assessment of the Jewish vote. So, for example, it found in 2016 that Hillary Clinton won 71% of the Jewish vote to Trump’s 24% — roughly in line with the previous few decades of elections.

Last time around, the National Election Pool didn’t post Jewish results, citing inadequate data, and two partisan groups came to different conclusions: A poll commissioned by Republicans said the Jewish vote shifted Republican and a poll commissioned by Democrats said it shifted toward — wait for it — Democrats.

What does that mean for this year? With so many states up for grabs, and so much discourse this year about whether more Jews will choose Trump after the Oct. 7 attack, there are a lot of unknowns. If there isn’t one authoritative exit poll, expect competing takes.

The Jewish vote could have outsize impact, in particular, in some of the seven swing states. So if the hundreds of thousands of Jews in Pennsylvania, or the roughly 100,000 in Michigan, break unexpectedly one way or the other, it could make a difference. (And if Pennsylvania breaks for Trump, expect renewed criticism of Harris’ decision to pass over its Jewish governor, Josh Shapiro, for her vice presidential pick.)

There are some things we do know: Overall, most Jews will vote for the Democrat (in this case, Harris), as they have for generations. Most Orthodox voters will vote Republican, a more recent shift that has solidified during the Trump era. And some portion of Jewish voters will have voted with qualms they never felt before the Oct. 7 attack.

Will Jewish communities stay safe? Will America?

In October 2020, an FBI official advised Jewish leaders to prepare for “potential volatility, in regard to not only the election but I think just a lot of things that are going on in the country.”

Volatility, as we know now, occurred. Trump and his supporters mounted a campaign to deny and reverse his defeat, culminating in the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. While there weren’t prominent instances of violence against Jews as part of the riot, it featured antisemitic iconography and people who held antisemitic views. It also deepened ongoing anti-government activism on the far right that has manifested in recent antisemitic harassment of Jewish officials.

This year, security agencies are sending a similar message: Stay vigilant. They emphasize that there are no known threats at this time to Jews or Jewish institutions. But the rise in antisemitism, plus sharp national polarization and the possibility of uncertainty following Election Day, mean that the risk of violence in and around Jewish spaces is heightened.

Once again, Trump has not pledged to respect the result of the vote. He has also said that if he loses, it will be partly the fault of Jewish voters — a line that immediately worried Jewish leaders and extremism watchdogs who interpreted it as potentially inciting Trump’s volatile supporters.

Security officials note that after more than a year of protests over the Gaza war, the left is feeling emboldened, too, adding an element of uncertainty to the climate.

For security groups, all of this means monitoring polling sites, some of which are located at Jewish schools or communal buildings; sending guidance to Jewish institutions — one organization recommends a “robust preparedness posture”; and keeping an eye on threats emanating from social media.

How will Jewish candidates fare in downballot races?

Along with the presidency, some 470 seats are up for grabs in the House and Senate. Some of the most high-profile races include Jewish candidates, and still more may be decided by Jewish voters.

One of the most prominent races is for North Carolina’s governor, where the Jewish state attorney general, Democrat Josh Stein, is facing Lieutenant Gov. Mark Robinson, a Republican whose campaign has seen scandal after scandal over his past remarks, including calling himself a “Black NAZI.” Stein is heavily favored to win, even as the state is a battleground for president.

Jews are also running in a number of Senate elections — from shoo-ins like California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff to competitive campaigns like Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen’s in Nevada or Rep. Elissa Slotkin’s in Michigan. Those two races are among the handful that, together, will decide who controls the Senate.

Dozens of House races also involve Jewish candidates. And in some districts, the Jewish vote could be decisive.That’s particularly true in New York, where candidates in three closely fought districts with large Orthodox populations have made extensive efforts to secure the support of leading rabbis and their followers.

So, nu, who’s gonna win?

Nate Silver doesn’t know. Nate Cohn doesn’t know. And neither do we. (Allan Lichtman says he does.)

But no matter who wins, it will shape the Jewish story in the United States, Israel and beyond. In the days after the election is decided, the president-elect will appoint a cabinet and staff, almost certainly including a few Jewish names. Policies will be rolled out that dismay and delight different segments of American Jews. The scrutiny of words and gestures that attended the campaign is unlikely to let up. Divisions within our communities are unlikely to evaporate.

And while it’s not clear when this election will be called, or its results accepted, one timeline is nearly certain: Election Day 2028 is only 1,462 days away.

4 Jewish Questions for Election Day 2024 and Its Aftermath Read More »

America Votes: For Israel, Every US President Is a ‘Pandora’s Box’

Featured, News /

“I feel betrayed by Democrats who turned their backs on their most loyal constituency,” Elana Silver, an American Israeli originally from New York who couldn’t bring herself to vote for either presidential candidate, told JNS.

“I see it as a larger cultural shift that impacts the English-speaking world—a progressive shift, even though until Oct. 7, [2023,] we all thought we were progressive,” she added.

Silver cast a protest ballot for Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.).

“I grew up Democrat; nobody in my family ever voted anything else. But watching what has been going on—the accusations flying around, and the fact that it is even a question of whom to back in this battle, the terrorists or Israel, has made me very upset,” she said.

“Instead of voting for Donald Trump, which wouldn’t have made a difference in the state of New York, I chose to support the two Democrat politicians who have refused to turn their back on Israel and the Jews and make a point,” she continued. “Hopefully somebody will perform a post-mortem on who the Jews came down on this after the election.”

Silver said that while Trump “offends her moral sensibilities,” she does feel that he’s better for Israel.

“It’s very sad to me that in the entire United States, these two people are the choices,” she said. “However, if I were registered in a swing state, I would have opted for Trump, who also has better common-sense policies than the Democrats. I listen to Republicans talk about the policies they want to implement, and I say to myself that these are Democratic values.”

Shmuel Rosner, Kan News analyst and senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute, said he has identified hesitation to vote for Trump, even among those who support his approach to the current war.

“We see in polls a clear preference of Jewish Israelis, but also to a lesser extent of Arab Israelis, for Trump, whom they agree is the better choice for Israel,” Rosner told JNS. “But many of them feel that Trump is a problematic character.”

Center-left dual citizens in Israel, for instance “will say that Harris is better for America, but when you ask about Israel, they’ll switch from Harris to no one. They won’t go all the way and say Trump is the better choice.”

Rosner said that every president is like a “Pandora’s Box,” and while it’s not possible to know in advance how he/she will behave in office, Israel will have to adjust to whichever candidate wins the election.

“Trump in a new term will be a new Trump,” he said. “I’m not sure everything he did in his first term will be repeated; nor am I sure that Harris’s presidency will match [President Joe] Biden’s.”

He went on: “Israelis must respect the choice of Americans and hope for a president that will be attentive to the needs of Israel as an ally. And Israelis at war need a president who understands the stakes, the complications and that the room for maneuver as far as Israel goes is limited. Israel cannot accept a situation in which it doesn’t win the war because of the sensibilities or preference of an American president.”

Photo by Alon Skuy/Getty Images

According to a poll conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute’s Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research, published less than 24 hours before the election, 72% of Jewish Israelis believe that a Republican win would help to advance their country’s interests. Only 11% of Israeli Jews think a Harris White House would be better.

Trump is especially popular among younger Israelis, with the IDI survey finding that in the 18-34 age group, 90% think a Trump presidency would serve Israel’s interests, while 2% have that view of Harris.

Last week, a survey published by Israel’s Channel 12 found that 66% of Israelis prefer Trump over Harris, with 17% choosing the latter. Among voters for the Jewish state’s coalition of right-wing and religious parties, 93% chose Trump and 1% Harris.

During his first term, Trump recognized the Golan Heights as part of Israel, moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem and reversed the Hansell Memorandum, declaring instead that Israeli settlements do not violate international law.

Still, Yisrael Campbell, a veteran Democrat who converted to Judaism, argued, “Historically, the Democratic Party has been a very good friend of the State of Israel. I believe that the party as a whole has traditionally done that and will continue to do so.”

Campbell told JNS: “Harris is a friend of the Jews; she’s married to a Jew; she cooks a mean brisket. And I think women are more qualified to run countries than men, especially when the man we are talking about is a flawed human being.”

Acknowledging that Harris has altered her positions to suit the audiences she addresses, Campbell said, “I think politicians adjust their message to the people they are speaking to. We see it in Israel with our own prime minister, when he conveys one message in Hebrew and a different one in English.”

Furthermore, he asserted, “Nobody does this more than Trump, who turned on [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu the second he was unhappy. This is not the kind of friend we need leading our most powerful ally.”

In contrast, Adalia Vaknin, a former Democrat who lives in Israel, told JNS: “Trump has been saying, unequivocally, that Israel has the right to defend itself. He isn’t catering his message to the crowd. Harris went to Michigan and said one thing and said the opposite to Jews in Pennsylvania.”

Trump, she added, “led the Abraham Accords and halted funding to a nuclearizing Iran. This was after America had been funding billions of dollars for its nuclear facilities. He understands that the bigger Iran becomes, the more powerful terrorists will be. He wants peace in the world. He knows how to speak to the leaders of countries like China, North Korea and Russia, with whom he conducted business for decades. He knows how their minds work and what tactics to use.”

Abraham Katsman, an adviser to the Republicans Overseas Israel group, emphasized Trump’s strong track record on Israel.

“The feeling among most Americans in Israel is that whether you like him or not, the presidency of Donald Trump was a very good time for the U.S.-Israel alliance,” he said.

“We had the Abraham Accords [normalizing relations between Israel and four Arab states], which we now take for granted but which was an astounding achievement, support for Israel’s historical, legal and moral claims to Jerusalem, as well as unprecedented military and intelligence cooperation,” he continued.

Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

“Contrast that with what we have now: A [Biden-Harris] administration meddling and micro-managing Israel’s response to Hamas and Hezbollah’s attacks. Israel is trying to handle seven different fronts all engineered by Iran while the administration either withholds or slows down shipments of essential armaments,” added Katsman.

He also noted the pro-Israel bona fides of two of Trump’s major foreign policy advisers, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Katsman also stressed the impact of growing insecurity for Jews in America.

“We have seen a wave of antisemitism, which began after the Black Lives Matter riots of 2020 and exploded after [Hamas’s] Oct. 7 [massacre],” he said. “American Jews feel a lot more Jewish in this new hostile climate, and I suspect large numbers of them will swing towards the Republicans.”

America Votes: For Israel, Every US President Is a ‘Pandora’s Box’ Read More »