Now that the dust has settled on the 2024 presidential election, we can begin to assess what will be different. And there’s going to be a lot. Especially on matters that American Jewish voters care deeply about, like the Middle East.
And when it comes to Israel policy, the differences will be stark.
I sat down earlier this week with CNN’s Kasie Hunt to discuss the impact of the Trump election on American policy towards Israel. The focus of the conversation started with questions about Israeli ministers calling for the annexation of the West Bank, which would likely be fatal for two-state diplomacy, but it also touched upon how Israel impacted the vote for president and what the incoming Trump team would look like.
As part of the discussion, we also touched upon how there was a debate amongst base Democratic voters about whether Trump would be better for peacemaking between Israel and the Palestinians than Harris. It’s past time to put that absurd question to rest.
One need not look any further than President-elect Trump’s pick to be our Ambassador to Israel. This pick - Mike Huckabee - speaks directly to the evangelical wing of the Republican Party, a core of Trump’s base, which has zero interest in a two-state solution for Israel with the Palestinians. Logic would only lead us to believe that he wouldn’t be too concerned about Israeli annexation of the West Bank.
Then there’s incoming Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a longtime Iran hawk who’s very close to Israeli PM Netanyahu and has been relentless in his criticism of Iran’s support for the terrorist proxies that Israel’s fighting. Rubio is highly qualified for the position he’s been given, having served on key national security committees in the Senate for years. But what you won’t find in him is an advocate for aid to the Palestinians or Israeli military restraint.
We can also add names like incoming National Security Advisor Michael Waltz and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to the list, as both have direct combat experience serving in the wars in Iraq and/or Afghanistan. They have likely seen and borne the brunt of Iranian-backed adversaries in these two theaters. One can only assume, based upon their bios and track records, that they’ll be deeply skeptical of engagement with Iran, the backer of Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, all of whom are in direct conflict with Israel.
The reality is that these positions, however, are in many ways aligned with American Jewish voters’ positions writ large.
According to multiple exit polls, the Jewish vote went for Kamala Harris at a roughly 70% cut. The Harris messaging during the election — strong support for Israel’s security, opposition to conditioning military aid to Israel, and standing up to Iran — clearly earned her Jewish voters’ trust. And while Harris’s calls for centrist policies earned her the Jewish vote, she also strongly called for what her detractors in the left of the Democratic party had said they had wanted: Palestinian independence, a two-state solution, etc...
Yet unfortunately, her positions still cost her votes amongst Arab Americans, particularly in Michigan, due to their deep concern over American military support for Israel. Dearborn, with one of the highest concentrations of Arab American voters in the country, voted for Trump by 42-36% (with Jill Stein getting the rest from far left voters). This vote was clearly a risky roll of the dice for these voters, as many of them chose Trump for his illusory - and unsubstantiated - promises of peace in our time. (!)
The tragedy in all of this, from a Democratic perspective (yep, that’s me!), is that there were key policy differences between the two candidates on Israel, with Harris taking positions that some analysts on the right argued were soft on Israeli security by acknowledging the needs of the Palestinians. In my view, they were anything but, as her centrist positions on Israel are what kept the Jewish vote Democratic, all while leaving open a window for peace that created political space for progressive voters to come home.
But instead, she lost, and now Israeli annexation of the West Bank is the topic being debated, rather than how to achieve a two-state solution.
So with the team Trump’s put together, one has to ask: Was it worth it?
On a separate note, one of the best ways to process grief is to take action, which is why I’m happy to share with you an opportunity to help settle fully-vetted refugees in the United States.
As you may be aware, this year, the Biden-Harris Administration resettled 100,000 refugees, the most in three decades. This followed the Trump Administration’s record low resettlement numbers, including the lowest cap in modern history: 15,000 in 2020.
One of the ways the Biden-Harris Administration achieved this milestone was by launching the Welcome Corps, a private sponsorship initiative.
The Welcome Corps allows groups of five or more Americans (colleagues, neighbors, fellow organizational members, etc.) to sponsor a refugee or refugee family to come to the United States. Sponsorship means providing practical support and a sense of belonging for a newcomer’s first few months in the United States, including by welcoming newcomers at the airport, identifying short-term housing, and assisting refugees as they learn English, access benefits, sign up for healthcare, and seek employment. Every sponsor group is paired with a private sponsor organization that provides support throughout the entire process. Right now, there is no fundraising requirement because a generous donor has created a fund to cover the cost to submit an application. This means groups do not need to do any fundraising to submit their applications and can focus on in-kind donations.
Any refugee (or refugee family) you sponsor with friends or colleagues to join your community will supplement existing efforts to resettle refugees through official American channels, allowing even more fully vetted refugees to build new lives in the United States before President Biden leaves office.
You can go directly to the website at Home - Welcome Corps to learn more and, if so inspired, to take action.
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