Sunday, March 24, 2024 | 2 a.m.
View more of the Sun's opinion section
I want to talk about three Jewish leaders. The first two are Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. We will get to the third in a moment.
Schumer said recently that he thinks Israelis should call for elections as soon as the war is over. To be clear, I define the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas as being over when all the hostages are returned home and all of the terrorists of Hamas have gone away.
I suspect Schumer agrees with that definition.
Schumer also believes — as do I — that Netanyahu’s government is not equipped to handle the next chapter of Israel’s life as the only democratic country in the Middle East. I think the overwhelming majority of Israelis believe the same thing. For certain, his far-right-wing government has already proved its total incompetence when it comes to the primary responsibility of any government — to keep its people safe. Witness Oct. 7.
Netanyahu says “thanks, but no thanks” to Schumer’s idea and suggests he stay out of Israel’s domestic politics. It’s a fair request. Israel lives in a tough neighborhood, so any decisions that have to be made about its security and its future must be made by Israelis. The rest of us don’t live there.
Schumer, on the other hand, is as good and stalwart a supporter of the Jewish state as there is in America. Not to mention that he is the highest-elected Jewish politician in the United States. He also believes in Jewish traditions and teachings. His speech, however ill-timed it may have been and whatever controversy it may have caused, was heartfelt and came from a good place.
So that’s Schumer.
Now for Bibi.
The state of Israel was created by the United Nations in 1948. Not only was it the right and honorable thing to do but it was a guilt-ridden morality play by the rest of the world which witnessed and waited (too long) and never wanted to witness again the darkness of the Third Reich. Providing Jews around the world a homeland where it all started in the first place made sense. God chose Israel a very long time ago, so the United Nations was just following suit.
President Harry Truman was the first world leader to recognize the state of Israel on May 14, 1948. Just 11 minutes after its creation. He did so on behalf of all Americans, and all Americans — Republicans and Democrats alike — gave their full-throated support for the democratic Jewish homeland.
Fast forward. There have been three or more generations of Israelis who have come and gone since Israel’s rebirth in 1948 on the very spot where the Jewish people have lived for thousands of years. And America has been at her side the entire time.
The point is American support for Israel has always been based on shared values, strategic importance, moral responsibility and a belief among citizens of both countries that genuine friendship and common interests rule the day.
Things change.
Democrats in the United States are fighting amongst themselves over the right thing to do. While the overwhelming majority of Democrats support Israel — our ally, our friend and our fellow democracy — there are a few on the far left who are content to condone, coddle and convince others who may be a bit naïve that the Iran-backed murderers of Hamas deserve a moment’s consideration following the Oct. 7 massacre.
This Democratic family disagreement — however naïve and ignorant the cause may be for those on the far left — has allowed a former president and now GOP nominee for president again, Donald Trump, to reprise his antisemitic rant by saying Jews who vote Democratic are disloyal Americans who hate their religion. All toward the end of peeling away votes for President Joe Biden in the November election.
I am not sure where to start to unpack the absurdity of Trump’s latest hateful ugliness except to say that blaming Jews for hating themselves is, even for him, a stretch to the breaking point of sane behavior.
First of all, Trump is the undisputed king of disloyalty worldwide, so he knows whereof he speaks. No one anywhere is more disloyal to friends and family than he is. He also knows a great deal about disloyal Americans. He led a whole passel of them on Jan. 6, 2021, when they proved themselves traitorously disloyal to the United States. Many of them are in prison .
But even having said that, there is no excuse for Trump’s antisemitism (unless, well, you know, he really is antisemitic). And there is no excuse for any Jewish person to support his hate. Or, frankly, any person at all to do so unless they share his hate. (GOP leadership, look inward).
So the question remains: Why does Bibi embrace a man who epitomizes antisemitism the way Trump does? Better yet, how does he do so and sleep at night?
And that brings me to the third Jewish leader.
President Joe Biden is a deeply religious Catholic. No doubt about that.
But he has, as we say in the business, a wonderful Jewish heart. That is why immediately following the horrific massacre of Jews on Oct. 7, the president of the United States of America was standing shoulder to shoulder with all of Israel, grieving with them, supporting them and embracing them as they began to bury their dead and make plans to bury their enemy — Hamas.
And even though he has come under political attack and challenges by other world leaders who cannot watch the devastation in Gaza — who can? — and who quiver to the point of forgetting over 1,200 Israeli men, women and children who were butchered, raped, beaten and murdered while hundreds of hostages were taken from their homes and many of whom remain captive in Gaza, Joe Biden has not wavered.
He works every day to help Israel through this most painful time while doing his best to minimize the destruction and helping the innocent Palestinians who could be spared all of their pain if Hamas just quit fighting and returned the hostages.
So while Schumer lectures Bibi and Bibi complains to Trump and Trump blames the Jews, the only person I see, the only “Jewish” leader I see working non-stop to help heal that part of the world ... is President Joe Biden.
America should get behind him the same way America got behind Truman and the same way Americans got behind every president since 1948 — by embracing our friend and our ally so the world realizes that the United States has learned the lesson of history and understands the words “never again.”
Brian Greenspun is editor, publisher and owner of the Sun.
