What Average Israelis think about the US Elections
I recently returned from a conference in Europe where I met a number of Americans, fresh from the results of the election.
I couldn’t resist asking their opinion.
All of them, from various states across the country, said the same thing: “Just so you know, I’m all about women’s right and gay rights and gun control….
But I still voted for Trump.”
Like many, I went to sleep on the night of the 5th thinking Kamala Harris would take it, and woke up the following morning quite shocked. Not only did the Democrats lose, they got destroyed.
Every single state moved rightward. All of them.
The ink on the post-mortems is still fresh, with endless theories running around and blame being thrown to every corner.
And yes, there were plenty of Jew Haters who blamed the loss on Jews, even though Jews overwhelmingly supported Harris — like they support Democrats every time.
Over a coffee, an Indian-American woman told me: “I don’t give a damn if you are a man who wants to live as a woman or a woman who wants to live as a man”…
Her family emigrated to the East Coast from Delhi in the 80’s, when she was a teenager.
“But why should my daughter ever be in a position to see a penis in the girl’s bathroom? That is what is being argued about in her college.”
Here is the harsh reality: Harris lost because the Democratic party has spent the last decade appeasing increasingly more niche far left issues that appeal to a very small select sliver of Americans — all while ignoring basic fundamentals.
A perfect example of this is the Defund the Police movement that was pushed through in the most left leaning municipalities.
Police reform must happen. Increased social services and welfare must happen. Addressing the root-cause of crime must happen. But defunding the police was a knee-jerk reaction that appealed to the far left and had disastrous ramifications.
Every single city in America that actually went through and defunded — instead of reforming and supporting social services — saw drastic spikes in crime. Every single city has backtracked on this, from Washington DC to Austin.
The best example of this is Portland, which only recently decided to increase funding to the police after three years of spiraling crime.
Defund the Police is one of many examples where the Democrats lost sight of the bigger picture, driving average Americans away from the party.
Adam Jentleson, former chief of staff to Senator John Fetterman, summarized this point in his recent OpEd in the New York Times. Jentleson describes a Democratic party that is more interested in appeasing niche far left interest groups than actually taking care of the country.
For example, when far left progressive groups demanded that Democrats running for President embrace defunding ICE and decriminalizing border crossings. Or when far left progressive groups pushed Harris to take stance on transition surgeries for prisoners, something that the Republicans used against her.
Jentleson writes:
Achieving a supermajority means declaring independence from liberal and progressive interest groups that prevent Democrats from thinking clearly about how to win. Collectively, these groups impose the rigid mores and vocabulary of college-educated elites, placing a hard ceiling on Democrats’ appeal and fatally wounding them in the places they need to win not just to take back the White House, but to have a prayer in the Senate…
Democrats should seek out issues that demonstrate their willingness to fight for their constituents and break with progressive orthodoxy.
In other words, the Harris campaign never shut down the crazies on the far left.
As a Harris campaign operative recently told me: “The Far Left are scaring average Americans”
A tall gentleman from North Carolina shared with me his perspective:
“When I see ignorant college kids running around with Hezbollah and ISIS flags, and Kamala says nothing, then I’m out.”
Israelis tend to think they are central to US interests.
They are not.
In poll after poll, Israel and Palestine were always at the bottom of the list of concerns of the average American voter.
The economy, immigration, and abortion were consistently the top issues for American voters.
But certain Democratic politicians, specifically from the far Left, kept pushing Israel-Palestine as a core issue, contrary to the interests of the average American. For example, AOC’s mindless, ignorant, and damaging tweet following the beeper attack against Hezbollah is a prime example of the far Left’s complete disassociation both with reality and also with fundament issues affecting American.
(Side note — AOC’s tweet was also a complete disassociation with facts, much like the continued claim that Israel is conducting a genocide. I am happy to explain — again — why this is not “Genocide”)
And now we have Trump… and all the uncertainty and scorched-earth crazy that comes with him.
Some Israelis, specifically those on the right and far right, see this as a good thing. They believe Trump will push back against the rampant Jew-Hate on college campuses. They believe Trump will be a stronger arm against the genocidal intents of Jihadi-Islamic fundamentalists. They believe Biden was too lax with Iran and they believe Trump will be more assertive in pushing back against the blatant Anti-West intentions of the IRCG.
But Average Israelis, those who are a bit more connected to reality, are worried.
We know Trump is a loose cannon. We know that what Trump says this week is not at all related to what Trump will actual do next week. More than that, the Average Israeli is concerned that Trump will give a green light to the most extreme far-right elements of the Israeli government to pursue their destructive agenda.
It’s not that Trump is supportive of far-right elements of Israeli politics, it’s that Trump fundamentally doesn’t give a damn what happens either way.
A pressing example is the ultra-nationalist agenda to resettle in Gaza.
Far right ultra-nationalists like Ben Gvir, Smotritch, and Daniela Weiss are utilizing the moment to push their horrible initiative which will only serve their egotistical interests at the expense of Israeli and Palestinian civilians.
It is very important to note that extremists like Ben Gvir, Smotritch, and Weiss do not represent Israelis.
Social media loves them because their mindless blurbs are used to justify the Jew-Hate agenda.
But this is not what average Israelis want — and not by a long shot.
Contrary to Jew-Hate posts on social media, the vast, massive, overwhelming bulk of Israelis don’t want to resettle anything in Gaza.
Even right wing Israelis — over 2/3 of them — don’t want to resettle Gaza (dark blue bottom right of the image).
For all that can be said about Biden, he did push back when the crazies in the Israeli far right crossed lines. Trump will not push back. He will be too busy dismantling the education and health systems to care about what really happens to Israelis or Palestinians.
What worries average Israelis is that Trump will not say a word when the far-right extremists in the Israeli government flex there muscles, to the detriment of everybody.
Much like Harris failed to shut down the crazies on the Far Left, we know that Trump will not shut down the crazies on the Far Right.
“But Trump is a total nut-job,” I told the young man from Florida, “the people he brings in are going to be horrible. How could you still vote for him?”
“My vote is a wakeup call to the Democrats,” he said, “They have been so damn scared of making some DEI nutjob angry on Twitter that they have completely lost sight of reality. I am giving them four years to get their shit together.”
This leaves the average Israeli more alone than before. We know there is no longer an “Adult in the Room”, like Anthony Blinken, who will reign in the most egregious impulses of Netanyahu and the far right elements of his government.
It means we have to fight back that much harder to find a pathway toward regional stability, economic collaboration, and maybe, just maybe, coexistence.
But it also means that the Average Democrat must do the same.
As Bill Maher brilliantly stated recently: “You [the Democrats] love to speak truth to power, and we always should, but you have completely lost the ability to speak truth to bullshit”.
Till next time…
