So exasperating. Could another pro-Israel congressman be biting the political dust in New York’s Democratic primaries later this year? Or as many as three?
It is getting increasingly tougher to vote for Democratic candidates. We typically have two viable political parties from which to choose. More than two-thirds of Jewish voters have in recent decades voted for Democratic presidential candidates because the party simultaneously addressed domestic concerns and supported Israel’s existence and prosperity. Republicans strongly back Israel, but they obstruct measures to aid our more vulnerable countrymen and women.
The Jewish vote for Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in 2024 was actually below two-thirds; President Trump drew four extra percentage points in that election.
Democrats have already been influenced by members of Congress who repeatedly bash Israel. Critics have legitimate concerns about Israel, but for a bloc in Congress Israel can do nothing right. Their approach to the war between Israel and Hamas is one-sided, and the more evenhanded Democrats have been walking on eggshells around them.
Let us hope that U.S. Rep. Daniel Goldman is savvy enough to counter and overcome Brad Lander’s challenge in New York’s 10th District which covers Lower Manhattan and part of Brooklyn. Newly installed New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani won Goldman’s district last November, which compounds worries that Lander can push Goldman out.
Goldman opened his campaign for re-election on Tuesday and he immediately took shots at Lander, whom Mamdani has endorsed. Lander resigned as city comptroller last year to run for mayor and lost to Mamdani in last June’s Democratic primary. He said in so many words Lander was running for Congress as a consolation prize because Mamdani denied Lander a job in his administration. Lander has rejected that suggestion.
Lander and Goldman are both Jewish and share positions on domestic issues, but they differ on Israel. Lander calls Israeli attacks on Gaza a genocide, supports conditions on military aid to Israel and said that the transfer of bombs and other heavy weapons should be blocked outright, according to The New York Times.
Mamdani has been branded as antisemitic by his harsher critics after chanting “Free Palestine” at a rally, backing disinvestment from Israel and refusing to condemn the term “globalize the intifada.”
In an interview with the Times, Goldman conceded that his support for Israel could harm him politically, noting that his decisions were based on “what I genuinely thought was best for the state of Israel, the people of Israel, Palestinian civilians and the future state of Palestine.”
The Times wrote that “Goldman argued that his views were more nuanced than his critics suggested.” Goldman was concerned that Israel’s government “unnecessarily jeopardized innocent lives” in Gaza after Hamas murdered 1,200 Israelis in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
He said he was not ready to determine if Israel committed war crimes in Gaza, The Times reported. “I believe very strongly there must be an investigation,” he said.
Good point, but then he pivoted on a previous vote he cast to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Detroit for a statement regarding the war. “I would look at it a very different way, and most likely vote differently.”
That is the very type of flip-flopping that is being done by most of his colleagues.
Two other NYC Democratic congresspersons, Adriano Espaillat and Richie Torres, face similar challenges because of their support for Israel. Other comparable contests are expected around the nation.
It may not make sense to depend on Democrats to improve health care coverage, restrict access to firearms or expand anti-poverty programs. The explosion in antisemitism distracts from addressing social ills and excludes Jews as allies. Progressives need all the help they can get, and the Jewish community has proven to be a very effective friend in the past. Worse, progressives are making enemies of the Jews.
Their only success will likely be in discrediting Israel and antagonizing American Jews. Who needs that?
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Bruce S. Ticker is a Philadelphia-based columnist.