Media Analysis

A Biden presidency would bring huge pressure on liberal Zionists from pro-BDS Jews

The big news from the Jewish world on election day was: 1, the Jewish community is overwhelmingly liberal/progressive and 2, that 22 percent of Jews under 40 support Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel.

What this means is, if the inevitable comes to pass and there is a Biden presidency, we are about to see a dramatic shift in the Israel lobby, which is a Jewish communal institution. The liberal Zionist group J Street, which fought Trump and Netanyahu at every turn, will take over as the centrist Israel lobby, with a lot of friends in the Democratic Congress. AIPAC, which supported Netanyahu blindly and Trump quietly, will become more marginalized on the right.

And with Trump gone, J Street will lose its rightwing bogeyman and find itself on the right side of the liberal Jewish discussion. Young left communal Jews who support Palestinian human rights are going to be demanding real action. Not just lip service to a “two-state solution.”

But let’s drill down into some of the J Street survey numbers on the Jewish voters, based on interviews with 800 of them (from Oct. 28-Nov. 3, by the “progressive” firm GBAO Strategies).

First of all, Jews are among the most reliably-progressive groups in mainstream politics. They voted for Biden overwhelmingly, 78-21. And look at the breakdown. Just 17 percent call themselves conservative, 52 percent say they are liberal or progressive.

That 14 percent Republican i.d. shows that the crazy-uncle neoconservative Jews are a fraction of the Jewish community.

Look at the skyrocketing disdain for Netanyahu inside the U.S. Jewish community. It’s doubled in two years. So Joe Biden runs by telling American Jews he loves “Bibi,” but American Jews don’t love Netanyahu. Though yes, nearly one out of three Jews is in the crazy-uncle faction on Netanyahu.

Right alongside opposition to Netanyahu, opposition to settlements is increasing. Bear in mind that American Jewish political support for settlements stymied George H.W. Bush in the 90s when he tried to take on settlements, and Barack Obama in 2010-11. But that support is slowly eroding.

And though the figures show overwhelming opposition to boycotts of Israeli goods inside the Jewish community, 87-13, look at the figure by age. Under 40, more than one out of five Jewish people support boycotting Israel goods! This is the achievement of Jewish Voice for Peace, which came out in support of BDS years ago and has organized young Jews as none of these top-down liberal Zionist organizations have.

Next slide. J Street can argue that overwhelmingly– 72 percent– Jews want a two-state solution in Israel and Palestine, and that only 15 percent are the crazy uncles who want official apartheid. But then look at the group on the left that calls for one democratic state. 13 percent, the same number that advocate boycotts against Israel. If you broke it down by age, you’d surely see nearly a quarter of Jews under 40 advocating one state.

What these numbers tell us is that leftwing progressives are a real bloc and not a splinter inside the Jewish community, rivaling the neoconservatives in size; but the neocons are the past (Let’s invade Iraq!) and the young progressives are the future of the engaged liberal Jewish community.

Lastly, let’s look at how important Israel is to Jewish voters. Not very! It is way down the list in terms of issues Jews voted on. Notice that racial justice was an important motivation for Reform Jews and Jews without affiliation (two-thirds of the Jewish population). But Israel? It was the first or second concern for just 1 percent of Reform Jews and 4 percent of unaffiliated Jews.

Break the issues out by party, and among Democratic Jews the Israel issue doesn’t even register! 0 percent rate it as one of the top two issues! Though the crazy uncles do care about Israel: 28 percent of Republicans see Israel as a priority.

This is why Peter Beinart came out for one democratic state in Israel and Palestine earlier this year. He is a communal Jewish voice, and he knows where his young liberal constituency is. They don’t really care that much about Israel and the ones who do care are likely to be for one state and for boycott too.

These numbers are a political problem for liberal Zionist organizations, which make up a large part of the Israel lobby inside the Democratic Party.

For four years or so they’ve been able to tell progressive Jews, we’re in a battle for the soul of America against Trumpism, please stay with us, kids. And young Jews have maintained that solidarity. Now it looks like Trump is going (though not Trumpism). And that will open up the discussion on the left side of the Jewish community.

The liberal Zionists will try to keep championing the so-called two-state solution at a time when progressives know that no two-state solution is ever going to happen, and so championing it is an insult to Palestinian human rights. The 22 percent of young Jews who are for BDS are engaged. Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow Jews are the future of the liberal Jewish community, as AOC progressives are the future of the Democratic Party. And they will demand, What are you liberal Zionists doing for Palestinian human rights? If you’re not for boycott, let alone conditioning aid to Israel over its settlements, what are you for?

Just the other day, the liberal Zionist New Israel Fund offered as one “vision” of the future a Palestinian state by 2040. Really, by 2040! What kind of vision is that to the young Jews of IfNotNow, who believe in fairness now, not 20 years from now…

P.S. J Street’s numbers seem to skew left. AP has different numbers, Trump got 27 percent of the Jewish vote, not 21 percent per J Street.

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Again.”liberal Zionist” is a complete contradiction in terms. Completely impossible to be both.

that 22 percent of Jews under 40 support Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel.” I guess every little bit helps.

. Sure have not heard Maddow, Joy Reid etc mention who Israel supports in the U.S. election. Heard them mention China, Russia, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iran but somehow not Israel or the I lobby. Nothing. Although counter intelligence expert Malcolm Nance did mention on MSNBC three times in two weeks (bet he was brow beat for that) that Iran, Saudi Arabia, China, Russia, Israel (yes he said Israel) were meddling in this Presidential election.

Interesting piece about how different countries around the world see this U.S. election.

. https://www.nbcnews.com/specials/world-watches-us-vote-trump-biden-election/

IsraelBy Paul Goldman and Saphora Smith
TEL AVIV — If the U.S. election were held in Israel, President Donald Trump would most likely win in a landslide. 
In a Pew Research Center survey last year, 71 percent of Israelis expressed confidence in Trump to do the right thing regarding world affairs, a higher rate than in any of the other 31 countries surveyed except the Philippines. 
In Israel, Trump will be remembered as the U.S. president who recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, breaking with decades of American precedent. 
His administration will also be remembered for pulling out of a nuclear deal with Israel’s archenemy, Iran; recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights; brokering agreements to normalize ties with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain; and presenting a plan to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“The Trump administration has positioned itself on a whole range of major issues where the vast majority of Israelis want to be,” said Eran Lerman, vice president of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security. “All of this would be put in question if Trump loses the election.”
The U.S. has long tried to broker a peace between Israel and the Palestinians. However, U.S.-Palestinian relations have soured under Trump after he recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, cut hundreds of millions of dollars of U.S. aid to the Palestinians, shut their diplomatic offices in Washington and presented a peace plan that Palestinians said largely favored Israel.”

Centrist Democrats are blaming the squad and the progressives for the poor showing in Congressional elections (certainly much poorer results than the optimistic polling of a few days ago). To dismiss AIPAC is to dismiss Centrist Democrats and it is wishful thinking rather than analysis. Yes, Jewish readers of Mondoweiss are progressives and they are for the Green New Deal and are proudly socialists, but the mainstream of Jewish voters tend towards the center and consider socialism a dirty word and associate the BDS mentality with the socialist mentality and consider it a losing mindset.

A Biden presidency would last about ten minutes. Then he would be declared gaga (which he obviously is) and Harris would become president.

The young are the future because they tend to opt for the truth over blind tradition. Threats from ossified elders reinforce their truth seeking. They see bribery attempts as insults, and further confirmation they are on the right track.

So if you believe something other than what the author of this article believes you are a “crazy uncle”

I guess the author would be happy to agree that this standard should apply to him if someone disagrees with him.

BTW 22% of Jews supporting BDS presupposes that those Jews actually exist.
I could identify as a Black Asian Lesbian Boi, but most people who look at me would say im a white married male.
Identifying as a Jew doesnt make me one.

I could also identify as a Yale, and Harvard graduate with a law and medical degree, but a quick check of my credentials would show that I am in fact neither of those, and as much as I identify with it, doesnt make it so.

If you want to be a dr. you have to be accepted by drs. There are tests, there are associations, there are continuing education classes, all decided by other drs. that I have to pass. If I pass those tests I can then try to change the system from within.

I know, its an inconvenient truth, but there it is.