“Jewish Insider” is Wrong: Democratic Senators Are Acting in Israel’s Own Long-Term Best Interests — And We Should Be Thanking Them

“Jewish Democratic disillusionment deepens over party’s direction,”  screams the Jewish Insider headline. The subhead is even more alarmist: “Former ADL chief Abe Foxman: ‘This is a calamity for the Democratic Party, if it will not be contained and stopped'”

To which I say: Complete hogwash. 100% wrong. Off by 180 degrees.

But let’s start at the beginning. What exactly are JI and Foxman so worked up about?

This month 36 out of the 47 Democratic US Senators voted to hold up a major US weapons transfer to Israel – several thousand 1,000-pound bombs.  And all 36 plus four more – for a total of 40 – found the gumption to also say “No” to transferring dozens of armored D9 bulldozers – the ones the IDF uses at the direction of Bezalel Smotrich (who serves as minister in charge of West Bank settlement expansion) to knock down Palestinians’ homes to make way for more Israeli settlements – settlements intended to make a future two-state peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians both physically and politically impossible.

This was only the second time that the majority of Democratic Senators said “No” to Netanyahu’s demands. Last July, for the first time ever, a majority of Democratic Senators – 27 – voted for a similar “Joint Resolution of Disapproval.”

If you’re like me, you grew up learning that the US should never say “No” when Israel says it has urgent need of US weapons. I was 10 years old when Israel was surprised attacked by Egypt and Syria on Yom Kippur in 1973. In the first week of that war, Israel’s very survival seemed to teeter on a knife’s edge. But then the US airlift began, bringing tons of vital military supplies. As a result, Israel was able to repel the enemies’ advances and regain the initiative. The very next day, General Ariel Sharon made his daring crossing of the Suez Canal........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)