Does New Zealand have a right to exist?
Retired Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz posed this question in an interview this week with JNS TV’s Jonathan Tobin, pointing out that the island country is the “paradigm of a colonial settler state.” He noted that British settlers, who had never been to an island in the Pacific, colonized New Zealand, murdered many Māori, and used what he called a fake treaty to set up a country.
By contrast, he said, the history of Jews in Israel goes back more than 3,500 years. He added that Jews have never stopped living in the land, while Palestinians have had many opportunities to establish their own state.
Dershowitz then brought up Taishya Adams, the Democratic Socialists of America-endorsed candidate for mayor of Boulder, Colo., who won’t say that Israel has a right to exist but has never questioned New Zealand’s founding.
Adams isn’t the only Democratic candidate this cycle with an obsession with and pronounced hostility toward Israel, and Jewish Democrats in Boulder aren’t the only voters facing a test of their loyalty to the party.
Tobin noted that leading Jewish Democrats in Michigan have supported Abdul El-Sayed in the Michigan Senate race, despite his alleged ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. That includes Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.). Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, who has endorsed El-Sayed, told Jewish Democrats they have a moral duty to put the world’s needs above “even our own survival.”
Tobin asked Dershowitz, who voted Democratic most of his life before leaving the party and registering as a Republican this year, whether there was any justification for Nessel’s position. Dershowitz’s answer should be required reading for any Jewish Democrat still considering voting for El-Sayed, a man who is unable to say that Iran is a bigger threat to the U.S. than Israel, and who said that “hurt people hurt people” after a terrorist attack on a synagogue in Michigan:
The idea of putting party before your own people is absurd. And, you know, Jews voted for Mussolini, too. If Jews lived in China, they would have voted for the Communist Party there too, as they supported Stalin. Many, many did during the 1920s, ’30s, and ’40s, even before being oppressed and, you know, thrown into the gulag or killed. Yeah.
And you know what? I knew a lot of Russian Jews because I represented them, and I’d meet sometimes, and they would say, “Oh, we’re not in danger. It’s only those Jews that are in danger, like Sharansky.” And, you know, the answer is always: first they come for the Sharanskys, then they come for the ordinary Jews, and then they come for the Catholics and the Protestants and everybody else. So you don’t have to be a single-issue person to be concerned about what’s happened with the Democratic Party today.
This is why Dershowitz now wants Democrats to be defeated in every election and why he supports President Donald Trump, probably the most pro-Israel U.S. president in American history. But is it Trump, or better yet, Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS), that will ultimately keep way too many Jewish Democrats, even the ones concerned about the party becoming anti-Israel, in the Democratic tent?
In answer to this question, Dershowitz mentioned a Jew he knows very well: his wife. Although she left the Democratic Party and registered as an independent, she can’t bring herself to join the GOP. Dershowitz agreed with Tobin that it’s not about the issues but about the man.
Related: 2026’s Non-Carlsons: Prominent Non-Jews Who Stand With Jews and Israel
Jewish Democratic voters need to look deep within themselves and ask why this man, who recognizes the existential threat Iran poses to Israel and the United States and who struck the Iranian regime in what Ben Shapiro called “the single bravest foreign policy move of my lifetime,” provokes such rage.
The roughly 100,000 Jewish voters in Michigan also have to do some soul searching. The Jerusalem Post reports that while "hundreds of Jews, including several prominent community leaders and lifelong Democrats, have already signed a pledge to vote for Rogers, .... others, even those deeply worried about El-Sayed and his movement, still can’t bring themselves to support the current Republican platform." Amanda Berger, a Jewish activist who is leading canvassing efforts for El-Sayed in Michigan, showed she suffers from TDS when she said she warns Jewish voters that "if Mike Rogers is elected, Trump is unchecked for another two years.”
Related: Two Non-Jewish Women With Media Voices Standing With the Jews and Israel
The Jerusalem Post reported that Rogers has a different message for Michigan's Jewish community:
To win over more Jews, Rogers will make his case by acknowledging what other Jews have told him is a deep fear for where the country is headed.
“They’re afraid for what kind of America their children will live in,” Rogers told [the Jewish Telegraphic Agency] of the Jews he’s spoken to on the campaign trail. El-Sayed is building a “movement,” the Republican said, arguing that such a movement bodes poorly for Jews: “You have to remember, if elected to the Senate, this is just the beginning for them.”
Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
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