For much of their political history, particularly since the Enlightenment, Jews have identified with the progressive Left. Israel itself, although funded by oligarchs, was launched largely as a socialist experiment, epitomized in the kibbutzim.
Today the political Left has betrayed that loyalty, becoming prime movers against Israel and Jews on the ground. In America, as many as 19 Democratic senators voted with Bernie Sanders to block America from sending several types of weaponry to Israel. Even though most still identify as Democrats, many American Jews are finding that their former “safe spaces”—leftist parties, big cities, universities, the media—have morphed into places where anti-Semitic incidents regularly occur, even though they often are vigorously downplayed.
Until recently, this shift in allegiance was largely ignored by groups like the ADL, which continued to insist that the greater threat to Jewish safety came from the rubes of the far Right. But after Oct. 7th and its aftermath, the days of Jews embracing groups like Black Lives Matter (which openly celebrated the October 7th attacks) have ended. The long-standing alliance between Jews and the Left is now clearly creaking under the enormous strain of this historic shift.
This is surely one reason why Donald Trump managed to increase his support among Jews by historic margins. According to some exit polls, Trump received roughly 36% of the Jewish vote, and 40% in critical Pennsylvania—well ahead of his low 20s in 2016 and 2020. But once Trump takes his divisive personality offstage, the opportunities for the Right may be even better.
The canary in the coal mine is Europe. In Amsterdam, a recent “Jew-hunt” broke out on the watch of the city’s anti-Israel green partly leadership. The mayor was somehow clueless about the intentions of people who shouted “death to the Jews” or the downsides of becoming what some now call “the capital of Jew hatred.” The great city that once welcomed Jews from Spain, Portugal, and later Germany now has failed in assimilating immigrants from Muslim countries, despite widespread public opposition.
Here’s the bottom line: Muslim immigrants, legal and illegal, drive domestic violence and terrorism. This does not occur nearly as much as in eastern Europe which, though historically anti-Semitic, never threw its arms open to Muslim arrivals. One poll of European Jews found that the majority of incidents of anti-Semitism came from either Muslims or from the left; barely 13% were traced to right-wingers. Nor can Jews count on the generally leftist city governments: Amsterdam’s police were remarkably lax in enforcement; some were allegedly even allowed to opt out of protecting Jews and Jewish institutions.
The biggest Dutch supporter of the embattled Jews is Geert Wilders, widely seen as far-right. Wilders fears his country being transformed into “ the Gaza of Europe.” Much the same pattern can be seen elsewhere. For much of the past century, most politically active Jews backed Labour in Britain, Socialists in France, and Liberals in Canada. Now France’s Jean-Luc Mélenchon not only openly supports Hamas but has emphasised the role of Jews in the killing of Christ.
In contrast , Israel’s defenders tend to be on the right, like Wilders, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, Italy’ s Giorgia Meloni, or Britain’s Nigel Farage. Not surprisingly, more Jewish voters are backing Marine Le Pen, Canada’s Tories, and America’s Republicans.
Much of the Left’s decision to abandon the Jews can be explained on grounds of political expediency. This is particularly true in Europe, where Muslims now outnumber Jews by ten to 15 times in places like France or the UK. Given the far greater voting power of the Islamists, center-left figures like France’s Emmanuel Macron or Britain’s Keir Starmer have turned on the Jewish state, banning arm sales to Israel and generally blaming them for the extended conflict.
Read the rest of this piece at American Mind.
Joel Kotkin is the author of The Coming of Neo-Feudalism: A Warning to the Global Middle Class. He is the Roger Hobbs Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University and and directs the Center for Demographics and Policy there. He is Senior Research Fellow at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas in Austin. Learn more at joelkotkin.com and follow him on Twitter @joelkotkin.
Photo: Ted Eytan via Flickr, under CC BY-SA 2.0.
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