After decades of monolithic loyalty, many Jewish Americans are turning away from the Democrat party and joining (or at least taking the trial membership of) conservative politics.  Some might say this is long overdue.  The muffled antisemitism ever present in academia and the media has grown less subtle in recent years.  But the recent Oct 7th attack has brought the left’s hatred towards Israel to full volume, and people are finally starting to listen.

Democrat reactions to the terrorist attack have shattered disillusions.  On one end of the spectrum, we saw hollow sympathies expressed simultaneously with lectures on moral relativism.  On the other end, we actually saw sadistic pleasure with explanations that the massacre was justified.  In the weeks that followed, with loved ones still missing, taken as hostages or worse, Jews watched Democrats attempt to rationalize the attack and call for restraint on the part of the IDF.  Now, as we see posters of Jewish victims being torn down, the Biden Administration wrings its hands over Islamophobia and losing votes in Dearborn, Michigan.  In summary, Democrats have shown little gratitude for generations of Jewish loyalty going back to FDR.

This disregard for Jewish suffering was not entirely unpredictable.  The Marxist identity politics that comprise college curricula and leftist media have devolved into hatred and violence as they always do.  Plus, in all honesty, a beneficial outcome for Jews in the left’s oppressed/oppressor binary scoring system has never looked promising.  They check too many “privilege” boxes, and as a result, the left has reached their inevitable conclusion.  Israel is simply too white, too wealthy, too nuclear, and too supported by the MAGA crowd for the Democrats to be seen championing them in any meaningful way. Having tiptoed around it for years, their woke verdict is finally in.  Israel is an oppressor and the Hamas-wielding Palestinians are the oppressed.  Chuck Schumer was successful for years in keeping his Party’s antisemitism at bay in order to preserve substantial party donations from Jewish Americans, but he has lost that battle with radical Democrats who have come to speak for the party on issues of race.

The Israelis, and Jewish Americans by association, have now been labeled as “colonizers.”  The same nihilistic 1619 Project narrative that the left uses to undermine western culture is now being used to deny Israel’s legitimacy.  Typically, this spiteful, pseudo-intellectual nonsense is just noise to be ignored, but this time it is far more dangerous.  Israel’s enemies have its annihilation as a stated goal.  Should Israel lose America’s support, they are done.  And as Jewish Americans are beginning to realize, once you have been swept into the oppressor category, there is no funding, no sympathy, and no marches for you.  You are alone.  And if anything bad happens to you, well, you likely deserved it.   This current scenario is a dramatic shift from where we were just a few short years ago, prior to Democrats controlling the Senate and Executive branch.

At this point, no rational individual could deny that under Trump’s presidency, Jews around the world were safer, including in America.  But with the disastrous Afghanistan debacle and billions of dollars in appeasements to Iran, Biden’s foreign policy has created the ideal environment for empowering global terrorism.  The Oct 7th attacks are the direct result of weakness and incompetence in current Western leadership.  It may be fair to say that the Jewish community took US support for Israel for granted and were not paying attention to the threats growing inside leftwing politics.  Incredibly, in 2020, 3 out of 4 Jewish Americans voted Democrat, but recent reprehensible rhetoric from the left may have forever changed that dynamic.  Intifada enthusiast Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan narrowly escaped censure this week for her antisemitic remarks.  She was saved by a unanimous vote from her Democrat colleague enablers.  In America, Jews are being intimidated and accosted on and off college campuses.  It is remarkable how quickly things have gotten so bad, and it sadly seems like the destruction of our country’s cherished melting pot is just beginning. 

As Jewish Americans find themselves facing alienation and discrimination from Democrats, my hope is they finally find their way to the side which not only respects them as individuals, but also respects their right to exist.  With each echo of the ignorant chant “From the river to the sea,” Israel’s situation becomes more dire. My hope is that Jewish Americans realize what many other minorities already have.  That the party in which they have placed their trust will do nothing for them in their hour of need. If they continue to give power to Democrats they are likely to receive in return more caveated platitudes and policy that amounts to indifference to the fate of Israel.

In leftist circles, non self-hating Jewish Americans are becoming persona non grata, just like MAGA hat wearing patriots. Conservatives should stand by our Jewish American brothers and sisters and welcome them to the right. We are far from perfect, but at least we are trying to protect the shared values that made all of our ancestors choose to come to America.  We don’t put people into groups, we judge individuals based on the content of their character.  And we know what it’s like to be outcast by the self-righteous media and ivory tower crowd.  They have once again proven themselves to be bereft of principles, values or standards. We stopped caring what they thought of us a long time ago, and so should you. 

Welcome.

{For remarkable insight into this topic, I encourage you to read Konstantin Kisin’s piece, “The Day the Delusions Died” in The Free Press.  Kisin uses the wisdom of Thomas Sowell to explain the current paradigm shift among Jewish Americans that has occurred largely because of philosophical differences between the left and the right.  It was so well received that he made a video narration which can be viewed here.}