OPINION:
“We are doing what [Israeli] Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu said he wanted to do for 40 years, which was to attack Iran,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, Maryland Democrat, said of Operation Epic Fury after being briefed on the mission this week. “It’s just Netanyahu had not found a president stupid enough to drag the United States into that war before, and now Donald Trump has done it.”
It’s a common antisemitic trope that the conniving Jews tricked President Trump into a Middle Eastern war, even after Mr. Trump insisted this week that he may have forced Israel’s hand into a war with Iranian “lunatics.”
“Based on the way the negotiation was going, I thought [Iran was] going to attack first; if anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand,” Mr. Trump explained. “It was my opinion that [Iran] was going to attack first, I felt strongly about that.”
It was not as if the Trump administration was subtle about the possibility of an imminent attack on Iran. Earlier this year, while the administration negotiated with the rogue regime, the Pentagon was building up the largest force of American warships and aircraft in the Middle East in decades.
Rather than support Mr. Trump and America in defeating the largest state sponsor of terrorism for 47 years, Democrats see a political win by exploiting anti-Israel sentiment sown by our enemies. China, Russia, Iran and Cuba have long tried to foment domestic strife within the U.S. by spreading antisemitic propaganda.
Just the News reported this week that a pro-Chinese Communist Party activist network, funded by a pro-Chinese millionaire living in China, was organizing U.S. protests in opposition to the Iran war. Many of the pro-Palestinian demonstrations on U.S. college campuses after Hamas’ bloody invasion of Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, were funded and encouraged by Tehran, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said in July 2024.
Unfortunately, our adversary’s propaganda has been alarmingly effective among the Democratic base and with young, independent voters in the U.S.
Just 18% of Democrats say they have a favorable opinion of the Israeli government, while 77% have an unfavorable view, according to a Pew Research Center poll conducted this fall.
For the first time last week, Gallup found that Americans’ sympathies in the Middle East are more with the Palestinians than the Israelis. It was the first time Israel was ranked below Palestine in the survey since Gallup began conducting it in 2002.
Poll after poll on the Iran war shows Democrats are against it, with one, conducted by OnMessage, showing 61% of Democrats and 49% of independents do not believe the alliance between the United States and Israel is “good and beneficial for the United States.”
Therefore, it’s not surprising that elected Democrats are seizing on the antisemitic sentiment among their base.
Presidential hopeful and California Gov. Gavin Newsom likened Israel to an “apartheid state” in a podcast this week and questioned future U.S. military support and funding to the country.
Politico reported Monday that ties to Israel are plaguing Democrats in top primaries in Illinois, Texas and Michigan as support for the country wanes among Democratic voters.
Candidates who have accepted money from pro-Israel AIPAC, gone on trips to Israel or have even held meetings with Mr. Netanyahu’s top critics, are being targeted for their support of America’s No.1 ally in the Middle East, the report showed.
David Hogg, a liberal activist, quote-tweeted an article depicting how a House Democrat may lose her primary over past support for Israel, with the caption “Get ready to see this headline a lot more. It’s the beginning of a new era in American politics.”
Sen. Charles E. Schumer, the top Democratic Jewish member in Congress, has read the room. Despite calling Mr. Trump a coward last year for “folding to Iran,” he is now calling Mr. Trump’s Operation Epic Fury unconstitutional and without a strategy, opposing the intervention.
The only Democrat on the national stage who stands unequivocally with Israel and the U.S. is Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania. He called Mr. Newsom’s comments of Israel being an “apartheid state” a “betrayal of moral clarity and I can’t imagine he [Newsom] thinks that’s the right side of history.”
Last month, a Quinnipiac University poll found Mr. Fetterman is more popular with Pennsylvania Republicans than voters in his own party. Seventy-three percent of Republicans said they approved of the way Mr. Fetterman is handling his job, compared with just 22% of Democrats.
Mr. Fetterman’s belief in his own country and the state of Israel has made him unelectable within his own party, which is growing increasingly antisemitic.
• Kelly Sadler is the commentary editor at The Washington Times.
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