For a while, former US president and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has been arguing that Jews voting for US Vice President and Democratic electoral candidate Kamala Harris need to “have their head checked.” In recent weeks he escalated this narrative, first at his address to the Republican Jewish Coalition, stating that Israel would cease to exist if Harris was president, and then in last week’s debate when he said, “If she is president, I believe that Israel will not exist within two years from now.”
Trump’s comments are perceived to be in the context of the physical assault on the Jewish state coming from Iran and its proxies, which Trump claims happened due to Biden’s policies: “Iran was broke under Donald Trump. Now Iran has $300 billion because they took off all the sanctions that I had,” he said during the debate.
While Iran and its proxies have the ability to inflict severe and lethal damage, Israel, as we were recently reminded, has the capabilities to defend itself and counter this threat.
The Jewish state, however, is vulnerable to a greater existential threat – one that is coming from the West.
An ideological assault on Judaism
While vigorously continuing to defend the physical assault against the Jewish state, the United States, for the first time, gave legitimacy and support to an ideological assault on Judaism.
First, the Biden administration astonishingly allowed the International Criminal Court (ICC) to move forward in preparing the ground for a mass arrest of Israeli Jews, starting with the Jewish state’s political leaders and soldiers.
When the ICC attacked the US directly in 2000, the US imposed crippling sanctions against its prosecutors, employees and their families. The ICC is therefore deterred from attacking “big war criminals” directly. However, it can pursue its attack through its proxy, “little war criminals,” and later “cut and paste” the indictments to target US soldiers and political leaders.
While US President Joe Biden condemned the May 19th ICC attack, calling it “outrageous,” he did not take actions. Similarly, when France, for the second time in 80 years, pledged its collaboration in the effort to arrest Jews, he did not act.
Four months later, the infrastructure is being set by the ICC and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for the mass arrest of Israeli Jews, and through it, a crippling of the Israeli economy and demoralization of its society. (Israelis will not fly to Europe in fear of surprise arrests; companies will not do business with indicted “war criminals” in Israel). Where is Harris on this?
The second US support for the ideological assault on Judaism came more directly: The US was the first Western country since the 1940s to put in place a sanction regime specifically targeting Jews – in this case, Israeli Jews. The February 1, 2024, Executive Order signed by Biden was at first downplayed as just being against four settler thugs who partook in deplorable violence against Palestinians, including vandalism and stone-throwing.
But since then, the sanctions have expanded to a broader range of Israeli Jews: Protesters within the Green Line, civic organizations, community leaders, security forces, and even those who tried to provide relief to those sanctioned. The February 1 Executive Order is a profound message to Jews: You are going back to an age of Jewish insecurity.
The joke when an Israeli pays with a credit card – now let’s see if you were sanctioned by Biden – is now being joined by fear of being associated with a “designated person.” These are no longer punitive measures against individuals but the targeting of a whole society. Where is Harris on this?
Some Democrats claimed that this does not affect the Jewish vote, since historically, Jews do not vote based on Israel. But others warned that things were different in this election, because for Jews, this was existential, and people vote unpredictably when faced with an existential threat.
Jewish voters in Pennsylvania and throughout the US, who were assured in February that this was just about settlers and in April that this was just about a subset of Israeli soldiers (haredim), now understand: The target is Judaism.
Indeed, the 2024 US actions gave a “kashrut certificate” for others to partake in the ideological assault on Judaism, which is expanding at a rapid pace. In recent weeks, for example, the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell announced a new effort targeting the entire Israeli electorate by imposing sanctions on elected Israeli government ministers that he does not like the way they speak!
Here perhaps lies a subtle difference: While Jewish Democratic donors and leaders in New York might still operate under old frameworks and talking points, actual Jewish voters in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona, Nevada, and throughout the US now understand: A global ecosystem is being created to delegitimize the idea of a Jewish state, and through it, the idea of Judaism.
Harris can help counter the assault on Judaism
Rather than dismiss Trump’s accusation, Harris has an opportunity to address it, using long-accepted bipartisan principles: State that she would sanction the ICC and hold accountable those who pledge to collaborate with it.
Further, she should denounce the February 1 Executive Order and assure American Jews and their supporters that her administration would never again single out Israeli Jews for sanctions and demoralization, nor install Jewish insecurity.
Will Israel be there in two years if Harris is president? This is not a question of her defense of the Jewish state from the physical assault as much as it is the question of her defense of Judaism from the ideological assault.
Biden’s ‘America is an idea.’
Charlottesville prompted Biden to run for president, he said, since the physical threat from the mob symbolized the negation of the idea of America. Perhaps the February 1 Executive Order should prompt Harris to run for president since the ideological assault on Judaism symbolizes the negation of the idea of America.
Will Harris provide American Jews and non-Jews such reassurance? Or will she let Trump’s claim that Israel will not exist if she is president go unchallenged, relying on the old arrogant assumption that Jews do not vote based on Israel?
Gol Kalev is the author of the new book: The Assault on Judaism: The Existential Threat is Coming from the West (www.TheAssaultonJudaism.com). He is chair of the Judaism 3.0 think tank, and the author of Judaism 3.0: Judaism’s Transformation to Zionism