Both in Israel and in the US, right-leaning politicians shape-shift more than any creature on Star Trek.
Meet Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli politician you never knew. They call him the Russian, though he was born in Moldova. He is the head of Yisrael Bateinu (Israel, Our Home), which I translate to Yisrael Kaspeinu (Israel, Our Money). His party is popular with Russian expats. When the Soviet Union was collapsing, Israeli officials brought over more than one million people. Not all were Jewish; Israeli officials like Shimon Peres wanted numbers, and they were very flexible about people proving their Jewish bona fides. Many of those who came gave local Jews a hard time, and there were many reports of antisemitism from the recently arrived non-Jewish “Jews”. Lieberman started his career in Bibi Netanyahu’s office before setting up his own party. You think that Nick Saban has produced a lot of new coaching talent out of Alabama…. Lieberman detests the ultra-Orthodox and ended the 2019 Netanyahu government, an event that spawned multiple rounds of inconclusive voting and introduced the first and, to date, only Israeli government with an Arab (Islamist) component.
Lieberman’s party is currently affiliated with Gadi Eisenkot — this election's “anyone but Bibi” candidate. In the past, it was Yair Lapid, Naftali Bennett and Benny Gantz. Lieberman swore that he would not be part of a government with Arabs — even if it is a minority government with Arab voting assistance from outside the formally impaneled government. He also said that he would never sit with the ultra-Orthodox. Those two conditions made Eisenkot’s efforts to try on Bibi’s shoes impossible. He doesn’t have 61 votes without either the “charedim” (ultra-Orthodox) or the Arabs. And then Lieberman blinked: he is willing to sit with the ultraorthodox. And one of those parties, United Torah Judaism (UTJ), refused to recommend Netanyahu to President Herzog to form the next government. Unfortunately, we have seen this movie before. Eisenkot would need every Knesset member from UTJ and Shas. These parties realize that sitting in the opposition means knitting and macrame. They will change their positions like pretzel dough.
In 2019, we, the religious voters, were told that a deal had been struck. If we, the citizens of Jerusalem, would elect Lieberman’s friend to be mayor, he would work out a draft deal that would keep Bibi’s government intact. The funny thing was that the guy running against Lieberman’s candidate was actually ultra-Orthodox and a well-known Jerusalem figure. Everyone had his phone number, and he did his best to help anyone he could. But we were given instructions: vote for the guy who didn’t even live in Jerusalem, and all will be well. It took two rounds, but Moshe Lyon won. And then Lieberman went back on his word and caused the Netanyahu government to collapse. His action brought the Islamists into the government of Bennett and Lapid. So now he wants the ultra-Orthodox again? He won’t get them without a favorable draft deal. So will we fall for that one again? I certainly hope not, but of course we will.
Just as Israel is stuck in the political mud, the US is thrashing in the same. I don’t have enough data to comment on the apparent 20 million “new” Democrat voters that seemed to turn Texas and other locales blue. I’ll comment when I have more, solid information as to their being unvetted real voters or phantoms of the voting machines. The United States is, in some ways, going back in history. My generation never knew the rampant antisemitism that was present in many large cities before World War II. Father Coughlin had 30 million listeners when the US had only a third of its current population. There was no state of Israel to rail against in those days, so Jew hating was...Jew hating. The existence of Jews was enough to bring out hatred from many quarters of American society. And with segments of both parties and more broadly in the US, we appear to be heading back to that period after decades of antisemitic acts being relatively rare. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) threw $30 million to help the Mighty Midget of Michigan win his Senate race. His thanks came in the form of the jihadist not supporting Schumer’s continued role at the top of the Senate. Schumer might check his Hebrew dictionary: chutzpah!
At what point does a politician exit his party or ideology and become something else? Donald Trump was well-known for cutting big checks for all kinds of politicians, including many Democrats. He stated that he ran as a Republican because he believed — even with 16 other candidates! — that it was the best route to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. And his views initially were quite outside the standard Paul Ryan/John McCain Republican “let’s lose as gentlemen” approach. As Trump and MAGA took over more of the Republican Party, the Sen. John Thunes (R-SD) and Sen. John Cornyns (R-TX) became the Republican anomalies and are on their way out. They didn’t pass the SAVE America Act because they don’t want more honestly elected MAGA folks in Congress. They prefer the Democratic electoral wonder show over one more Donald Trump.
At what point is an American politician no longer who he claims? For quite some time, Republicans were cold at best to Israel. Eisenhower was furious at her, France and England for the 1956 Sinai campaign and demanded that it end. Many of those Jews who recently voted for the Democrats who hate them are living in political inertia. Just as your making a hard right causes your body to lean left as it wants to keep going straight, many Jews remember when the Democrats were the only pro-Israel party in town. We were certain that our Republican senator, Charles Percy, was an antisemite. Everything has been turned on its head in the past 20 years, but many still think that the Republicans hate the Jewish state. And apparently if they just wait a wee bit longer, the Carlson/Vance wing of the party will fulfill their worldview. There was never a genocide, and a nuclear Iran was as much a threat to the US as to Israel. What Israel did in Gaza was peanuts compared to what the US would do in Mexico in response to a similar mass murder event. The hatred is pure old antisemitism and it’s gussied up with anti-Zionism and other claptrap to make post-Holocaust consciences feel better. “Kill the Jew!” NO! “Kill the Zionist”. Okay, that’s better.
I don’t care if Vice President JD Vance runs along with his buddy Tucker and tries to establish Alt-MAGA with “disaffected Trump voters”. I realize he went to Yale, but even he should see that it’s not that big of a group. Democrats won’t join, and the remaining loyal MAGA folks are still the bulk of the current Republican Party. The Republicans who joined Democrats to throw out people like Susan Collins and Greg Abbot could not support a candidate on their own. And the Democrats are not going to vote for Vance over one of their lunatics. The goal of destroying the MAGA movement does not include the positive step of providing a viable pro-America alternative. Tucker Carlson may have gotten 93 million views of his “Trump is going to nuke Iran because Bibi told him” tweet, but the vast majority of viewers are not voting Republicans. One should always be very careful about believing his own popularity. Vance cannot win anything without a lot of MAGA voters. Alienating pro-MAGA Jews like this author and many Zionist Christians over his anti-Israel views will not help him get elected. Elections are exercises in math. Inventing “our relationship with Israel” as a reason for the midterm results when no poll showed the same is an invitation to ending JD’s political career. Dishonesty should be left to the Democrats.