President Trump is headed for a drubbing from Jewish voters this fall even as the Democratic Party’s support for Israel wanes and elements of the liberal base flirt with anti-Semitism.
Just recently, Democratic New York Mayor Bill de Blasio scolded Orthodox Jews for defying regulations against mass gatherings during the coronavirus, singling them out among many communities that did so. And in Washington, Black Lives Matter protesters chanted slogans critical of Israel while marching. Trump’s first term is littered with plenty more examples of anti-Israel sentiment and borderline anti-Semitism on the Left.
Republicans also point to leaders of the Women’s March organization, some of whom have made anti-Semitic statements and associated with anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan — as well as politically charged comments made by Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar.
And they cite past efforts to change the Democratic Party’s platform to diminish U.S. support for Israel and support among some Democrats for a global boycott and divestment from Israel that could devastate its economy.
But American Jews’ broad support for the Democrats continues, with presumptive nominee Joe Biden on track to receive the lion’s share of their votes in November. This is despite the president’s remarkably pro-Israel agenda, amid escalating demands from grassroots liberals and some Democratic lawmakers for the United States to end decades of military aid to Jerusalem and make American foreign policy more favorable toward the Palestinians.
Republicans blame Trump’s provocative personality and combative social media presence for overshadowing his accomplishments and shielding Democrats from blowback.
“People love the kosher sausage but don’t care for how the kosher sausage is made,” Matt Brooks, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, told the Washington Examiner this week.
Trump won 23% of Jewish voters in 2016, a figure that plummeted to 17% for Republican candidates in midterm elections two years later. Brooks is convinced Trump will do better this year, pointing to his record on foreign and domestic policy.
Trump moved the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and pulled Washington out of the Iran deal. In territorial and security disputes with the Palestinians and terrorist groups operating on Israel’s borders, Trump consistently sides with Jerusalem, and he protects the stalwart American ally from being penalized by the United Nations.
Brooks said he expects Jewish voters to reward Trump for his stewardship of the economy.
To make it so, the RJC is investing $10 million to woo Jewish voters in about a half-dozen key state micro battlegrounds — South Florida, Cleveland, Philadelphia and surrounding counties, Pittsburgh, suburban Phoenix, and suburban Atlanta.
But prominent Jewish Republicans recognize Trump’s personal conduct poses obstacles. During an RJC livestream event Sunday, two prerecorded questions for the panelists that Brooks deliberately chose to air dealt with the challenge of convincing Jewish voters inclined toward Trump’s agenda but who resist supporting him because of his behavior.
“I do understand there are some women who have issues with the tone of the president or the tweeting of the president or the style of this president,” said former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who was joined on the RJC livestream by talk radio host Mark Levin and former Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman, who is Jewish. “Joe Biden might have a nicer way of talking, but he won’t have the results that President Trump has had,” she said.
Jewish Republicans believe hostility to Israel among Democrats and liberal activists over the last decade offers Trump a unique opportunity.
Mark Mellman, a veteran Democratic pollster, agrees pursuing an anti-Israel agenda risks a voter rebuke and regularly warns Democrats against allowing this line of thinking to grow roots inside the party.
In a poll he conducted this month for Democratic Majority for Israel, a group he leads, 67% of voters nationally and 68% of voters in battleground states describe themselves as “pro-Israel,” with 72% of Democratic voters describing Israel as a strong ally, and 59% saying the U.S. relationship with the Jewish state is beneficial. Additionally, Mellman’s poll found liberal Democratic candidates in battlegrounds that are pro-Israel do 17 percentage points better against Republicans than Democrats who are anti-Israel.
But this is not a problem Biden has to worry about, Mellman said, explaining the former vice president is inoculated thanks to decades of support for Israel’s security and his decision to quash attempts to reduce support for the Jewish state in the new Democratic Party platform that will be unveiled as a part of his nomination.
“Jews are very likely to vote for Joe Biden over Donald Trump because there is tremendous antipathy to Trump and what he stands for,” Mellman said. “There’s an extra high level of trust in Biden on these issues.”
In a campaign fact sheet, Biden pledges to oppose the boycott and divestment movement, support critical military aid for Israel, and fight the domestic rise in anti-Semitism.
