ByLEV STESIN

The war with Iran has witnessed unprecedented cooperation between the United States and Israel. The last few weeks projected a policy shared by both countries and reflected a level of military and security cooperation last observed between the US and the UK during the days of the Second World War. This war is a pinnacle of many decades of what has come to be known as the “special relationship” between the US and Israel.

Beyond this event, very dark clouds are gathering. Right before the war began, Tucker Carlson visited Ben-Gurion airport, refusing to actually enter the country, to interview Mike Huckabee, the American ambassador to Israel. It was not as much of an interview as a platform for Carlson to argue the illegitimacy of the Zionist enterprise and the evil nature of the Jewish state. A few days later, after the war began, Carlson, in his podcast, continued with accusations against Jews and Israel. Those were some old antisemitic canards with one peculiar twist, accusing Chabad of being one of the primary instigators of the war.

At about the same time, Gavin Newsom, California’s governor and a longtime “friend” of Israel, in one of his interviews, accused Israel of being an apartheid state and suggested he would, if elected, put an end to America’s military cooperation with Israel.

Neither Carlson nor Newsom is unique in his pronouncements. Both represent growing streams in their respective parties. Both are the “born-again anti-Zionists,” finding the old hate to be politically expedient. Antisemitism, for a decade almost exclusively associated with the Democratic Party, has finally infected the GOP. Neither party turned out to be immune to the disease that many thought had been eradicated for good.

American Jews are fast losing their political self-determination. Starting from around the Six Day War, they experienced a unique period in the history of the Diaspora of the last two thousand years. They could participate in the policies of the Republic as Americans and as Jews. They did not have to hide their Jewishness, be ashamed of their religion, or, diminish their connection to the State of Israel, a resurrection of the Jewish nation after two millennia of exile. Both the Democratic Party and the GOP had always had a small antisemitic minority, yet those groups were tiny and marginal.

Tucker Carlson
Tucker Carlson (credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Jews involved in American politics

American politics was full of proud Jews, people like Joe Lieberman and Tom Lantos, who for decades represented a district in Northern California close to San Francisco, an unimaginable political fit for the world of today. Lieberman even became the first Jewish vice presidential nominee. And ironically, if not for the confusion generated by Jewish retirees in Florida, he could have become one. For Jews, going into politics was as easy as going into academia or business. That required no compromise with their Jewishness, no hiding behind or pretending to be somebody else.

That political self-determination is now a relic of the past.

The coming election cycles will be very different from any that American Jews can remember. Vice President JD Vance, a likely GOP candidate, has a hard time really condemning antisemitism, explaining why Israel is an ally, or distancing himself from Carlson. Newsom is now comfortably in the far-left crowd of Bernie Sanders and AOC in his policy toward Israel. Pollsters and Kamala Harris blame her too “friendly” policy toward Israel for her electoral defeat. Ro Khanna, a House member from California and a rising star in the Democratic Party, has accused Israel of every possible sin, including genocide.

There is not a single potential candidate in the Democratic Party who openly supports Israel without reservations.

Scott Weiner, a candidate to replace Nancy Pelosi, turned out to be the Jew with “the trembling hands” when asked to raise one if he believed Israel was committing “genocide”. So trembling they were that he had to create a video to apologize for his indecisiveness.

There is, of course, Gov. Josh Shapiro. But by the time he is done explaining why he hates Benjamin Netanyahu and the current Israeli government, one is pretty certain he may like Israel as an idea, but would not support its government, no matter what that government is. He represents the “best” cohort of Jewish pro-Israel politicians on the Left. The only exception is Sen. John Fetterman, who is not Jewish, but he is a unique politician and a general without an army. His unprecedented support for Israel by any standards will likely cost him his seat.

We are looking at the future of American politics without Jews. There will be some, perhaps many, who will claim to be Jewish, the types like Bernie Sanders, Scott Wiener, and Brad Lander. It will look very much like France or some other European countries, where the self-hating, stereotypical Jew is the only electable Jew.

Defense of Jews, of Israel, and the “special relationship” will come only from non-Jewish friends and supporters.

The Jews will stay in America but leave its main stage, which we call politics.

Yes, the country has changed, its people have changed, but those are not the main reasons. The main reason is that we, the Jews of America, betrayed ourselves.

The author lives and works in Silicon Valley, California. He is a founding member of San Francisco Voice for Israel.