By Jonathan S. Tobin
The loudest debate going on in the American Jewish world the last couple of months seems to revolve, believe it or not, around ads in Jewish weekly newspapers.
This has to do with the renewed attempt of the Republican Party to make inroads among Jewish voters on the basis of GOP support for Israel, and what it contends is the less than exemplary record of its Democratic foes.
To that end, the Republican Jewish Coalition has been placing full-page ads in Jewish publications around the country skewering the Democrats and painting their own party as the good guys on Israel.
Large segments of the Jewish community, in which the overwhelming majority of its members are reliable supporters of the Democrats, have had emotional and angry reactions. They are appalled that Republicans would have the chutzpah to ask for their votes.
The point isn’t so much that they reject the content of the ads, but that they consider the entire exercise to be illegitimate. Of course, perspective on the merit of the ads obviously depends on political affiliation.
The Republicans have a fair point when they note that anti-Israel leftists, such as those affiliated with the MoveOn.org group, have real pull within the Democratic Party these days; while anti-Israel figures on the right, like odious columnist Pat Buchanan, are bereft of influence in the current GOP.
Moreover, the rejection of Sen. Joseph Lieberman by Connecticut Democrats finalized the decline of the hawkish “Scoop Jackson” wing of the Democratic Party.
Nevertheless, the Democrats rightly contend that attempts to tar their party as anti-Israel are not true. Support for Israel is bipartisan, and Democratic Party leaders, as well as the majority of the Democratic caucus in Congress, are genuine backers.
Jewish Democrats do need to confront the anti-Zionism growing on the left and in the anti-war movement, and ensure that it is kept out of the mainstream of their party. That task will be even more important if, as seems likely, the Democrats prevail in next month’s congressional elections.
Carrots and sticks
But Democrats are seeking to delegitimize the entire Republican campaign with their claim that GOP attempts to use Israel as a wedge issue will undermine the bipartisan consensus.
Some even assert that by identifying support for Israel with the Bush administration, the ads may make it harder for Democrats and liberals to sympathize with an Israel linked with a president and a party they hate.
Democrats seem to want the entire issue to be taken off the table. That would give them a tactical advantage.
But behind it lies the dubious notion that holding either party accountable for its performance on Middle East issues is itself somehow not kosher.
Taking Israel off the table today is no more legitimate a stance than a call for keeping church-state separation off the agenda would be on the part of Republicans.
And if anyone thinks that having a conservative president support Israel will turn off liberals, maybe the problem is more with the liberals than the president.
No matter which party you support, what we should strive for is accountability from them. And the only way to hold political parties accountable is to make them pay for mistakes or to reward them for good behavior at the ballot box.
By contrast, if a key issue is taken out of the discussion, the parties will inevitably stop prioritizing it.
If there is a bipartisan consensus in support of Israel in this country, it is because the two major parties have spent the last years actually competing for Jewish votes on this basis. The moment we tell them to stop will give those who would break the consensus a leg up.
So let the political parties debate over which one is the most ardent supporter of Israel. It may be messy, but it beats the alternative.
Jonathan S. Tobin is executive editor of the Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia.
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