Category Archives: USA

Donald Trump’s Orthodox Jewish Rabbis

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President Donald Trump once again turned to the Orthodox community to give a benediction on behalf of American Jewry at his inauguration. Yesterday, it was Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman, President of Yeshiva University, a modern Orthodox institution. At his last inauguration in 2017, Trump called upon Rabbi Haskel Lookstein who had overseen the conversion of his daughter Ivanka, leader of Kehilat Jeshurun, a modern Orthodox synagogue in New York City, and Head of the Ramaz School, a modern Orthodox K-12 school. Liberal alumni of Ramaz objected to Rabbi Lookstein participating in the inauguration so the rabbi backed out, and was replaced by Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, also an Orthodox rabbi.

Trump’s selection of Orthodox rabbis stands in sharp contrast to every other president who chose non-Orthodox rabbis. In 2021, during Joe Biden’s inauguration at the height of the pandemic in a virtual ceremony, Sharon Brous of IKAR in Los Angeles and Sharon Kleinbaum of Congregation Beth Simchat Torah in New York City spoke. The two female rabbis are on the far-left of the religious and political spectrum, with the latter being married to Randi Weingarten, the powerful far-left leader of the American Federation of Teachers which only backs Democratic politicians.

The divide between Orthodox and non-Orthodox streams of Judaism is now beyond the confines of keeping kosher and Shabbat observance. There is a clear divide politically and about Israel as well.

According to a May 2021 Pew Research poll, Orthodox Jews preferences for the Republican and Democratic parties were 75% and 20%, respectively. Conservative and Reform Jews tilted towards the Democratic Party by a mirrored amount. An incredible 81% of Orthodox Jews approved of Trump’s job performance, while a similar percentage of non-Orthodox Jews disapproved of Trump’s performance.

These sentiments are echoed in the divide in the Jewish communities’ feelings about a range of issues including Israel and the treatment of American Jews. The majority of Orthodox Jews approved Trump’s handling of immigration, the environment, Israel and his treatment of Jews in the United States, while non-Orthodox Jews were much more split.

These polls were taken well before the October 7, 2023 massacre by Palestinian Arab terrorists of civilians in Israel, and the horrifying cheers of jubilation from the socialist-jihadi alliance on American campuses and in Congress. Since then, even Conservative Jews have begun to migrate towards the Republican Party (now almost one-half from just over one-quarter 3.5 years ago), while Reform and unaffiliated Jews remain entrenched with Democrats, according to an October 2024 poll by the Manhattan Institute.

It should not come as a surprise to see Trump invite an Orthodox rabbi to Washington, D.C., even while they make up a small percentage of Jews in America. It will be interesting to see if the Jewish Conservative movement continues to shift away from the Democratic Party and become a fixture in Washington during the Trump Administration.

Related articles:

Jewish Vote For President Broke Important Threshold (November 2024)

Will Jews Pivot To Law, Order And Self-Interest? (November 2024)

Trump Secures Lowest Tally of Israeli Deaths From Palestinian Terrorism (November 2020)

Political Spouses As NY Times Fodder To Accuse Republicans Of Racism And Sexism

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The interactions of political opponents have gotten frostier through the years, as bipartisanship has been cast as evil. That dynamic is playing out amongst the spouses of politicians as well.

The New York Times chose to reframe that issue as really being about its perception of Republican racism.

Two particular incidents unfolded in Washington, D.C. in January 2025, as a new president and Congress were being sworn in. One included a Democratic Black female political spouse disrespecting a Republican White male politician, and the other had the mirror image of a Republican White male political spouse disrespecting a Democratic Black female politician.

The stories were covered under the Times’ theme of White male Republicans being racists.

Former First Lady Michelle Obama issued a press release that she would not attend the inauguration of Donald Trump on January 20. Her actions were rationalized that she believed that Trump was sexist and racist, who was scared of educated, hard-working, successful Black people. There was no Times commentary that many people criticized her snubbing of Trump.

The Times used very different language when it wrote about Sen. Deb Fischer’s (R-NE) husband not shaking the hand of Vice President Kamala Harris during a swearing in ceremony. It cast Harris as doing her job in difficult circumstances while being disrespected by a White man. The Times wrote about the criticism online of the snubbing, calling the White male Republican’s actions racist and sexist.

As politics become more polarized, The New York Times fans the flames of division that its readers are the resistance against racist and sexist White male Republicans. It is crafting a bleak world that is no longer about policy differences and compromise, but a battle between good and evil.

And it is doing so in the aftermath of an election that saw more minorities vote Republican – with a Black female presidential nominee! – than ever before, seemingly marketing itself to a rapidly shrinking audience.

The Times is not just airing left-wing biased reporting but attempting to become the vanguard of progressive causes built on a foundation of smears and apologies for the woke-christened evil and noble, respectively.

Related articles:

As The US Reels From Socialist-Jihadi Antisemitism, The NY Times Tells Readers That Republicans Are The Antisemites (May 2024)

What Do The New York Times And Vladimir Putin Have In Common? Both Accuse Jews Of Meddling In Elections (July 2022)

NY Times, NY Times, What Do You See? It Sees Rich White Males (June 2018)

Covering Racism (March 2018)

Fact Check Your Assumptions on American Racism (August 2017)

Older White Men are the Most Politically Balanced Demographic By Far (November 2016)

What “All Hell Will Break Out” May Look Like

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President-elect Donald Trump issued a warning to the U.S.-designated terrorist group Hamas to release the 101 hostages it stole from Israel on October 7, 2023, or “all hell will break out” for them and the region. He would not comment further on what that meant for Hamas or its allies but reiterated that it would be severe.

Below are some thoughts on what actions the Trump administration might take, which fall into two principal categories: military and non-military.

Military

Trump’s first term in office did not see much activity in the way of American forces and action. While he did increase spending for the military over the Obama administration, his actual use of force was targeted and limited to particular strikes, such as the assassination of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and missile strikes on Syria for using chemical weapons. It is possible that Trump would order targeted attacks on Hamas operatives as well.

The general argument against this is that Israel has already pulverized Hamas in Gaza and there is little else that the U.S. could do. That is not true.

The United States has several things that Israel doesn’t have: massive bombs; incremental intelligence; and global influence.

At various points of the Hamas-initiated war, the Biden administration withheld some armaments to Israel, fearing it would harm civilians. Those bombs and other tools of warfare could be used against Hamas and its allies. Hezbollah tunnels in Lebanon and Iran’s nuclear program could be eviscerated with advanced weaponry, whether given to and launched by Israel or used by American forces directly.

U.S. intelligence and reach spans beyond the immediate actors. One of Hamas’s leaders, Khaled Mashal lives openly in Qatar, where the US has its largest military base in the Middle East. The Trump administration may give Qatar the option of green-lighting the elimination of Mashal and his associates or watch the US move its over 10,000-person force to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as the administration advances the Abraham Accords with a normalization agreement between Israel and KSA.

Non-military

The United States power can bring the world to pressure Hamas through political, economic and judicial actions. This is the opposite approach of the Biden administration and the world which put pressure on Israel to the detriment of the hostages. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken admitted as much that “every time we put pressure on Israel, Hamas backed off from the hostage deal.”

The initiatives start with a simple order: label every government, agency, business or person associated with Hamas a terrorist entity.

The Palestinian Authority‘s parliament, the Palestinian Legislative Council, is led by Hamas. The PA would immediately become a designated terrorist group unless it fires every member of Hamas. All members of the PA would be subject to arrest and no organization would be permitted to send material support to the PA. Every US charity that sends money to the PA would lose tax-exempt status and/or be shut down.

The United Nations considers Hamas a legitimate political Palestinian party and its main agency in the region, UNRWA, closely coordinates with Hamas. UNRWA offices in the United States would be closed and the US would push allies to similarly halt funding to UNRWA and close its offices. UNRWA would not only lose all US funding and standing, but possibly the United Nations as well, if the organization continues to legitimize Hamas.

In addition to the “axis of resistance” of the Iranian proxies already on the terrorist list, Qatar and Turkey would be forced to chose between the United States and Hamas. Each would see its economies and regional aspirations quickly collapse should they side with terrorists. Ramifications could include not only moving all US assets out of Qatar to Saudi Arabia, but also supporting Israel and Cyprus to all energy claims in the Mediterranean Sea which Turkey covets.

In the United States, people who provide material support to not just Hamas, but the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA would be committing a criminal act. People would go to jail for up to 20 years or be deported. Entire groups, or perhaps just senior leadership of organizations like the Democratic Socialists of America, Students for Justice in Palestine and others could be impacted, depending on their level of support.

In April 2024, Congress enacted the Hamas and Other Palestinian Terrorist Groups International Financing Prevention Act which requires the executive branch to impose sanctions on foreign states or persons that provide certain types of support to Hamas, and other Palestinian terrorist groups. Trump’s version of “hell” for Hamas supporters will be to not only enforce the will of Congress but to expand its targets by capturing the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA as Hamas affiliates.

The Broke-n Generation

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Today’s youth are a sorry lot.

In the aftermath of the targeted killing of a healthcare insurance executive, more 18-29 year olds thought that the assassination was justified than thought it unjustified (41% to 40%) according to a DailyMail poll. The Gen Z generation was an outlier compared to every other age group, with those over 50 years old having 10% or fewer believing that the killing was justified.

The peculiar morality of 18-29 year olds is not limited to their view of the insurance industry. In the aftermath of the Hamas slaughter of Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023, a Harvard poll showed that 60% of 18 to 24 year old thought that the attack was justified. Half of that age group supported Hamas (compared to 4% for people over 65) and 51% said they thought Israel should be liquidated and handed to Hamas.

Why is there such depravity and celebration of violence amongst today’s youth?

According to a Yale poll conducted in the fall of 2024, the majority (52.5%) of Americans under 30 years old consider themselves liberal. Only one-quarter are conservative, and those that are, are only “somewhat conservative.”

These under 30 liberals are not typically perceived as violent. According to Pew Research, they have the lowest gun ownership in America. According to a PBS poll, it is Republicans that are more likely to resort to violence “get the country back on track,” not the left (which should not be surprising as the poll was taken under a Democratic presidency; should the poll be conducted again under a Trump administration, it would be curious to see the results).

Further, according to a McCourtney poll in January 2024, Gen Z youth are the least angry age group in the U.S. They also tend to feel the most pride for certain things.

The various polls seem incongruous. On one hand, Gen Z youth applaud murder but are generally not as angry or prone to violence according to polls.

One observation made by the Brookings Institute is that today’s youth is much more diverse racially and ethnically than older generations, as well as compared to youth of prior generations. It means that current polling data may be wrong depending on the sample set selected, and it means that age may be only one determinant of how young people view the world.

Brookings Institute warns of polling data for today’s youth

Another factor is perhaps social.

Gen Z was more impacted by the pandemic and its lockdowns than other generations, forced to spend high school and college at home and behind masks. They grew up and went through puberty with social media and texting on their cellphones as the main methods of engagement rather than physically interacting with peers and society.

Jonathan Haidt, author of The Anxious Generation, said that Gen Z is suffering from a serious mental health crisis. He views this generation as more depressed and susceptible to self-harm. His analysis highlights correlation rather than causation, as there are very few Gen Z without social media to compare. The podcast linked above considers that maybe more anxious youth spend more time on social media than less anxious people, so the correlation may be from the self-selected initiators rather than from platform engagement.

Polls have looked at Gen Z’s attitudes regarding societal values. According to a 2022 Gallup poll, those aged 18-29 were much more likely to believe that companies should be more focused on long-term benefits of society than profitability. They are much more likely than older Americans to leave a position at a firm if they disagreed with the company’s values.

Those opinions are seemingly not limited to corporate America. Harvard’s December 2021 poll showed that young Americans were very unhappy with President Biden and Congress and “over a third think they may see a second U.S. civil war within their lifetimes.” While Gen Z may not be carrying guns, they believe that society is broken and war is coming.

Beyond society being broken, they personally feel broke. According to a 2024 NBC poll, the most pressing matter for Gen Z by far was inflation and the cost of living (31%), ahead of “threats to democracy” at 11%. Crime, immigration, foreign affairs and other matters were all far behind.

NBC poll of Gen Z before 2024 presidential election

None of the polls are perfect but the assembly of all this data leads to some disturbing conclusions about Gen Z today:

  • they are distressed – emotionally and financially – disconnected from society because of masks and technology
  • they do not see a secure future, whether because of personal financial stress or because they believe the system is rigged against them
  • they have no faith in institutions – whether government or corporations – to look out for them and society
  • while they may not be inclined or able to commit violence themselves, they empathize with those who do

It sounds like the backdrop for the movie Joker, with a society ready to venerate murder as a pathway for validation and justice. It’s Gen Z’s desire to rip down the establishment in a brewing civil war which more closely resembles the French Revolution than the 19th century war between the states.

While the fictional Joker character was understood to be deeply troubled, Hamas and Luigi Mangione, the killer of the United Healthcare CEO, are being portrayed as deeply righteous. Professors at universities are praising the killers, and pointing to “wealthy Jews” as operating “behind the curtain” (to quote Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI)) to entrench a corrupt system for selfish goals. The media echoes the “powerful Jew” and corrupt Republican/”White supremacy”/patriarchy themes to incite the masses. They make playing cards of other insurance executives to target.

The youth are marching with chants to “Globalize the Intifada“, to bring the October 7 massacres to every corner of the world. They are picking infidels in each town and industry to target for their rage.

March in New York City

Gen Z’s embrace of anarchy is being encouraged by liberal media, the education system, radical left wing organizations and America’s foreign foes. Each is influencing and validating “the anxious generation,” seeking TikTok moments to clone the next Joker, attempting to destroy the United States from within.

As Ritchie Torres Runs For Governor, Who Will Protect NY-15 From Jamaal Bowman?

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On November 5, 2024, New York’s 15th Congressional District once again elected Ritchie Torres to serve in Congress. With broad support from the Latin, Black and Jewish communities in the area, the consensus candidate was a shoe-in.

In the weeks following the sweep of Republicans to the Executive Office, Senate and House, Torres attacked the far-left of the Democratic Party for foolishly advocating for non-common sense positions. He has taken particular aim at New York’s Governor Kathy Hochul, a fellow Democrat whom he seems intent on challenging in the Democratic primary of 2026.

On November 21, Torres said there was a “poverty of governance in New York” as well as a “leadership crisis.” The next day he called Hochul “the new Joe Biden” who is so clueless about “her vulnerabilities as a Democratic nominee,” that allowing the Democratic machine to prop her up will “give us a Republican Governor in 2026.”

Torres has not officially declared he will run for state Governor but his attacks on a fellow Democrat are not subtle. The following week he called Hochul a liar and hypocrite.

While Torres represents the poorest district in the United States, he has built strong relationships with many wealthier sponsors including Jews and pro-Israel advocates who appreciate his strong fight against antisemitism and supporters of Hamas. Torres should be able to stage a strong fight against Hochul, if he can build support around New York State.

The next question becomes who is best positioned to take his seat in Washington, D.C. should Torres move on to Albany. The likely contenders are former Congressmen Jamaal Bowman and Mondaire Jones.

Bowman has strong roots in the Bronx. He defeated Eliot Engel in the Democratic primary in 2020 and then rapidly lost hold of the district when new lines were drawn which replaced much of the Bronx with lower Westchester County. While Bowman lost in his 2024 Democratic primary, he faired well in Co-op City in the Bronx.

Jones has bounced around a few districts after his seat in Rockland and Westchester counties were redrawn. After a single term in 2020, he failed in his attempted run for office in lower Manhattan in 2022, and then again running in 2024 for the lower Hudson Valley in NY’s 17th district. He would need to build a new strong ground team to take on Bowman in his comfortable turf.

Or a newcomer could enter the race, perhaps someone Hispanic as the district is 53% Hispanic and 31% Black.

Will the Democratic Party rally to the disgraced Bowman who was censured for pulling a fire alarm, putting many lives at risk? For chanting to a crowd that there were no rapes of Jewish women by Palestinian Arabs on October 7, 2023, in a #DontBelieveJewish Women moment?

The Jewish community that invested so much in Torres and wants to see him succeed in his political aspirations will be outraged and appalled if Bowman comes back to Congress to represent them. It must therefore work with the Democratic power brokers, Mondaire Jones or another rising candidate from the Bronx immediately, to prevent the return of the toxic squad.

J Street Hypocrisy Over Politicizing Tax Exempt Status Of Organizations

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On November 21, 2024 the House of Representatives approved H.R. 9495 by a vote of 219-184 with 30 people not voting. The bill was called the “Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act” and principally involved relaxing laws about tax collection if people are “detained” like hostages in Gaza, as well as to terminate “the tax-exempt status of terrorist supporting organizations.”

J Street, the left-wing pro-Palestinian group marketed as Jewish and pro-Israel was “dismayed” at its passage. It had joined with 50 other progressive groups in a letter to members of Congress to oppose the bill on the grounds that “the bill threatens to politicize decisions.”

November 20, 2024 letter to Congress by 50 groups including J Street to oppose H.R. 9495

This hypocrisy is too rich to ignore.

On July 13, 2010, J Street called for a “Treasury investigation into settlement charities.” It claimed that “tax-exempt organizations are working to undermine a two-state solution by deepening the occupation.”

Oh my. Opposed to antisemitic laws which ban Jews – and only Jews – from living somewhere? Not that.

The head of J Street, Jeremy Ben Ami, would not relent on this Holy Grail quest and tried to push the willing ears of President Barack Obama in his fight. On September 9, 2016, Ben Ami posted an urgent plea: “J Street Calls on Treasury Department to Review Tax Deductibility of Donations to Groups Entrenching Settlements.” It stated that the best way to advance its preferred public policy goals was to terminate tax exempt status for those with different agendas.

J Street called on its supporters and all who support a just Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement to urge the US Treasury to review the tax-deductibility status of contributions to groups working to entrench or expand Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank.

  • J Street September 9, 2016

The call to stifle free speech and expression was obvious to all. Eugene Kontorovich wrote in Tablet Magazine on October 6, 2016 that called J Street’s action “unprecedented and clearly unconstitutional” in attacking charities “pursuing goals at odds with the foreign policy of the President.”

Snapshot of article by Eugene Kontorovich in Tablet on October 6, 2016

Now that a Republican president is about to take office, progressive groups are suddenly worried about politicizing the tax-exempt status of charities, an effort they had inaugurated.

And that’s a red herring as it’s not what the bill states. It is not trying to rob charities of donations for having different opinions, the bill specifically is about supporting terrorism. As laid out, “the term ‘terrorist supporting organization’ means any organization which is designated by the Secretary [of Treasury] as having provided, during the 3-year period ending on the date of such designation, material support or resources (within the meaning of section 2339B of title 18, United States Code) to an organization described in paragraph (2) (determined after the application of this paragraph to such organization) in excess of a de minimis amount.”

J Street has long fought to strip the tax-exempt status of charities operating east of the 1949 Armistice Lines (E49AL), such as a charity which provides wheelchairs for the elderly in the Old City of Jerusalem. It is now crying foul as Congress passed an act to fight terrorism, because of the long list of Palestinian terrorist groups and even longer list of its supporters.

Related articles:

J Street Youth Urges US Government To Pressure Israel Not Arabs (October 2024)

US Hypocrisy On Terrorist Media (April 2024)

J Street Pushes US To Stop Protecting Israel At The United Nations (December 2023)

Anti-Zionist Hypocrisy Ignoring The Will Of Inhabitants (May 2023)

Liberal Hypocrisy on Foreign Government Intervention (October 2016)

Sick Societies Awash In Antisemitism

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Berlin, Germany’s top cop, Barbara Slowik, issued a warning to Jews and gay people, “There are areas of the city, we need to be perfectly honest here, where I would advise people who wear a kippah or are openly gay to be more careful.” She added “There are certain neighborhoods where the majority of people of Arab origin live, who also have sympathies for terrorist groups.”

New York’s Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) was outraged by the warning. He said “A healthy society tells its Jewish community: “We will keep you safe.” A sick society tells its Jewish community: “You should go in hiding.” Antisemitism is a sign of societal sickness.”

He is right. But the problem isn’t solely on Holocaust soil. It is a growing presence in the United States.

On May 21, 2021, President Biden’s Jewish Engagement Director Aaron Keyak posted on X “It pains me to say this, but if you fear for your life or physical safety take off your kippah and hide your magen david (Jewish star),” in response to growing antisemitic attacks coming from the jihadi-socialist alliance.

That was two and one half years before the October 7 Palestinian Arab massacre of Israelis and spike of jihadism in the United States.

Keyak lives and breathes the world of Democratic politics and interfaith relations. As profiled in his bio on the State Department site where he serves as Deputy Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism since November 2021, “Deputy Special Envoy Keyak is an experienced leader and interfaith coalition builder who has previously held senior roles advising members of Congress, the Obama Administration, and the Biden-Harris Administration transition team.”

People operating in the highest ranks of the U.S. government whose job is to combat antisemitism, liaise with the Jewish community and build interfaith relationships, told the Jewish community that they must hide. He tacitly gave permission for pogroms since law enforcement would do little or nothing.

It is a deep descent from George Washington’s letter to a synagogue in Rhode Island written in 1790 in which he wrote “For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.”

There is a moral rot in the left flank of the Democratic Party, which has demanded sanction to bigotry and assistance to the persecution of Jews. It is not only an abandonment of Jews but to the principles of America.

Joe Biden was elected by many in the hopes of healing the division in America but he laid bare the “societal sickness” of licensed antisemitism. It is no wonder that Jews voted for Donald Trump in 2024, in the greatest percentage for any Republican in 36 years.

Related articles:

I Did Not Vote For Trump in 2016 or 2020. I am Voting For Him Now. (November 2024)

CAIR Thinks Protecting Synagogues Is A Political Stunt And Waste Of Taxpayers Money (September 2024)

The Disappearing Jew (July 2024)

Jews Are A Minority-Minority (November 2023)

Israel And Jews Everywhere Must Be Protected As An Ethnic, Religious And Linguistic Minority (September 2022)

The Downhill Spiral From Washington To Biden On Anti-Semitism And Jewish Freedom of Worship (May 2022)

Politicians In Their Own Words: Why We Don’t Support Defending Jews (January 2022)

The VERY WRONG Takeaways From Democratic Politicians

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After the clean sweep of the presidency, Senate and House by Republicans, Democratic politicians are trying to figure out why they lost. Mainstream Democrats like Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) thinks that the party needs to pivot to economic issues and away from social issues, emphasizing the need to “take power” from the powerful and hand it to the working class. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) thinks that there’s an “oligarchy” in the United States who steal everyone’s money and buy elections, so Democrats should focus on seizing and redistributing that wealth.

If those are the lessons learned, the Democrats will continue to lose, as they should.

  1. Money in elections. The Democrats spent about one-third more than Republicans and lost big. The dollar spent per vote was about 50% more. The numbers show that it’s not about money in politics or the Democrats would have sailed away with victory.
  2. America’s “oligarchy.” The richest people in the United States BUILT amazing companies and created millions of jobs and products that people love. The oligarchs in Russia just STOLE state assets. Sanders & Co. have a basic lack of understanding of economics which feeds a deep contempt for wealthy people. The distortion leads people like Sanders to the horrific conclusions and proposed policies that deny Americans property rights.
  3. Americans feel “impotent”. Murphy’s claim that Americans feel that only a handful of people hold power is true about the omnipotent Democratic political machine: They decided to throw President Biden out of the running. They unilaterally decided that VP Kamala Harris was going to run as the party’s nominee without allowing everyday Americans the opportunity to vote for their nominee. Democratic politicians are the imperialist power players and people are waking up to that grotesque fact. Most do not want to pivot to the far-left like Justice Democrats who accuse the Democrats of imperialism, so they pivot right.

The Democrats should now appreciate that they should have never picked Harris for vice president four years ago. You don’t pick one of the most left-wing senators from the most radical left-wing state and assume that such person could win most of America. Knowing her baggage and role in the unpopular Biden administration, Harris’s attempt to pivot towards the middle came off as completely inauthentic, a non-starter for many voters.

Considering the above, the election takeaways for the public and the Democratic Party and possible plans for the future include:

  1. The Democratic machine was tactically smart to lie to Americans about Biden’s health. Harris was never going to beat any Republican – as the November election showed – so the best chance of her becoming president was to prop up Biden until the middle of 2025 and then let him resign to hand the presidency to Harris. The question isn’t why the Democrats waited so long to admit to Biden’s health issues; there was no other option, as even $1.5 billion dollars highlighted. [Note that Pelosi and gang are very astute – it will be important to trace the monies spent on the Harris campaign to see if/how much was siphoned off to favorite causes and other Democratic politicians for future races.]
  2. Pick presidential candidates from swing states. Democrats should stay away from California, Massachusetts and New York and run candidates from Pennsylvania, Georgia or Michigan. The electoral college is not just a game of arithmetic; the candidates should be broadly attractive for everyone, not niche extremists.
  3. The far-left wing “Squad” of the Democratic party is a toxic anchor that shut be cut off. The Democratic Socialists of America held a vote in August 2023 to remain inside the Democratic party to pull the party leftward rather than break into its own party, stating “It is not advisable for us to form an independent political party with its own ballot line at this moment.” The stink of their socialist policies has washed over Democrats. The party should expel the toxic DSA politicians and candidates, including Rep.Rashida Tlaib (D-MI).
  4. Stop the wealth transfer platform. No American will feel safe if the idea that their property can be seized by the government and handed over to someone the government prefers. Immigrants know the corrupt communism and socialism of property theft. They came to this country for a fair shot at capitalism to become wealthy. Don’t vilify billionaires as immoral, the way AOC says.
  5. Decentralize and narrowly focus. Don’t push an issue like fracking or gender identity in sports onto the national stage. What may fly in Oregon may not in Texas, and making politicians delve into matters that are best handled locally will inevitably rub many people the wrong way. National campaigns should always lead with safety and the economy. Always, in every election.

Mainstream and extreme Democrats are so trapped in their political philosophies that they believe that the election loss was an issue of messaging. It was not. Americans have eyes and ears and did not appreciate the pig under the lipstick.

The critical issues of security and the economy were alight with global wars, rampant antisemitism, inflation, grab-and-go theft and the National Guard in the subways over the past four years. Keeping the socialist-jihadi fringe inside the party whose policies include destroying the economy and embracing genocidal terrorists will forever sink anyone in their orbit on a national level.

The image of the Democratic policies and priorities

Most importantly, Democrats need to stop pitting groups against each other – the powerful versus working class and Whites versus people of color – and then vilifying their foes as ‘Nazis’ and ‘deplorables.’ The only segment to move leftward towards those positions were those they targeted who dutifully ate their humble pie – educated White men – while the non-woke uneducated and minority groups watched the pandering as inherently racist, anti-religion and anti-Democratic.

Americans are abandoning the politics and universities of wokeism. It’s a good thing. Democrats will now decide whether to jettison it or continue to cleave to their intersectional and DEI ideology.

Related articles:

“I Think We Need To Have A Real Conversation About Woke Antisemitism” (July 2024)

‘Imagine’ No Wokeness (February 2022)

Bernie Sanders’ Antisemitic and Anti-Zionist Friends (March 2020)

Bernie Sanders is Less Sophisticated Than Forrest Gump (April 2019)

J Street And NIF Will Not Stand Together With Zionists

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Jewish organizations once again rallied people to Washington, D.C. for a “Stand Together” event. The Jewish Federations of North America invited many groups to attend, a spectrum of religious leaders and those with diverse political views to assemble and stand with fellow Jews and the Jewish State of Israel, including Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Gov.Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI). The speakers included Blacks and native Americans, soldiers and children.

They had a variety of backgrounds and beliefs but were united in being pro-Israel and for fighting antisemitism.

But there were a number of left-wing radical groups which refused to join the unity event. J Street published a joint statement that a number of groups in its orbit including Ameinu, Americans for Peace Now, Habonim Dror North America, New Israel Fund, New York Jewish Agenda, Partners for Progressive Israel and T’ruah had joined it in boycotting the event.

Joint statement by far left-wing groups to boycott an event in Washington DC which included a wide range of pro-Israel organizations

This cohort didn’t simply decide to quietly not show up for the event but banded together and issued a joint statement denouncing unity at moment when it is sorely needed. [Note that Ameinu and Americans for Peace Now merged in February 2024, although they are still listed separately by the Conference of Presidents.]

Instead, J Street took to the soapbox to demand the U.S. withhold weapons to Israel as the Jewish state engages in a multifront war. It slammed President-elect Donald Trump’s appointment of ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee.

And it is urging the U.S. Congress – and perhaps the Biden Administration at the United Nations – to use its remaining months in office to severely punish Israel. This same pro-Palestinian (marketed as “pro-Israel”) group has never once suggested harming the Stateless Arabs from Palestine (SAPs).

At the end of President Barack Obama’s term in 2016, J Street effectively lobbied the administration to allow UN Security Council Resolution 2334 to pass, making it illegal for Jews to live east of the 1949 Armistice Lines (E49AL), including in the Old City of Jerusalem. It publicly thanked Obama and disgraced Secretary of State John Kerry for their efforts to make Jerusalem Jew-free as a “moral” matter.

Full page J Street ad in The New York Times in January 2017 quoting Secretary of State John Kerry after the Obama administration allowed UN Security Council 2334 to pass, making it illegal for Jews to live in Jerusalem and the “West Bank.”

Many Jewish groups are assessing whether to allow radical groups that harm Israel and the Jewish people to remain in the same tent. These umbrella groups should make plain that if these groups lobby the U.S. administration to punish Israel in the lame duck session, they will be kicked out of the community, much like they removed themselves from Standing Together in Washington.

ACTION ITEM

Write the various umbrella groups to warn J Street, New Israel Fund and others that lobbying Congress to punish Israel will result in their exclusion and/or expulsion.

Related articles:

J Street Youth Urges US Government To Pressure Israel Not Arabs (October 2024)

Rethinking Jewish and Israeli Charities (September 2024)

HIAS Seeks Donations For Gaza (July 2024)

J Street Pushes US To Stop Protecting Israel At The United Nations (December 2023)

J Street Signals “Open Warfare” On Jewish And Pro-Israel Communities, Urging The United States To Take Action AGAINST Israel (December 2022)

J Street’s Ben Ami Smears Moderate Jews As Racists (July 2022)

Students For Justice in Palestine Says J Street Is The Gateway For Jewish Anti-Zionists (March 2022)

Will You Finally Show J Street and Its Backers the Door? (July 2021)

J Street is Only Considered “Pro-Israel” in Progressive Circles (November 2019)

Unity – not Unanimity – in the Pro-Israel Tent (November 2017)

The Fault in Our Tent: The Limit of Acceptable Speech (July 2015)

Turning Back New York’s Socialist-Jihadi Campaign

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The metropolitan New York City area is home to the largest Jewish diaspora community in the world. For clarity, as most religions do not have a “diaspora”, it means that outside of the Jewish homeland of Israel, more Jews live in the greater NYC area than any location in the world.

Despite the size of the community, the last several years have seen the area’s Jews come under fire, both literally and figuratively.

In 2018, radical left-wing extremists started to win seats in Congress in response to the 2016 presidential election of Republican Donald Trump. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (AOC) was the first to win a seat in New York’s 14th Congressional District, followed two years later by Jamaal Bowman in New York’s 16th CD. The two woke New Yorkers pushed the outer limits of the Democratic Party, voting against measures like the Infrastructure Bill, and supplying security aid to Israel.

Rank-and-file antisemites followed their leaders. They shot up a synagogue in Pennsylvania in October 2018. Then another synagogue in California in April 2019, and a kosher supermarket in Jersey City (part of the NYC metropolitan area) in December 2019. By 2022 they were taking hostages in synagogues in Texas to free jihadi murderers in jail.

New York’s Woke members of Congress appreciated the cesspool of Jew hatred and coddled up to jihadists at New York City’s Columbia University who continue to celebrate the 2023 massacre of Jews in Israel, and raised money for the election campaign from Hamas supporters. Their incessant calls of “white supremacy”, “patriarchy”, “colonialism” and “imperialism” echoed the Columbia lies to distract from the toxic woke antisemitism embedded in the radical left and as a rallying cry for the socialist-jihadi campaign.

New York’s political class of radical leftists paraded reasons why Jews in school should not be given any police protection, including Rosie Mendez who claimed Jews discriminate against the gay community; Daniel Dromm who said Jews are robbing from public schools; Teamsters Local 237 which said taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to pay to protect Jewish students; and the American Federation of School Administrators which was appalled that taxpayer money should be spent in any manner on private schools (should the fire department not respond to a fire in a yeshiva?), amongst others.

On October 7, 2023, as the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust was unfolding in Israel, New York’s Jews lay vulnerable and unprepared for the assault from the socialist-jihadi alliance.

New Yorkers are fed up with being targeted because of who they are. Angry with not being given time nor space to grieve for 1,200 people brutally massacred. Incensed that rioters show up at synagogues and Jewish Day Schools to scream that Jews have no history, heritage or rights in Israel.

The tide may be turning.

On October 15, 2024, the United States and Canada labeled Samidoun a sham charity funneling money to Palestinian Arab terrorist groups. White Plains-based WESPAC, which also funds terrorist groups, has not yet been banned or lost its tax-exempt status, but that may hopefully change soon.

Bowman lost in the Democratic primary in the summer of 2024 to a moderate pro-Israel candidate. AOC’s popularity is seemingly fading, as she was not able to secure 70% of the general vote in November 2024, her lowest tally since entering Congress, and among the lowest for any Democrat in New York City.

Trump’s victory and the Republican takeover of the Senate (and maybe retaining control of the House) may portend a defunding of schools that either take money from state sponsors of terrorism like Qatar, or give antisemitism a free hand to harass, intimidate, discriminate and attack Jewish students, faculty and buildings.

Individuals are scoring victories too. In October 2024, Columbia University’s paper announced that alumni are shunning their alma mater. It is likely due to the school’s disgusting treatment of Jews.

Still, the Democratic Socialists of America – endorsers of Bowman, AOC and others in the socialist-jihadi alliance like Rep Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) – are still operating openly in New York, even as they call for violent attacks against Israeli civilians. Perhaps they will also come under prosecution as decent people and the government start to push back against the anti-Jewish vitriol.

Democratic Socialists of America label all Israelis as fair targets for violent attacks

The Battle of Vienna in 1683 turned back the Muslim Ottoman Empire’s quest for expansion and conquest in Christian Europe. The world we live in today is a byproduct of that battle.

History may one day consider what happened when the ‘Globalize the Intifada’ pogroms came for the world’s largest Jewish diaspora community. All of us have an opportunity to play a part in that battle.

Related articles:

DSA Goes Full Antisemite (July 2024)

Globalize The Intifada With Socialists (May 2024)

Antisemitic Wind Chill, Now In Westchester (January 2024)

The Most Antisemitic Thing (August 2023)