Op-Ed: Democrats Want an Abominable Coalition of Jews and Militant Anti-Semites
By Peter Clines
While I am not Jewish, I know this: there cannot be a political coalition of Jewish voters and militant antisemites. The very notion is a both an absurdity and an abomination.
Yet, remarkably, that is the impossible coalition the Democratic Party is asking voters to support.
It is time to accept the obvious: the conventional political alignments of the past are now incoherent. In today’s reality, if you vote for any candidate on the Democratic line - even for supposedly “moderate” Democrats - you are empowering a party that is increasingly under the toxic sway of virulent anti-Semites.
That pernicious influence would necessarily make itself felt in the highest levels of our national government and be reflected in the shaping of our public policies in all significant realms. Indeed, it is already making itself felt.
You can see it tangibly in the wave of “pro-Hamas” resolutions passed by Democrat-controlled local legislative bodies. You can see it even more clearly in the reported “mutiny” of anti-Israel/pro-Hamas elements in the United States Department of State.
The reason seems obvious: the highest echelons of the Democratic establishment either fears the political clout of these individuals or actively shares their ideological bent.
It is essential to face the unvarnished nature of that ideology without flinching, because it is truly sinister in its implications.
Have no illusions, the protesters who flooded the streets in support of Hamas in the days after October 7th, did not merely embrace Hamas’s political ends (the destruction of Israel). They also enthusiastically endorsed the means Hamas employs to achieve those ends (hence the “by any means necessary” slogan).
These “means” included grotesque acts of barbaric sadism that can only be described as demonic -- acts which the Hamas terrorists seemed to have reveled in and relished. The slaughter was without regard to age, sex or condition. And helpless civilians were not collateral causalities - they were the targets.
If we naively assume that our domestic antisemites’ approval of such merciless political violence is limited to the Eastern Mediterranean, we do so at our peril.
You should take their chants of “Globalize the Intifada” with deadly seriousness. The “globe” includes the United States of America. Look also to the destructive antisemitic lynch mob attempting to hunt down a pro-Israel Jewish teacher at Hillcrest High School in Queens (and note well the deafening silence of many Democratic politicians in response).
How can we take the risk of ceding such individuals any measure of political power in our country? Yet political power is exactly they will have if the Democratic Party controls Congress and the Presidency, not to speak of state and local offices around the country.
How long do the Democratic leaders think they can ride the extremist tiger without being devoured themselves?
In my opinion, even Democrats with track records of strong support for Israel and for domestic Jewish interests will eventually be cowed and compromised. They will inevitably be compelled to excuse, placate, appease, and horse-trade with the substantial antisemite base of the party.
They will not truly be opposing them, at least not without one hand tied behind their backs. That is the inescapable reality of the internal dynamics of the new Democratic Party and its increasing vocal and powerful antisemitic wing.
Also bear in mind that the mobs in the streets and on campuses are decidedly not a fringe phenomenon. However counter-cultural and anti-establishment they may appear to be on cable news, their ideas are actually quite mainstream on the left.
Democratic elected officials will tread very meekly rather than risk retribution at the hands of the forces which shape our national discourse. They simply cannot afford to do the decent thing. The price is too high. That is basic political realism.
It is not sufficient for Democrats to self-righteously proclaim: “I stand with Israel!’ Leaders like Senator Schumer must expressly condemn and disavow the overt antisemitism of radicalized members of Congress such as “the Squad.” And do so by name!
The failure to condemn is to condone. But the power wielded by radical antisemite forces in the party guarantees that its leaders will be craven and equivocal.
I acknowledge that in the backlash against the barbarism of the Hamas atrocities and domestic acts of antisemitic hate, many Democrats - with some prodding - have issued stalwart-sounding condemnations of anti-Semitism.
I believe that many really mean it at some level - for now. But understand that however resolute these pledges may seem at present, they are unlikely to endure. Time, I believe, will show them to be little better than temporary, strategic concessions motivated by political expediency. They will not stand, if the Democrats consolidate control of the national government.
I am speaking from personal experience: I was a Democrat in government for many years (albeit one of the few remaining conservative Democrats). I witnessed from inside the inexorable radicalization of the party, its gradual abandonment of many core values of our country and constitution (such as freedom of speech, the free exercise of religion, equality of opportunity etc.) and the abject unwillingness of the forces of (comparative) sanity within the party to resist.
Many fully embraced this radicalization. Many others were and are in a perpetual state of denial.
As a Catholic, I was particularly attuned to this radicalization, as it became Democratic orthodoxy to viciously condemn and ostracize anyone who supports traditional Judeo-Christian moral teaching.
The threat of permanent, institutionalized Democratic antisemitism is very real. And very dangerous.
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Peter Clines served as a Deputy Nassau County Attorney under former Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi; and for 12 years as Counsel to the Democratic Minority in the Nassau County Legislature