Dearborn, Michigan – Raised in a Jewish American family, Dana Kornberg was in her early 20s when she began to turn into vital of the Israeli authorities.
It was 2006, and Kornberg was touring Israel, as half of what’s referred to as a birthright journey, a convention for Jewish teenagers and younger adults.
During her travels, she noticed Israeli building employees constructing a tall concrete barrier to fence in elements of the occupied West Bank, a landlocked Palestinian territory. She additionally heard Israeli feedback about Palestinians that made her uncomfortable: “They were alluded to as being dangerous.”
Those experiences made her involved about Israel’s therapy of Palestinians — one thing that evoked in her parallels to Jewish oppression all through historical past.
“To me, it was horrific,” mentioned Kornberg, now a 41-year-old assistant sociology professor. “What lessons have we learned from what our people have gone through?”
Now, as Israel’s conflict in Gaza continues to rage, Jewish American voters equivalent to Kornberg are grappling with the US’s position within the battle — and the way it will have an effect on their voting preferences within the upcoming presidential election.
Jewish American voters have lengthy been seen as a reliably Democratic voting bloc: The Pew Research Center dubbed them “among the most consistently liberal and Democratic groups in the US population”.
During the final presidential election cycle, eight out of 10 Jewish individuals recognized as Democratic. But US coverage in the direction of Israel and the conflict in Gaza has since divided Jewish Americans, in addition to the broader Democratic base, resulting in fears of a depressed turnout.
On one hand, President Joe Biden has continued to rally sturdy help amongst Jewish voters by pledging his “rock-solid and unwavering” help to Israel, because it leads a months-long navy marketing campaign in Gaza.
That stance, nevertheless, has provoked outcry amongst extra progressive Jewish organisations, because the demise toll within the Palestinian enclave soars previous 25,200.
Questions of rising anti-Semitism within the US have additionally mobilised Jewish advocacy teams, forward of what’s anticipated to be a tightly fought race for the White House in November.
A January ballot from USA Today and Suffolk University confirmed slim margins separating Biden from his chief Republican rival, former President Donald Trump. Biden acquired 37 p.c help within the ballot, in contrast with Trump’s 39.
Other surveys have proven international coverage to be a high problem for voters this yr, with a majority of Americans backing a ceasefire in Gaza, one thing Biden has refused to name for.
Kornberg, a member of the progressive organisation Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), is amongst these protesting Biden’s stance on the conflict in Gaza, the place United Nations specialists have warned of the danger of genocide and famine.
In current months, Kornberg has travelled from Michigan to Washington, DC, and Chicago to hitch demonstrations calling for a ceasefire. She was certainly one of practically 100 protesters arrested in November for blocking the Israeli consulate in Chicago.
Kornberg questioned whether or not Biden would have the ability to rally Jewish American voters earlier than the final election. Even the prospect of a second Trump presidency, she warned, won’t be sufficient to unite the Democratic base.
“I’m just not convinced that the fear of Trump is going to be enough to get [Democratic voters] to go to the polls,” Kornberg mentioned.
She additionally criticised Biden for statements he made downplaying the Palestinian demise toll and tying Jewish wellbeing worldwide to Israel.
“When Biden says things like, ‘The only place Jews can feel safe is Israel’, that’s a severely anti-Semitic comment because a lot of us heard it as if Jewish people shouldn’t be safe in this country,” she mentioned of the US.
But the query of how Israel is perceived — and whether or not its actions in Gaza are justified — is a matter that has break up Jewish American communities alongside generational strains.
A ballot in November from the Jewish Electorate Institute discovered that Biden retains sturdy Jewish help general: Three-quarters of members accepted of his dealing with of Israel’s conflict in Gaza.
That quantity dropped, nevertheless, when younger Jewish Americans had been considered in isolation.
Only 53 p.c of Jewish voters ages 18 to 35 accepted of Biden’s stance, in contrast with 82 p.c for different voting age teams.
Still, members overwhelmingly backed Biden. An estimated 68 p.c mentioned they’d vote for the Democratic incumbent, in contrast with 22 p.c for Trump and 11 p.c who had been undecided.
Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, a pro-Israel advocacy group, credited that top stage of help to shared values.
“Overwhelmingly, Jewish voters support President Biden because he represents the interests and values of the Jewish community, including — but not limited to — support of Israel,” Soifer informed Al Jazeera.
She additionally named “abortion, democracy, gun safety, climate change, the economy [and] anti-Semitism” as “key issues driving the Jewish vote”.
But Soifer added that she noticed renewed get together engagement after October 7, the day the Palestinian group Hamas launched assaults on southern Israel, killing an estimated 1,200 individuals.
“Jewish voters self-identify as Democrats over Republicans by a nearly 50-point margin. This has only been solidified in the aftermath of October 7,” Soifer defined.
Her organisation has additionally seen an uptick in help following the Hamas assault, she added.
Progressive and anti-Zionist Jewish American advocacy teams have likewise reported a major bump in membership following the beginning of the conflict in Gaza.
“Since October 7, our following and base has doubled or more by nearly every measure,” mentioned Liv Kunins-Berkowitz of Jewish Voice for Peace.
“We now have over 1.8 million followers on our social media accounts and over 720,000 people that JVP counts as our base. They subscribe to our email list and regularly engage in JVP’s campaigns, demonstrations and workshops.”
The Jewish American inhabitants general sits at roughly 7.5 million individuals, or about 2.4 p.c of the full variety of individuals within the US.
And whereas the US Congress is overwhelmingly composed of politicians who determine as Christian, Jewish leaders make up the vast majority of non-Christian officers. They maintain 33 elected positions in Congress, for a complete of six p.c of the obtainable seats.
Some of these officers, together with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, appeared at a March for Israel on November 14. Tens of 1000’s of individuals gathered in Washington, DC, for that march, throughout which chants of “no ceasefire” had been heard.
“Even in its darkest days, the United States has always stood with Israel, and we will do everything to see that that never, ever changes,” Schumer mentioned, punctuating his phrases with raised fists as the gang cheered.
But even among the many Jewish illustration in Congress, there are schisms over the extent to which the US ought to help Israel’s far-right authorities.
Schumer’s colleague, Senator Bernie Sanders, not too long ago referred to as the conflict in Gaza “wholesale destruction in an almost unprecedented manner”.
In January, Sanders criticised the Israeli authorities for performing “in a deeply reckless and immoral way”, although he stopped in need of calling for a ceasefire, a degree of rivalry together with his progressive base.
He as a substitute proposed a decision that may push the US State Department to disclose whether or not US assist has been utilized in human rights abuses in Gaza. That proposal, nevertheless, was defeated final week within the Senate.
But opposing Israel can include political prices. Recent years have seen main pro-Israel teams, such because the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and Democratic Majority for Israel, spend document sums of cash towards Democratic candidates who haven’t overtly expressed help for Israel.
In 2022, for instance, AIPAC and Democratic Majority for Israel spent greater than $6m — an unprecedented quantity — on an assault advert marketing campaign towards Donna Edwards, a progressive candidate for the US House of Representatives.
Edwards, who beforehand served within the House from 2008 to 2017, finally misplaced her race.
Kornberg, the sociology professor, fears that progressive Jewish voices like hers could go largely unheard within the upcoming election.
“There’s a stonewalling that’s happening by Democrats where their constituents overwhelmingly, unprecedentedly want a ceasefire [in Gaza], and they’re just not listening,” she mentioned.
“Why are we going to vote for people that don’t represent us?”
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/22/could-a-divided-jewish-base-upend-us-democrats-presidential-hopes?traffic_source=rss
