For Jews, The Timing of the 2024 Election May Be As Important As the Outcome
The fabric of American life as we know it, for Americans in general and Jews in particular, is rapidly disintegrating before our very eyes.
The disastrous combination of catastrophic policies in the domestic arena – including wide open borders, mob rule and rampant crime in the streets, and an explosion of antisemitism – coupled with terrible policy decisions in the foreign arena, including the appalling betrayal of Israel, are making America an object of ridicule abroad, which nobody fears or respects anymore. These have resulted in America descending into an ever tightening death spiral.
The only coherent government effort of the Jew-hating, extreme left-wing-dominated Democratic party is the myopic fixation on trying to destroy Trump and American history. Nothing else matters.
In light of these realities, the biggest questions about the 2024 election for Jews is not only who wins it, but also will there be a viable safe and functioning country left for them? Or will out-of-control, violent chaos reign?
Max Wisotsky
Highland Park, N.J.
Biden’s Dangerous Weakness
Has there ever been a worse U.S. Commander in Chief than Joe Biden? He has grossly mismanaged at least four major hotspots and counting. First, an absolutely humiliating exit from Afghanistan. Setting a withdrawal date certain, and defying military advice, he vacated the strategic Bagram air base, leaving tens of billions of dollars of weaponry for the Taliban, abandoned Afghan helpers and American citizens to uncertain fates, and then proclaimed that a “victory.”
When Russia invaded Ukraine, after the Afghanistan fiasco and his winking at a “minor incursion,” Biden proclaimed all out support for that embattled country. Yet he nixed effective weapons and measures he feared might lead the Kremlin to escalate the conflict. What he eventually did supply has been too little, too late.
He mostly feared to respond to hundreds of Iranian proxy attacks on American Middle East bases. Though a weak, ideal target for an American show of overwhelming force, the Houthis have been allowed to continue to harass maritime traffic towards the Suez Canal.
Now Biden has halted some arms shipments to Israel. It is currently engaged in an existential, defensive war against Hamas, with ongoing skirmishes with Hezbollah in Lebanon. There are occasional attacks from the Houthis in Yemen and Iranian proxy militias in Iraq and Syria. There has been a thwarted massive Iranian direct attack, while the West Bank simmers, Jordan is unstable, and Iran courts a Sudan proxy. It is the worst possible time to betray a faithful ally. Bizarrely, use of those delayed smart bombs would curb much civilian collateral damage, a supposed chief concern about the Rafah incursion.
More likely are crass political concerns about the Electoral College, spreading anti-Israel encampments at colleges, protests popping up virtually everywhere, and growing opposition from the Democrat Party radical leftist wing. Weakness at home mirroring weakness abroad.
There is, however, “no substitute for victory.” The Gaza Envelope refugees need to go home, to no longer live under constant threat at their border. Israel’s deterrence must be restored. It must not allow even its greatest friend to deter it from finally, decisively destroying Hamas.
Richard D. Wilkins
Syracuse, N.Y.
Treat The Enemy Kindly, They Repay With Terror
A number of Israelis provided free personal transportation in their own cars to Palestinian Arabs from the Gaza border to top-notch hospitals in Tel Aviv. Housing construction and building improvements provided a higher standard of living to their Arab neighbors. Unfortunately, kindness and generosity were repaid with rape, torture, and murder.
When I was younger, this phenomenon was difficult for me to wrap my head around. Then, some years ago I heard two true stories that gave me some perspective.
The first came from a nurse who had been working in a hospital in Jerusalem and an Arab from the West Bank came to her hospital. The patient had previously been living in Jordan or Syria and was treated by a surgeon in one of those countries. Following surgery, his condition worsened significantly. His future looked very bleak and he was advised to return to his village and settle his affairs, including his will.
After he returned to his West Bank village, someone suggested, given his condition, that he ought to try an Israeli hospital. He had nothing to lose. After an x-ray was examined, the doctors and staff were astonished. The previous surgeon had left a surgical instrument in his body. The Israeli doctor opened him, removed the instrument, and stitched him up. Soon after his condition greatly improved and he was actually able to walk out of the hospital on his own. Before leaving, he walked over to the doctor who had just saved his life and spit on him.
The second story came from a friend. His mother was a nurse in Poland during the Second World War. She worked with her first husband who was a medical doctor. At one time during the war, several Nazi soldiers came to his facility with a wounded German soldier. He was to be treated and the doctor was told that if the wounded soldier died, they would kill him. The nurse did not mention to the soldiers that she was the doctor’s wife or that she was Jewish. The patient survived but the soldiers killed the doctor anyway. The mother survived and remarried after and had one child, my friend.
Following the horrors of October 7, I was searching for an analogous situation. The best I could come up with: a comparison of dogs with alligators. If you come across a starving dog and you give him some food, after a while he will become your best friend. An alligator has no such capacity. Even if you feed him, he may very well eat you for dessert.
Charles Winfield
Princeton, N.J.
