Do you remember how after the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7 and the ensuing war, American Jews were dismayed to find much of the media showing a bias in favor of Hamas? You don’t have to take my word for it; even leftists like Bill Maher spoke out against what he called "pro-Hamas" media coverage. Things were so bad that Jewish liberals were tuning into Fox News because they were tired of the anti-Israel propaganda from the leftist networks they typically tuned into.
It was such a change that I had a sliver of hope that there would be a political awakening on the part of Jewish liberals. Perhaps their allegiance with the Democratic Party might be tested. A poll from November suggested that no such political realignment was happening. It found that Jewish voters still overwhelmingly trusted Joe Biden over Donald Trump in fighting antisemitism.
Biden has done very little to earn the support of American Jews and frankly seems to be testing just how far he can go without Jewish liberals turning on him by a statistically significant margin. What has actually happened is that Biden has discovered that American Muslims, another demographic that overwhelmingly leans Democratic, are more willing to put significant political pressure on him.
Last month, more than 101,000 Democratic primary voters in Michigan cast protest votes against him over his stance on the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. This is no small thing considering that in 2016, Donald Trump narrowly won Michigan by roughly 11,000 votes, and Biden won the state back in 2020 with a margin of 150,000 votes.
Related: Here’s Why Joe Biden Is Abandoning Israel
The latest CNN poll shows Trump up eight points in the state. Biden can’t hope to win the 2024 presidential election without Michigan, so naturally, he’s been taking a much harder line against Israel over its war with Hamas, and this week, he stabbed Israel in the back by allowing the United Nations Security Council to pass a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza by not vetoing the resolution. Biden's rhetoric has become increasingly anti-Israel for weeks, but this, as Newsweek put it, crossed a red line.
"With the U.S. taking an 'abstain' vote, the U.N. Security Council passed the ceasefire resolution, the international body's first call to end the monthslong conflict. It comes as relations between the U.S. and Israel, long viewed as close allies, have grown tense amid Biden's concerns about humanitarian conditions in Gaza," Newsweek reported. "Netanyahu earlier on Monday issued an ultimatum to the Biden administration about the resolution, warning that he would call off the visit of Israeli delegates to Washington D.C. if the U.S. did not veto the resolution, reported The Times of Israel."
It doesn't take a genius to understand that Biden isn't as concerned about humanitarian conditions in Gaza as his about political conditions in Michigan and other states where his handling of the Israel-Hamas war put his reelection in jeopardy. It's hard to say whether his flip-flopping on Israel will win back the votes of those who were going to boycott him in November.
The real question I have is whether Jewish Democrats will finally realize that the Democratic Party will always side with the enemy of the Jewish people. While it's true that Israel isn't the only issue that affects American Jews and that they aren't a single-issue demographic, shouldn't recent events bring about some introspection within the Jewish community about why they've been such a loyal voting bloc for the Democratic Party after all these years?
Flashback: Joe Biden Is No Friend to Israel
