Harris shows perception that US Jews back Israel still strong - analysis

The assumption underlying her recent comments is that Israel is important to her listeners, and that they do not share the Seth Rogen or Peter Beinart “who needs Israel” mindset.

By HERB KEINON
U.S. Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) accepts the Democratic vice presidential nomination during an acceptance speech delivered for the largely virtual 2020 Democratic National Convention from the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware, U.S., August 19, 202 (photo credit: REUTERS/KEVIN LAMARQUE)
U.S. Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) accepts the Democratic vice presidential nomination during an acceptance speech delivered for the largely virtual 2020 Democratic National Convention from the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware, U.S., August 19, 202
(photo credit: REUTERS/KEVIN LAMARQUE)
Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Kamala Harris doesn’t seem to believe, happily, that Seth Rogen represents the views of the Jews.
You remember Rogen, the Jewish comedic actor, who last month said the idea of Israel was part of an “antiquated thought process,” and that a Jewish state “makes no sense.” His words came just a couple weeks after Jewish journalist Peter Beinart wrote that he no longer believes in the Jewish State.
On Wednesday Harris, in a virtual event with some 1,800 Jewish Democratic donors, stressed that she was opposed to making military aid to Israel conditional on Israel’s policies, a position advocated by some in the Progressive wing of her party, including some prominent Jews in that wing of the party, such as Bernie Sanders.
If Harris believed that Rogen, or Beinart, spoke for the majority of US Jews, it is likely that her unequivocal endorsement of a policy of no-strings-attached security aid to Israel would not have been what she stressed in her comments.
“I pledge to you the Biden-Harris administration will sustain our unbreakable commitment to Israel’s security, including the unprecedented military and intelligence cooperation pioneered during the Obama-Biden administration and the guarantee that Israel will always maintain its qualitative military edge,” Harris said.
The assumption underlying these comments – and her couching justification of support for re-entering the Iran nuclear deal as unstinting US support for Israel’s security – is that Israel is important to her listeners, and that they do not share the Rogen or Beinart “who needs Israel” mindset. And that is as significant as it is welcomed.
From an Israeli perspective, not only is American Jewish support for the country important politically and morally – if not as important financially as it was in the earlier days of the state – but the perception of that political support is equally important.
 Why? Because politicians respond to what they believe to be the positions of key constituencies. If they think Israel is important to their voters, they are more likely to take positions supportive of Israel. If they think that their voters, especially Jewish voters, don’t care, then why bother.
And American Jews continue to be a key political constituency, if not because of their numbers – though even their small numbers may be significant in battleground states such as Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio and even Arizona and Georgia – then because of the money they donate to campaigns.
And this is why those peddling the narrative that American Jewish support for Israel is on a precipitous decline are doing Israel such a disservice. If politicians believe American Jews don’t care for Israel anymore, they will feel less of a need to be supportive.

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Rogen’s comments feed into that narrative – one propagated now for years by Beinart as well as groups like IfNotNow and J Street – that American Jews are increasingly distancing themselves, a narrative amplified by the media that will naturally turn the spotlight on high-profile Jews critical of Israel, because that is different, more than highlighting high-profile Jews supportive of the Jewish state.
And while there certainly are voices like Rogen's and Beinart’s in the Jewish community, a poll published by the Ruderman Family Foundation in February put things a bit into perspective and indicated that all the doomsday predictions of an unbridgeable gap between Israel and American Jews was way overblown.
According to the poll, fully 80% of American Jews consider themselves pro-Israel, 67% say they either have a “strong” or “very strong” connection to Israel, and more than 70% of the 2,500 respondents to the poll said that their personal relationship with Israel is the same or stronger than it was five years ago.
Rogen and Beinart are perhaps not alone among Jews in their disdain for the idea of a Jewish state, but they are in the distinct minority. Harris – making a conscious decision to burnish her pro-Israel credentials with Jewish voters on Wednesday – realizes this, which should be a source of comfort for the pro-Israel community: key politicians understand that Israel, despite some cacophonous background noise, remains important for a large majority of American Jewish voters and donors.


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