Of the many Jews unsettled byPresident Donald Trump’s claim that voting for Democrats would demonstrate“disloyalty” to Israel and to other Jews, Lee Zeldin might bein the toughest spot.
TheNew York congressman, one of only two Jewish Republicans in the U.S. House ofRepresentatives, has been an ardent Trump supporter and defender.
But he could not bring himself to saythis term was OK.
“It’sa word that I wouldn’t use, with a long history of being used by others whohave a hatred towards Jews and Israel,” Zeldin told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in an interview. “Even if the personusing it is filled with love towards Jews and Israel, I still avoid it becauseof that history.”
SinceTrump dropped the “disloyalty” bomb, a number of Jewish conservatives havedefended the use of the term, among them columnists at the conservative Jewishnews site JNS, the head of theRepublican Jewish Coalition and Michael Glassner, the former American IsraelPublic Affairs Committee senior staffer who is Trump’s reelection campaign COO.
Other Jewish conservatives, among themDavid Harsanyi at The Federalist,like Zeldin say the word was poorly chosen, even if they cheer Trump on fortaking on Democrats who have relentlessly criticized Israel.
ButZeldin’s discomfiture stands out because his party has made him astandard-bearer for its pro-Israel stance. He chairs the House RepublicanIsrael Caucus.
Zeldinalso has a good working relationship with Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), the Jewishand Democratic chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign AffairsCommittee, which Zeldin sits on.
“Thereare a dozen significant policy issues about what [Democratic critics of Israel]said and what they’re promoting that the president can do that without usingthose words,” Zeldin said.
There’sa specifically Jewish question arising out of Trump’s contention that Jews whovote for Democrats are disloyal to Israel and to other Jews: Is this how Jewswant to talk about one another? A president has two great powers, unfettered bylaw and Congress — pardoning criminals and shaping a discourse. Is “disloyalty”now part of the Jewish vocabulary?
OnAug. 20, after attacking two Democratic congresswomen who are highly criticalof Israel and who back the boycott Israel movement, Trump said that “anyJewish people that vote for a Democrat — it shows either a total lack ofknowledge or great disloyalty.”
Andwhen reporters wondered the next day, “Disloyalty to whom?” he clarified: “Ifyou vote for a Democrat,” he told reporters,“you’re being disloyal to Jewish people and you’re being very disloyal toIsrael.”
Jewishorganizations on the left said from the get-go that putting “Jewish” and“disloyal” in the same sentence, whatever the intention, was anti-Semitic. Thenthe centrists weighed in: Anti-Defamation League’s CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt,said the remarks were anti-Semitic. The American Jewish Committee’s DavidHarris said they were enabling anti-Semites.
TheRepublican Jewish Coalition did not quibble with Trump’s suggestion that Jewswho vote for Democrats are betraying Israel and their fellow Jews.
“PresidentTrump is right, it shows a great deal of disloyalty to oneself to defend aparty that protects/emboldens people that hate you for your religion,” theRepublican Jewish Coalition said on Twitter, even before Trump clarified thatwas what he meant.
Jewishpartisans have been fighting for supporters and voters for years. But it isunlikely that even at the height of the bitterest of battles, over the Irannuclear deal, one mainstream Jewish leader would have suggested the other was“disloyal” to Israel or their fellow Jews.
HasTrump then reframed such disagreements by using a term, “disloyalty,” that isonly a skip away from “treason” — and even “self-hatred”?
MattBrooks, the RJC director, doesn’t think so, and insists Trump was putting intoblunt terms what Jewish Democrats have long said about Republicans.
“Thepresident is not plowing any new fields here,” he said in an interview.
Brookssaid that Jewish Democrats promote their own problematic trope — that theirparty is better aligned with Jewish values. He mentioned his counterpart,Jewish Democratic Council of America director Halie Soifer, who debated Brooksat an American Jewish Committee conference in June. Soifer spoke of values,including advocacy for human rights and reproductive rights, that her partyembraced.
“TheRepublican Party under President Trump has enacted policies that areantithetical to those values,” she said then.
Iput it several times to Brooks that “antithetical” was not equivalent to“disloyal,” which attaches not to a policy, but to a person, and which impliesintent. He insisted that Democrats were implying disloyalty, but alsoacknowledged, like Zeldin, that he would not use the term “disloyal,” insteadpreferring “misguided,” which does not imply intent.
Whathappens if it sticks? How do you work with someone you think is disloyal, orwho thinks you are disloyal?
Zeldinsaid that he believes Trump is right on policy and that he hopes Democratsmarginalize — “crush,” in his words — the Israel-critical minority Trump wastargeting when he made the “disloyalty” comment.
But while Trump keeps insisting thatthe two pro-boycott congresswomen, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar ofMinnesota, are the “face” of the Democratic Party, Zeldin notably acknowledgesthat Democrats have pro-Israel leaders within their ranks.
Twodays before the disloyalty kerfuffle, a pro-Israel group urged both Democratsand Republicans to refrain from painting the other party according to itsextremes. The appeal did not come from a mainstream Jewish group, but a hawkishChristian one: Christians United for Israel.
CUFI’sstatement referred to the previous week’s Israel-related drama, when PrimeMinister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government barred Tlaib andOmar from entering the country. But it might have as easily appliedto the Disloyalty Affair.
“Theleaders of both parties should keep their fringe elements in check and stopattributing the views of these outliers to the opposition,” CUFI said.“Allowing a handful of anti-Israel Members of Congress to hijack Congressionalaction on Israel has gone on long enough.”
Ron Kampeaswrites for the JTA global news agency and wire service.
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