LIZ PEEK: Democrats must answer who they support if they abandon Israel
The Democratic Party is turning against Israel.
Increasingly, Democrats running for office, kowtowing to their base, disavow any allegiance to our long-time ally in the Middle East. A recent New York Times survey found 74% of Democratic voters opposed "providing additional economic and military support to Israel," with the number even higher among young people.
Someone needs to ask the anti-Israel crowd: who are you for?
Are they for Hamas, the terror group in Gaza that outlaws homosexuality, steals aid meant for their countrymen and provoked the current war with the Jewish state by slaughtering 1,200 innocents on October 7, 2023?
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Or are anti-Israel Democrats aligning with Iran, which is guilty of mowing down tens of thousands of peaceful protesters in cold blood? A repressive regime that routinely calls for "Death to America" — Israel is at war with Iran, because Iran’s proxies in Lebanon, Gaza and Yemen wage constant attacks on their men, women and children.
Democrats are, in effect, supporting terrorists. It is a binary choice. You are either backing Israel or you are backing those organizations fighting on behalf of Iran.
It is time to make Democrats openly avow that alliance.
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They will argue that their opposition to Israel stems from sympathy for the Palestinian people, or dislike of Bibi Netanyahu, Israel’s long-time leader. But Palestine is governed by Hamas; polling in the region shows a solid majority of the people of the West Bank and Gaza supported Hamas’ reign of terror and attack on Israel. If you denounce the state of Israel because you deplore the military aggressiveness of Netanyahu, shouldn’t you also denounce Palestinians for backing the thugs that burned babies alive on October 7?
The anti-Israel crowd will also regurgitate vague charges of "colonialism" or what the liberal Economist magazine calls "spurious genocide allegations." Many young Americans don’t know that Israel goes to great lengths to protect civilians as it hunts down Hamas terrorists. They alert the population to upcoming military engagements and avoid schools and hospitals; Hamas takes advantage of that caution by storing weapons next to children and secreting its agents among doctors.
While the American left berates Israel for its harsh treatment of Palestinians, some on the American right accuse President Trump of ignoring his America First platform and claim we derive no benefit from our support of Israel. That is not true. There is no other nation in the volatile Middle East, and indeed few in the world, who offer as productive a partnership as does Israel.
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Israel’s military, the IDF, is one of the most capable in the world. It benefits from a strong military-industrial and technological base, and is, along with its 170,000 active personnel, battle-tested.
In addition, its Mossad-led intelligence capabilities are considered among the best in the world. The extraordinary targeting and assassination of dozens of senior Iranian officials, coordinated with the United States, reflects Mossad’s expertise. Mossad is only getting stronger thanks to Israel’s powerful tech sector, which is powering an AI revolution similar to that taking place in the U.S.
Israel’s tech industry, home to thousands of start-ups, is renowned for its innovation and venture capital success, and no wonder. Israel has one of the highest ratios of research spending relative to GDP on the globe.
In short, unlike most European countries, Israel consistently provides the U.S. with vital military, intelligence and technological collaboration. It is not solely because the U.S. hosts a large Jewish population that we have partnered with the Middle East’s sole democracy over the years. It is also because the alliance benefits our country.
That is not what Democrats will tell you. They insinuate that our alliance with Israel is somehow shameful and are weaponizing support for the Jewish state against Republicans. Democrat Graham Platner (he of the Nazi-themed tattoo and infamous Kik account), who is running to replace Senator Susan Collins in Maine, derides his opponent for accepting campaign donations from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobbying group. Last week, Platner posted on X: "Senator Collins is bought and paid for by Benjamin Netanyahu, and she votes accordingly."
Collins should demand to know who is funding Platner. Is Platner, who has outraised the incumbent, getting funding from American Priorities PAC, a pro-Palestinian super PAC backing progressive candidates, that is funded largely by Muslims? American Priorities was set up to counteract AIPAC; why isn’t it getting the same level of scrutiny as the pro-Israel group? Who is behind that organization and where else does their money go?
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The charge that Israel is commanding American politicians is hardly limited to Platner; it is often directed at President Trump. Earlier this year Ruben Gallego, Democrat senator from Arizona, accused Trump of waging war against Iran out of deference to Israeli leader Netanyahu.
Pro-Israel Democrats are also under fire. Politico reports that Democrats competing in numerous primaries this year are routinely condemning their rivals’ ties to Israel, writing "Even tangential ties to the long-time U.S. ally are likely to become campaign issues across the country."
Some of this anti-Israel sentiment stems from good old-fashioned antisemitism; some reflects criticism of Israel’s military response in Gaza after the Hamas attack of October 7. All of it undermines U.S. self-interest.
Just 25 years ago, on September 11, 2001, Muslim extremists killed nearly 3,000 Americans by flying planes into the Twin Towers in Manhattan. Since 1994, Muslim jihadists have plotted out 140 attacks on U.S. soil against Americans, including driving trucks into crowded streets in New Orleans or shooting up the Pulse nightclub in Orlando.
President Obama warned against Islamophobia, and rightly so. But it isn’t Islamophobia to acknowledge that our country’s alliance with Israel is centered in self-interest, and that Muslim terrorists, such as those enabled by Iran, have been our enemy.
Ask yourself: when was the last time a Jewish terror group attacked Americans?