Rather than reflexive loyalties, base your choice on careful consideration of who will uphold the rights and ensure the future of America’s Jewish citizens.
Kamala never generates intelligent or informed discussion about Israel in any of the high profile platforms available to her as the 2nd most powerful person in the world of politics. Yet when some loudmouth, foul, anti-Semitic creep disrupts her talk with crap lies about "Israel committing genocide", she seconds him, she validates him. Oh, She didn't come to talk about Israel today? Well, there is no day in which she will talk honestly about her Israel stance. Disrespectful Jew-hating scum lead; she follows.
Jewish Dems are in an abusive relationship and have been for years. Used for their votes and donations while people like Al Sharpton are feted as honorable party elders. They cry about J6 while their own college kids have been thrown to the wolves and their businesses covered in Hamas graffiti for a year. Antisemitism is at record levels but they won’t leave their supposed allies whose commitment to Islamic fanaticism apparently outweighs their use for Jews. But muh abortion and orange man bad..
Kamala Harris is a self serving power hungry narcissist. She has no inner life, she's stone cold like a common garden snake. To try to decipher her motives is not too difficult, the presidency is just something to add to her resume, but either way she is dangerous because of ignorance and far leftist Marxist belief system. That she won't discuss what she's done or plans to do shows she's a self entitled Queen Tyrant who doesn't belong in the White House. I'd like voters to ship her back to California in Nov.
Vote your own interests-- everybody else does. Your own interests, not those of this group or that group. Not the false platform of one party. Your own best interests Even if you don't support Israel (I still can't believe a Jew doesn't support the Jewish state), you must at least support the better interests of Americans Jews. Which candidate will serve you better? There is Harris. Her husband, so we are told, is Jewish. (He is a JINO-- Jew In Name Only). Have they done anything to support or provide comfort and peace to American Jews (and Israel)? The answer is unequivocally NO. Then there is Trump. Neither he nor his wife are Jewish. But, one of his daughters is a converted Jew, married to an Orthodox Jew. Their children are being raised as Jews. Has Trump been supportive of Jews and of Israel? Of this there is NO DOUBT. He even made a campaign visit to a Chabad center in NY. So, political parties aside, which candidate is more likely to be a mitzvah to the Jewish community in America? You know the answer. Vote your own tribe's best interest next month.
I learned recently that Trump learned from his father as a child to respect Jews. In Brooklyn they had no synagogue, so Fred Trump leased them a building for $1/ year. His name was put on a plaque on the outside wall. It is a blessing to learn early to bless God’s chosen.
I have been a lifelong Democrat until Jimmy Carter decided to throw the Shah of Iran under the bus and later decided to label Israel an Apartheid state. These are the two critical issues that brought us to where we are today. Successive Democrat administrations served only to amplify these problems that have proven to be an existential threat to Israel and Jewish communities around the world.
That brought the Ayatollahs to power in Iran. Then Obama decided he like the Ayatollahs with his JCPOA. Trump dropped it, Biden brought it back, now the Middle East is on fire. Harris seems pro-Iran too.
Trump signed the Abraham Accords, recognized the Golan, moved the US embassy to Jerusalem, cut off the PA, took out Soleimani, and protected American Jews under Title IV.
Biden stood by Israel - he went to Israel after Oct 7th, put US naval carriers in the Med, and rearmed Israel. But for every good act, there has been incoherent, counterproductive actions that undermine the war effort, prolong the conflict, and risk the lives of more Israelis. At home, the Biden admin has done nothing to protect Jews in word or deed against increasingly violent intimidation and discrimination.
Harris owns the Biden track record - she is VP in the current administration - and to the extent she deviates from Biden, every indication is that she will be worse for American Jews and for Israel.
Hopefully her latest gaffe will be the death knell of Que Mala Hamas’ presidential campaign. It had been an overly funded national embarrassment, just like her current regime. Her regime is functioning as a failed state. We cannot afford four more years of that
I have not voted for the obnoxious whiney ill mannered rich kid but I fully intend to now. I’d rather have someone express his antisemitism by saying only guys in Beanies manage my money than what Scamala brings in the Jew hatred category. Unreal she’s dumb as a box of rocks. Genocide, indeed start with 300 K grow to what 5 million defies all the tropes about us if we were genociding Paleys there’d be a lot less Paleys than they started with. I’m really upset with the Democrats mamzers.
Well said. In Canada our Liberal party is even worse. They want the Arab vote. And we have a major university - u of Guelph - about to fire a prof because he offended a pair of anti semites by calling Hamas Nazis. So anti Semitism is the baseline opinion.
Kamala can't claim she was taken aback and couldn't formulate a proper answer.
Recently, she was heckled by a student yelling, "Jesus is Lord."
She had a ready response: "Oh you guys are at the wrong rally," she said, to massive cheers and roars. This went on for seconds. She continued: "No I think you meant to go to the smaller one down the street."
One would almost have thought this was a plant, her performance was so masterful.
If she could handle this heckler so well, why not the pro-Palestinian?
1. Harris response to the protestor was reflexive. She was raised on political slogans the guide her behavior. One is no enemies on the left. Confronted by a leftist protestor spouting antisemitic bile she must pat him on the head and saying soothing words. She was wrong, but she is stupid and reflexive not malicious. What scares me about her is that if she is president she will be pushed around by the same people who are running the White House now and unlike Biden she has no pro Israel instincts.
2. The political leanings of American Jews are best understood in therms of their history as urban immigrants in the 20th Century. They settled in big cities run by Democrat machines. The second generation grew up in those cities and in the New Deal era when the Democrat Party dominated politics in a way that has not been replicated since. The first non Democrat president in their lifetimes was Eisenhower who was not pro Israel. He sided with Nasser against Britain, France and Israel in the 1956 Suez crisis. My father hated Eisenhower for that.
3. Most American Jews still live in big cities where the Democrat party is dominant. Like many other middle class white people in those areas they still support the Democrats. You must remember that American elections are by state not total popular vote. The Jewish vote, as a minority, only counts if they can swing the balance in a state.
Here is a list of the 10 states with the largest Jewish populations by percentage:
The top 5 are all strongly Harris. Only Pennsylvania is a real toss up where the Jewish vote could swing the state. Florida will vote for Trump. Nevada is leaning Trump.
I live in a state that will go Trump no matter what the Jews do. My brother lives in Massachusetts. his vote wont swing that state either.
I understand you're claiming not to "tell us" who to vote for, but your language strongly suggests that we should vote for Trump.
I understand that American Jews are angry about the explosion of antisemitism that's gone largely unaddressed - or to the extent that it has, it's fallen on the shoulders of law enforcement and not the institutions that are propagating it.
But that doesn't mean that I'm voting for an orange conman--one who has stated publicly that if he doesn't win, it will be our fault. It doesn't mean I'm going to help fill the Senate with people who are against reproductive rights, which have been severely chipped away thanks to SCOTUS.
And perhaps that's the difference between me and other Jews who have become single-issue voters thanks to the fuckery of the last year: I'm willing to give my vote to someone who I believe will do a better job protecting the rights of the masses and of minorities, perhaps at my own expense. And it's because I believe that no matter what happens, we Jews will survive. We always have, no matter who the president was.
I appreciate your point of view, but I do disagree with you on two points, perhaps because I think the situation is far more grave than you do:
1) Your citation of "reproductive rights" points to something very problematic, in my view. I believe the American Jewish community is in existential danger. If the antisemites are not stopped, American Jews will be either ghettoized or forced to make Aliyah. In this context, all other issues are irrelevant, including reproductive rights. Even if Congress completely bans abortion (which strikes me as very unlikely), another Congress can repeal the ban. Laws can be changed and legal rulings overturned. Rights taken away can be restored. But the marginalization or de facto expulsion of the American Jewish community cannot be reversed. It will be irrevocable and for all time. In this context, there are no other issues.
2) I do not think the Jews should ever vote for anything that will come at their expense. No other minority does it and we shouldn't either. As far as I'm concerned, if protecting the "masses and minorities" comes at the expense of the Jews, then the masses and minorities can both go f--- themselves. If they don't care about me, then I don't care about them. I realize that sounds harsh, but harshness is sometimes necessary.
Obviously, by all means vote as you see fit. I simply wanted to urge American Jews to act as if there is a choice rather than an obligation to vote a certain way.
Look, I get what you're saying, and part of me sympathizes with it. The dangers you are talking about re: the Jewish community are very real. As a liberal myself I have been depressed greatly by what I've witnessed. However, I do view the dangers to Jews as coming out of a very specific slice of the left that is very loud, but does not represent the majority. There are plenty of antisemites on the extreme right too.
You've become a single-issue voter - and it looks like many other Jews have, too. I wonder how many of them there are out there...guess we will see in a few weeks.
Also just FYI - you are not speaking "as if there is a choice." You are speaking as if our only option for survival is to vote for Trump, whether you realize you're doing that or not.
It was necessary to make the case against the Democrats in order to demonstrate that Jews have a choice and why their reflexive loyalties might not be advisable. I did try to convey that if, after consideration, they choose to remain with the Democrats, then that has got to be respected.
You may want to reflect on why you hesitate on being forward with what you're actually trying to express. Had you titled this piece "The Case Against the Democrats," we all know that most readers on this platform would have skipped right over it. Instead you "tricked" (I'm not using that term to be mean, just honest) your readers at first to believe that you were "not telling us" who to vote for, when the conclusion is basically "vote for Trump."
I think that your syntax choice is simply another symptom of the sickness that we Jews are all collectively dealing with and don't really know how to process.
Substack seems to be pretty diverse politically, so I don't think "most readers" would have automatically skipped over it. However, the concentration on the Democrats was necessary because that is where Jews reflexively go. I wanted to shake up their confidence that the Democrats will always love and protect them. That is manifestly not the case and Jews need to hear that. If most Jews voted Republican and the Republicans were engaged in such behavior, I would argue accordingly. I imagine you think the Republicans are engaged in such behavior, but if so, we disagree on that.
I guess that’s the difference between some of us- not seeing VP Harris as capable or even articulating plans of protecting the American people of a growing invasion on the soil of the USA. I wish she did have plans I could support because the thought of being smarter than the President is not a comforting one.
One more thought to lifelong Dems: they are nowhere near the Democrat party I grew up voting for. They no longer stand for civil liberties, nor are they a big tent supporting the People. These are now the Republican’s wheelhouse.
Harris will throw Israel under the bus . I don’t trust her . She’s stupid and naive and doesn’t know what she’s talking about and doesn’t understand the Middle East . Already voted Trump .
Kamala doesn’t care about Islam or Palestine. She doesn’t hate Jews. Kamala is a sociopath and a narcissist. Kamala loves Kamala. She wants to be President. ‘I got the Jewish vote. I need to shore up the Islamic vote. What can I say to get that.’ The minute Islamic voters are much larger than Jewish voters Israel/Jews will be dropped like a rock. It isn’t hatred though. It is about as hateful as a cobra in your living room.
No. Basing my vote on who will be better for Jewish citizens is far too narrow to base my choice. The truth is that it is difficult to say which person would be better for Jews, globally, or in America. Rather, the fuller choice is who would be better for the world? Kamala is married to a Jewish man, and although I think she is far less sympathetic to Israel than she ought to be, she is not an anti-semite, and values human beings (even when identity mucks this up for her on occassion). Trump does not possess empathy for other human beings. He is a malignant narcissist. His coziness with Netanyahu does not reflect a love of the Jews, but a camaraderie with far right strong men.
Trump has frequently shown a disdain for checks and balances on his own power, the processes of democracy, and the accountability that comes with holding power never mind an elected office. Trump's presidency empowers the dictators of the world, weakens western democracies and jeopardizes the United States' ability to be a net force for good in the world. It's fine to think of ourselves as Jews and want to feel safe in our societies, but before I am a Jew, I am a human being. The leader of the United States needs to feel an empathy and kinship with that identity most of all.
Kamala never generates intelligent or informed discussion about Israel in any of the high profile platforms available to her as the 2nd most powerful person in the world of politics. Yet when some loudmouth, foul, anti-Semitic creep disrupts her talk with crap lies about "Israel committing genocide", she seconds him, she validates him. Oh, She didn't come to talk about Israel today? Well, there is no day in which she will talk honestly about her Israel stance. Disrespectful Jew-hating scum lead; she follows.
Jewish Dems are in an abusive relationship and have been for years. Used for their votes and donations while people like Al Sharpton are feted as honorable party elders. They cry about J6 while their own college kids have been thrown to the wolves and their businesses covered in Hamas graffiti for a year. Antisemitism is at record levels but they won’t leave their supposed allies whose commitment to Islamic fanaticism apparently outweighs their use for Jews. But muh abortion and orange man bad..
Kamala Harris is a self serving power hungry narcissist. She has no inner life, she's stone cold like a common garden snake. To try to decipher her motives is not too difficult, the presidency is just something to add to her resume, but either way she is dangerous because of ignorance and far leftist Marxist belief system. That she won't discuss what she's done or plans to do shows she's a self entitled Queen Tyrant who doesn't belong in the White House. I'd like voters to ship her back to California in Nov.
Vote your own interests-- everybody else does. Your own interests, not those of this group or that group. Not the false platform of one party. Your own best interests Even if you don't support Israel (I still can't believe a Jew doesn't support the Jewish state), you must at least support the better interests of Americans Jews. Which candidate will serve you better? There is Harris. Her husband, so we are told, is Jewish. (He is a JINO-- Jew In Name Only). Have they done anything to support or provide comfort and peace to American Jews (and Israel)? The answer is unequivocally NO. Then there is Trump. Neither he nor his wife are Jewish. But, one of his daughters is a converted Jew, married to an Orthodox Jew. Their children are being raised as Jews. Has Trump been supportive of Jews and of Israel? Of this there is NO DOUBT. He even made a campaign visit to a Chabad center in NY. So, political parties aside, which candidate is more likely to be a mitzvah to the Jewish community in America? You know the answer. Vote your own tribe's best interest next month.
I learned recently that Trump learned from his father as a child to respect Jews. In Brooklyn they had no synagogue, so Fred Trump leased them a building for $1/ year. His name was put on a plaque on the outside wall. It is a blessing to learn early to bless God’s chosen.
I have been a lifelong Democrat until Jimmy Carter decided to throw the Shah of Iran under the bus and later decided to label Israel an Apartheid state. These are the two critical issues that brought us to where we are today. Successive Democrat administrations served only to amplify these problems that have proven to be an existential threat to Israel and Jewish communities around the world.
That brought the Ayatollahs to power in Iran. Then Obama decided he like the Ayatollahs with his JCPOA. Trump dropped it, Biden brought it back, now the Middle East is on fire. Harris seems pro-Iran too.
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/why-iran-deal-matters
I agree. It was carter. He later apologized but too little too late
Indeed! The damage was done. It is one of the rallying cries of the Hamas supporters on college campuses today.
Until Biden, I thought no president could be worse than Carter.
I don't care about words, I care about actions.
Trump signed the Abraham Accords, recognized the Golan, moved the US embassy to Jerusalem, cut off the PA, took out Soleimani, and protected American Jews under Title IV.
Biden stood by Israel - he went to Israel after Oct 7th, put US naval carriers in the Med, and rearmed Israel. But for every good act, there has been incoherent, counterproductive actions that undermine the war effort, prolong the conflict, and risk the lives of more Israelis. At home, the Biden admin has done nothing to protect Jews in word or deed against increasingly violent intimidation and discrimination.
Harris owns the Biden track record - she is VP in the current administration - and to the extent she deviates from Biden, every indication is that she will be worse for American Jews and for Israel.
Hopefully her latest gaffe will be the death knell of Que Mala Hamas’ presidential campaign. It had been an overly funded national embarrassment, just like her current regime. Her regime is functioning as a failed state. We cannot afford four more years of that
I have not voted for the obnoxious whiney ill mannered rich kid but I fully intend to now. I’d rather have someone express his antisemitism by saying only guys in Beanies manage my money than what Scamala brings in the Jew hatred category. Unreal she’s dumb as a box of rocks. Genocide, indeed start with 300 K grow to what 5 million defies all the tropes about us if we were genociding Paleys there’d be a lot less Paleys than they started with. I’m really upset with the Democrats mamzers.
Well said. In Canada our Liberal party is even worse. They want the Arab vote. And we have a major university - u of Guelph - about to fire a prof because he offended a pair of anti semites by calling Hamas Nazis. So anti Semitism is the baseline opinion.
Kamala can't claim she was taken aback and couldn't formulate a proper answer.
Recently, she was heckled by a student yelling, "Jesus is Lord."
She had a ready response: "Oh you guys are at the wrong rally," she said, to massive cheers and roars. This went on for seconds. She continued: "No I think you meant to go to the smaller one down the street."
One would almost have thought this was a plant, her performance was so masterful.
If she could handle this heckler so well, why not the pro-Palestinian?
Why didn't she say the same thing to him?
Because she agrees with him.
Yes I heard that insult too.
Another missed opportunity by Harris or an opportunity taken. Great analysis once again Mr. Kerstein!
1. Harris response to the protestor was reflexive. She was raised on political slogans the guide her behavior. One is no enemies on the left. Confronted by a leftist protestor spouting antisemitic bile she must pat him on the head and saying soothing words. She was wrong, but she is stupid and reflexive not malicious. What scares me about her is that if she is president she will be pushed around by the same people who are running the White House now and unlike Biden she has no pro Israel instincts.
2. The political leanings of American Jews are best understood in therms of their history as urban immigrants in the 20th Century. They settled in big cities run by Democrat machines. The second generation grew up in those cities and in the New Deal era when the Democrat Party dominated politics in a way that has not been replicated since. The first non Democrat president in their lifetimes was Eisenhower who was not pro Israel. He sided with Nasser against Britain, France and Israel in the 1956 Suez crisis. My father hated Eisenhower for that.
3. Most American Jews still live in big cities where the Democrat party is dominant. Like many other middle class white people in those areas they still support the Democrats. You must remember that American elections are by state not total popular vote. The Jewish vote, as a minority, only counts if they can swing the balance in a state.
Here is a list of the 10 states with the largest Jewish populations by percentage:
New York 8.8%
District of Columbia 8.3%
New Jersey 6.7%
Massachusetts 4.3%
Maryland 3.9%
Pennsylvania 3.3%
California 3.1%
Florida 3.1%
Nevada 2.6%
Illinois 2.5%
https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/jewish-population-by-state
The top 5 are all strongly Harris. Only Pennsylvania is a real toss up where the Jewish vote could swing the state. Florida will vote for Trump. Nevada is leaning Trump.
I live in a state that will go Trump no matter what the Jews do. My brother lives in Massachusetts. his vote wont swing that state either.
Brilliant article. The liberal Jews drive me nuts. Thank G-D for Alan Dershowitz. I can only hope that he can persuade others.
I understand you're claiming not to "tell us" who to vote for, but your language strongly suggests that we should vote for Trump.
I understand that American Jews are angry about the explosion of antisemitism that's gone largely unaddressed - or to the extent that it has, it's fallen on the shoulders of law enforcement and not the institutions that are propagating it.
But that doesn't mean that I'm voting for an orange conman--one who has stated publicly that if he doesn't win, it will be our fault. It doesn't mean I'm going to help fill the Senate with people who are against reproductive rights, which have been severely chipped away thanks to SCOTUS.
And perhaps that's the difference between me and other Jews who have become single-issue voters thanks to the fuckery of the last year: I'm willing to give my vote to someone who I believe will do a better job protecting the rights of the masses and of minorities, perhaps at my own expense. And it's because I believe that no matter what happens, we Jews will survive. We always have, no matter who the president was.
I appreciate your point of view, but I do disagree with you on two points, perhaps because I think the situation is far more grave than you do:
1) Your citation of "reproductive rights" points to something very problematic, in my view. I believe the American Jewish community is in existential danger. If the antisemites are not stopped, American Jews will be either ghettoized or forced to make Aliyah. In this context, all other issues are irrelevant, including reproductive rights. Even if Congress completely bans abortion (which strikes me as very unlikely), another Congress can repeal the ban. Laws can be changed and legal rulings overturned. Rights taken away can be restored. But the marginalization or de facto expulsion of the American Jewish community cannot be reversed. It will be irrevocable and for all time. In this context, there are no other issues.
2) I do not think the Jews should ever vote for anything that will come at their expense. No other minority does it and we shouldn't either. As far as I'm concerned, if protecting the "masses and minorities" comes at the expense of the Jews, then the masses and minorities can both go f--- themselves. If they don't care about me, then I don't care about them. I realize that sounds harsh, but harshness is sometimes necessary.
Obviously, by all means vote as you see fit. I simply wanted to urge American Jews to act as if there is a choice rather than an obligation to vote a certain way.
Look, I get what you're saying, and part of me sympathizes with it. The dangers you are talking about re: the Jewish community are very real. As a liberal myself I have been depressed greatly by what I've witnessed. However, I do view the dangers to Jews as coming out of a very specific slice of the left that is very loud, but does not represent the majority. There are plenty of antisemites on the extreme right too.
You've become a single-issue voter - and it looks like many other Jews have, too. I wonder how many of them there are out there...guess we will see in a few weeks.
Also just FYI - you are not speaking "as if there is a choice." You are speaking as if our only option for survival is to vote for Trump, whether you realize you're doing that or not.
It was necessary to make the case against the Democrats in order to demonstrate that Jews have a choice and why their reflexive loyalties might not be advisable. I did try to convey that if, after consideration, they choose to remain with the Democrats, then that has got to be respected.
You may want to reflect on why you hesitate on being forward with what you're actually trying to express. Had you titled this piece "The Case Against the Democrats," we all know that most readers on this platform would have skipped right over it. Instead you "tricked" (I'm not using that term to be mean, just honest) your readers at first to believe that you were "not telling us" who to vote for, when the conclusion is basically "vote for Trump."
I think that your syntax choice is simply another symptom of the sickness that we Jews are all collectively dealing with and don't really know how to process.
Substack seems to be pretty diverse politically, so I don't think "most readers" would have automatically skipped over it. However, the concentration on the Democrats was necessary because that is where Jews reflexively go. I wanted to shake up their confidence that the Democrats will always love and protect them. That is manifestly not the case and Jews need to hear that. If most Jews voted Republican and the Republicans were engaged in such behavior, I would argue accordingly. I imagine you think the Republicans are engaged in such behavior, but if so, we disagree on that.
I am simply not convinced that Republicans have shown that they want the best for us, and I don't want the ideas of MAGA to be a stain on our record.
That's why I can't switch teams.
I guess that’s the difference between some of us- not seeing VP Harris as capable or even articulating plans of protecting the American people of a growing invasion on the soil of the USA. I wish she did have plans I could support because the thought of being smarter than the President is not a comforting one.
One more thought to lifelong Dems: they are nowhere near the Democrat party I grew up voting for. They no longer stand for civil liberties, nor are they a big tent supporting the People. These are now the Republican’s wheelhouse.
Harris will throw Israel under the bus . I don’t trust her . She’s stupid and naive and doesn’t know what she’s talking about and doesn’t understand the Middle East . Already voted Trump .
Kamala doesn’t care about Islam or Palestine. She doesn’t hate Jews. Kamala is a sociopath and a narcissist. Kamala loves Kamala. She wants to be President. ‘I got the Jewish vote. I need to shore up the Islamic vote. What can I say to get that.’ The minute Islamic voters are much larger than Jewish voters Israel/Jews will be dropped like a rock. It isn’t hatred though. It is about as hateful as a cobra in your living room.
Kamala is the narcissist?
Most certainly.
No. Basing my vote on who will be better for Jewish citizens is far too narrow to base my choice. The truth is that it is difficult to say which person would be better for Jews, globally, or in America. Rather, the fuller choice is who would be better for the world? Kamala is married to a Jewish man, and although I think she is far less sympathetic to Israel than she ought to be, she is not an anti-semite, and values human beings (even when identity mucks this up for her on occassion). Trump does not possess empathy for other human beings. He is a malignant narcissist. His coziness with Netanyahu does not reflect a love of the Jews, but a camaraderie with far right strong men.
Trump has frequently shown a disdain for checks and balances on his own power, the processes of democracy, and the accountability that comes with holding power never mind an elected office. Trump's presidency empowers the dictators of the world, weakens western democracies and jeopardizes the United States' ability to be a net force for good in the world. It's fine to think of ourselves as Jews and want to feel safe in our societies, but before I am a Jew, I am a human being. The leader of the United States needs to feel an empathy and kinship with that identity most of all.