Some exit polls from the November election show that President-elect Donald Trump received as much as 45% of the Jewish vote in Florida, Pennsylvania and New York. While that had little or no impact on the elections in New York and Florida, the uptick in the Jewish vote in the Philadelphia suburbs helped propel Trump to victory in the critical Keystone State.
No doubt Trump’s strong showing among Jews is a reaction to the explosion of antisemitism on our university campuses and in cities across the country, and to the Democratic Party’s failure to condemn it. To the contrary, significant portions of the Democratic Party embrace it.
Vice President Kamala Harris’s failure to select Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as her running mate, her tepid support for the Jewish state and her failure to contradict a protester who said Israel is committing “genocide” in Gaza created a four-alarm fire in many quarters of the American Jewish community. Most shocking for Jews, however, has been the almost religious fanaticism with which Harris and the progressive left embrace social justice and its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) agenda. Many in the Jewish community correctly see these causes for what they are: inherently racist, antisemitic and unconstitutional.
The catechism of DEI declares that Jews are whites. Whites are “oppressors.” As oppressors, Jews cannot also be “victims.” Therefore, they deserve no protection. That was the “context” of the disgusting testimony given last December by the presidents of three of the country’s most prestigious universities: Harvard, Penn and MIT.
DEI does not limit its antisemitism to America. Its bigotry has a special place for Israel. Since Jews are white and Israel is a Jewish state, Israel must be a white racist oppressor state. The fact that most Israelis are people of color from Africa and neighboring Arab countries is irrelevant to these so-called social-justice warriors. Palestinians, in contrast, are the underdog—oppressed people of color who have the right to defend themselves “by any means necessary.” Thus, many on the progressive left view Oct. 7 as a justified act of self-defense.
Historically, Jews are most at risk when antisemitism is mainstreamed and becomes government policy. That was true during the Inquisition, the Holocaust, Czarist Russia and the Soviet Union. DEI is a present-day manifestation of this phenomenon. Jews have every reason to worry about their place in America if the antisemitism of DEI is allowed to fester and become further entrenched in our schools, places of business and political institutions.
Now that Republicans have won the White House and control of both Houses of Congress, there is much that can be done to beat back this hateful ideology.
Congress must immediately pass the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which adopts the International Holocaust Remembrance Association’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism. That definition, alone, will make it impossible for any American institution to continue its DEI programs legally.
Newly elected Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has made clear that he intends to bring the Antisemitism Awareness Act to the floor of the Senate for passage when Congress convenes next year. The Republican House adopted it months ago, however, the risible and cynical current Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), refused to allow the Senate to vote on the legislation so as not to alienate the antisemitic pro-Hamas protesters whose votes Harris tried so desperately to win.
It is also critical for the new administration to publicly debunk the false narratives espoused by the progressive left against Israel. Their allegations that Israel is a colonial settler apartheid state engaged in genocide against the Palestinian people are utterly false and fact-free. In contrast to the Biden administration, which allowed these blood libels to fester and grow, Trump’s proposed foreign-policy team of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, United Nations Ambassador Elise Stefanik and Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee will rally to Israel’s defense militarily and rhetorically.
We must also do a better job of educating our children about the history of antisemitism, the Middle East and Zionism. This cannot happen if textbooks and curricula for our schools, including elementary schools, are paid for by the enemies of Israel, such as Qatar. Likewise, colleges must be given the choice of either accepting funds from foreign sources like Qatar or accepting federal funding. They cannot have both. We must be sure we are educating, not indoctrinating, our children.
Antisemitism is a sign of a sick society. We must inoculate ourselves against this ancient plague. If the Trump administration carries through on these priorities, it will go a long way towards defeating antisemitism at home and abroad. It also will help protect and defend America’s national security. Israel’s enemies are our enemies. When Israel wins, America wins. Most importantly, when America’s Jews flourish, America flourishes.
