Dear Dersh, the Dems just are not that into you
After years of your empty threats to leave, you ought to accept their silence as rejection.
Dear Professor Dershowitz,
Like clockwork this week you recorded a video to assure your party that you're really serious: If the Democratic Party again indulges the racial and Marxist radicals in its ranks, you say you MIGHT not vote for Joe Biden in November and claim that many are going to walk out the door with you. And this time you're totally serious! This isn't like the time in 2017 when you huffed and puffed that if Minnesota congressman Keith Ellison was chosen as Democratic National Committee chairman you would deregister as a Democrat because of Ellison's past associations with the Nation of Islam and harsh criticism of Israel. Or that other time in 2016 when you deemed President Obama's withholding of a veto on a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements revealed his "deep hatred" of Israel.
There's just one problem: The Democrats are not some first year law student struggling to make it through their contracts class, they are a well-oiled political machine with an increasingly radical agenda. President Biden is almost your age, and he has many years of experience in multiple positions of government. These are not some fawns lost in the woods looking for their mothers; if anything their indecisive policies on the War in Gaza have more to do with attempting to strike a balance between two conflicting corners of their big tent: Sympathizers of Palestine and sympathizers of Israel. Over and over again I watch your podcast and have to almost gag when you say that just MAYBE you MIGHT consider not voting Democrat this year, but that you have strong commitments to other values like abortion rights and gay marriage. I think it's absurd to think that your vote in Massachusetts and those of other Jews in highly populated metro areas like Baltimore and New York City are going to swing those policies all the way to the right if you vote Republican or third party But I have to admit that as a staunchly pro-life voter I don't think I could vote for a candidate who vows to protect abortion. It's one of the reasons I sometimes leave ballots blank for certain politicians that waffle on the issue. Also, when you claim that you've known Joe Biden for 43 years and consider him a friend, that does nothing to inspire anyone's confidence in him over this or any other issue. We get to know him through his acts, and by not knowing him personally we don't need to weigh the consideration of a friendly relationship in making a judgment about him. You can't say that, Professor.
I've always admired you for your willingness to argue difficult positions and advocate for civil liberties, just like I do for Glenn Greenwald. I write a newsletter and do a podcast called the Jewish Alliance for the First Amendment (JAFFA), because I want other members of Jewish American society to embrace free speech as a core value like you do and like Glenn does. In November I wrote Glenn a letter where I made it clear that the pro-Palestine movement that he is a part of has a violent element within it, and that many of them would be willing to resort to violence in frustration toward events in Gaza. That was proven to be correct. But while I oppose their tactics and strategy, there is no doubt that the pro-Palestine movement has been incredibly effective, and that the world has increasingly turned against Israel as the conflict in Gaza has worn on. More voices across the political spectrum are openly and unapologetically calling Israel's actions in Gaza a genocide, and for several months the Biden Administration steered their policy from total support for Israel to now withholding a veto from a UNSC resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza without the precondition of the release of hostages from the Oct. 7 attacks. Biden and Netanyahu have also had severe disagreements over whether the latter should authorize a further offensive into Rafah, the Gaza town on the border with Egypt that is the most formidable remaining stronghold of Gaza's Hamas rulers and allied militant factions. In 2016 you deemed Obama's act of allowing the resolution by itself as an indicator of his real attitude towards Israel, yet today you state that your red line to disendorse Biden is for him to withdraw aid to Israel even though he has already crossed the "red line" you applied to Obama. In addition, Biden's allowing of the resolution came at an auspicious time that his State Department undoubtedly know would affect Israeli efforts to negotiate the release of their hostages. Israel had already approved terms proposed by the US and other mediators to exchange hundreds of Palestinian detainees and convicts in its custody, including for violent crimes like murder, in return for 40 hostages, but after the resolution passed with the US abstention Hamas declined the deal. Many such deals have failed over the past few months, but if the US has had a hand in such failures like the most recent one, does it not bear some responsibility for the lives lost as a result?
At this point the time has passed for you to make good on your rhetoric. A small minority of American Jews have realized for years that the dependency by Israel on the United States for military aid could be a long term liability for both. I realized it during my time in the IDF in the 2000s when we were informed the American State Department under President Bush was putting pressure for more lenient inspections at checkpoints. I've agreed with many critics of Israel like Rep. Ron Paul, if not for the same reasons, that the foreign aid payments are a major problem. But continually I'm asked why I'm anti-Israel when I explain this to other Jews that are self-described Israel supporters. As the war has worn on, what has discouraged me most is that the pro-Israel movement continues to resort to long-failed conventional statements like "Israel does not need America, America needs Israel" or like you have said that Israel is fighting Hamas so that they do not come here and perpetrate a similar act to October 7. Those are not appeals to logic, but rather to fear and other emotions. I understand, having my own familial connection to Israel including losing a young relative on Oct. 12 in a rocket attack during her military service, why people say those things, but it doesn't make it any more correct than saying that there is a genocide happening in Gaza. You are using arguments from a bygone era that were arguably ineffective even then in order to address the problems of today. If they were so compelling, why is it that Gallup is reporting a 24% drop in approval of the Israeli invasion of Gaza since November among American respondents?
The best way to break from this backward thinking is to acknowledge that we've emerged into a brave new world, and throw away the conventional thinking of pre-October 7. If you are sincere Prof. Dershowitz that this is such a crucial issue to draw a red line for, then you will say publicly that Biden's actions of late show where his policies are leading, and attribute to him the responsibility for his part in rupturing the relationship. But you mustl also accept the harsh truth that Israel cannot remain beholden to the whims of a foreign power. In Isaiah 30 the prophet admonishes the Children of Israel not to trust in the power of Egypt, the world power of their time, to protect them. I think it's time that we internalized that message and hope you do too.
Regards,
Ray McCoy