Claudia Moscovici 
Some conservatives, including President Donald Trump, have tried to indicate that Jews who adopt conservative political positions care more about the fate of Israel or are more pro-Israel than liberals. Trump went so far as to declare: “In my opinion, if you vote for a Democrat, you’re being disloyal to Jewish people and you’re being very disloyal to Israel. And only weak people would say anything other than that.” (See The Washington Post, article by Felicia Sonmez, August 21, 2019)
Fortunately, however, the President’s partisan statement isn’t true. In fact, it would be a disaster for the state of Israel if that were the case, since the majority of American Jews identify as liberal and lean towards the Democratic Party. Gallup polls conducted from January to August 2016 indicated that 65 percent of Jewish Americans identify as Democrats and 30 percent of them identify as Republican. In the 2008 presidential election, 78 percent of Jews voted for the Democratic candidate Barack Obama and 21 percent voted for Republican Candidate John McCain. In the most recent midterm elections for Congress, 79 percent of American Jews voted Democrat and 17 percent voted Republican. Both liberal and conservative Jews are overwhelmingly sympathetic to Israel. As Frank Newport’s Gallup study, “Polling matters: American Jews, Politics and Israel” indicates, “My recent review of the available data shows that about nine in 10 American Jews are more sympathetic to Israel than to Palestinians…. Research conducted in 2013 by Pew showed that 76 percent of Jews (identified by religion) said they were at least somewhat emotionally attached to Israel.”
Not only do Jews of both major political parties in the U.S., Republicans and Democrats, care about the fate of Israel and are overwhelmingly pro-Israel, but also so do both political parties in America since the 1960’s. This tradition continues, even though there are fringe anti-Semitic elements both among liberals and conservatives. In the current election, the candidates of both parties vowed their support for Israel. (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/08/26/kamala-harris-vows-support-israel-protection-against-iran/5638966002/) But this largely unwavering support for the Jewish state wasn’t always there in the U.S. and shouldn’t be taken for granted. We need to impart to the younger generations the knowledge of history—and particularly of Jewish history—that the older generations already have. The Shoah showed the Jews—and the entire world–that few nations cared about the fate of the European Jews during the Holocaust. Support for Israel has to be continually maintained and never taken for granted.
