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ALPERN AT LARGE - There is no shortage of Democrats who love Israel, and there is no shortage of Republicans who couldn’t care less about Israel, but ever since President Barack Obama stepped into the White House in 2009, and with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris following suit, the Democrats and GOP have shifted.
By and large, and with a few notable exceptions, Democrat leaders are so concerned about political wins and the shifting demographics in our nation (as well as the rewriting of history and associated educational malpractice that enables that rewriting) that they’ve placed Israel’s security in danger...and American Jews, to boot.
By and large, and with a few notable exceptions, Republican leaders have stuck to their guns about defending Western and Judeo-Christian principles...and both Christians and Jews here and abroad, to boot.
President Trump hates Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu for a variety of reasons, Netanyahu resents the heck out of Joe Biden for a variety of reasons, and the political fortunes of all three men are causing them to posture against each other for now.
Enter Barack Obama, whose influence on White House politics is still alive and well, and Kamala Harris to undermine the message of Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) to back Israel, and to make it clear to the “pro-Palestinians” that THEY are to blame for the cycle of violence and civilians’ deaths...
...but that logical and moral acknowledgement has taken a back seat to the politics of appeasing those here who are either mis-educated (indoctrinated, really) and/or who hate Israel, U.S., and the West, because they vote.
Right after 10/7/2023 (October 7th, which means as much to Israel as 9/11/2001 means to the U.S.), we saw Democratic and Republican leaders alike back their traditional ally Israel...
...until the Left and those in battleground states in the Midwest started screaming bloody murder and scream “From the River to the Sea”, resulting in Democratic leaders in the White House and Congress started playing both sides of the Mideast conflict.
And that includes the small army of Democrats spouting “look at me, I’m Jewish!” and “look at me, I’m married to a Jew!” and “some of my best friends are Jews!” and have both thrown Israel under the bus...
...and started American Jews along a pathway of danger that we see now in Europe and the rest of the world.
Jews once lived throughout the Mideast and much of the world and were slain or expelled or forced to flee.
Increasingly ditto for Europe, now.
So where shall Jews run to in the future...Israel? Or perhaps politically-red American states where Anti-Semitism—no matter what propagandist garbage exudes from the Left that states otherwise—is NOT allowed, and Jews are embraced as cherished and beloved neighbors without any need to “prove themselves” to the Left.
Remember when President Reagan declared “you can run but you can’t hide” after approximately 300 American and French Marines were blown up in Lebanon?
Israel, decades later, finally got ‘em!
Remember when the Iran-funded Hamas and the Iran-funded Hezbollah turned Gaza and Lebanon into proxies of Iran to terrorize and fight Israel?
Israel, years to decades later, are extirpating their civilian-slaughtering (intentionally, and not as casualties of war) terrorist leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah in strikes and operations for which the rest of the West should be thanking, not condemning, the Jewish state.
Remember when Presidents Obama and Biden (and, no less Presidential wannabe Harris) were sucking up to Iran and offering them tied-up funds and aid...only to see a large fraction of it go to support terrorism (and which sponsored 10/7...yes, WE paid for that massacre!)?
As in “pretty please be nice to us and don’t build nuclear weapons?” in a creepy, Neville Chamberlain appeasing sort of way?
So here we are...shall Israel perform an overdue attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities and prevent World War III? Biden and Harris are against it, and Trump is for it.
Meanwhile, Biden and Harris support funding a prolonged Ukraine defensive war against Russia and Vladimir Putin, while Trump wants a speedy negotiated deal.
Probably each side believes that the other is too warlike here, and too appeasing there...with “here” and “there” being different conflicts (Ukraine/Russia and Israel/Iran).
But for those of us who remember how long Iran opposed the U.S. (not just Israel but the U.S.), the idea of taking out Iran’s ayatollahs and allowing the Iranian people to better govern themselves (no Iraq-style foreign entanglement, though) is one that’s been long favored by those who’ve endured the Iranian nemesis since the 1970’s.
Then Israel was told “no” against attacking Hezbollah, but did it anyway, and in so doing performed a mighty favor by removing those who’ve harmed and threatened the West for years, and now they’re considering the removal of the longstanding Iranian threat at its very source.
Apparently, Israel is now one of the major leaders of the Free World, because Biden, Harris, and so many Western leaders have shirked their role in eliminating our brazen-stated adversaries.
So be it.
There will still be the “Yidiots” (probably something a Jew can get away with saying more easily than a non-Jew, but it’s still the truth), who are trying to prove to the rest of the world, or to certain forces who really mean them harm, that they’re “the good Jews” who deserve mercy more than those “mean Israelis” and “pro-Trump Jews”.
But those “Yidiots”, who are by far the most fascist and bigoted Jews in this nation and the West, and who have projected their lousy tendencies more than they realize on their political opponents, are going to get many Jews killed--including Jews in this nation and around the planet.
If we try to be “nice” and “balanced” we perpetuate the problem, not fix it.
If the Left appeases the pro-war Muslim factions supported and sponsored by Iran, they extend and enhance the bloodshed (and that extends to Arabs and Muslims as much as it does to Jews and Christians).
Neither Jews nor Muslims, and neither Americans nor Arabs, are supposed to suffer and die in some never-ending war or other sort of conflict. They’re not just “meat” to be slaughtered and consumed.
Happy Jewish New Year! We will now witness the Jewish State of Israel help save the world!
(Kenneth S. Alpern, M.D, is a dermatologist who has served in clinics in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside Counties, and is a proud husband and father. He was active for 20 years on the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC) as a Board Member focused on Planning and Transportation, and helped lead the grassroots efforts of the Expo Line as well as connecting LAX to MetroRail. His latest project is his fictional online book entitled The Unforgotten Tales of Middle-Earth, and can be reached at [email protected]. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Dr. Alpern.)
