The Democratic Party’s continuing drift from Israel
“It’s crucial that we keep a firm grip on what we’ve heard so that we don’t drift off.” – Hebrews 2:1, The Message
The Greek word translated “drift” in Hebrews 2:1 is pararreo, the image of a boat not securely tied down, resulting in the boat, once rocked by currents, drifting away.
Ours is a time when, regarding foreign policy on Israel, it is crucial to keep a firm grip on our nation’s historic support of the Jewish state.
The Biden administration, though, rather than tying the boat down securely, has set the vessel on a slow drift away from its moorings. Dislodged by always strong Middle Eastern currents, the vessel of American foreign policy on Israel appears at times unguided, at odds with the charted course that has been declared.
The Obama/Biden drift from Israel is the political reality of the Democratic Party in the Age of the Squad, its far-left, anti-Israel flank demanding our abandonment of Israel.
Not merely the Obama administration’s rude slights – such as, famously, his 2015 snub of Prime Minister Netanyahu when in Washington to address a joint session of Congress, extending what was called the “Un-Welcome Mat” – but especially Obama’s Iranian policies, strengthening Israel’s enemy sworn to its destruction, began to fray and weaken the knots holding the vessel to the dock.
That drift was corrected by the Trump administration, anchoring our foreign policy in a way that diminished the ability of Iran to finance terror from its Hamas and Hezbollah proxies, even spreading peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors with the Abraham Accords.
The Biden administration in 2021 moved immediately, carelessly, to loosen the sailor’s knot on the pier, reversing Trump’s policies, enriching them to enable the planning, funding and implementation of Hamas’ October 7 terror, a day far more devastating for Israel than either Pearl Harbor or 9/11 was for the United States.
Thankfully, one cannot accuse the Biden administration of sailing away, full steam ahead, from Israel. However, Biden’s firm pro-Israel posture post-October 7 has expectedly waned over the past 10 months of mounting Palestinian casualties as Israel has fought to eradicate a terrorist regime embedding itself within the community’s infrastructure. Support fading, yes, but not disappearing.
Especially welcome is the Biden administration’s current movement of American military assets to the Middle East to defend Israel in the event of attack from an Iranian regime incensed by Israel’s assassination of a trifecta of terrorist leaders, in Beirut, Khan Yunis, and, especially, the elimination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran (an assassination the responsibility for which Israel has not confirmed nor denied).
The Biden administration’s show of force is no doubt key to Iran’s having, thus far, not followed up on its declarations of war. (Although, some Jewish publications have reported that Iran intends to strike Israel on Tisha b’Av (the Ninth of Av), the day both the First and Second Temples were destroyed – by the Babylonians in 586 B. C. and the Romans in A.D. 70 – a day of mourning for Jews falling this year on Aug. 12-13.)
So, yes, administration officials have consistently asserted Israel’s right to defend itself, and those declarations are worthy of applause, especially as the party contends with its swelling radical elements spewing hatred for Israel.
Why, then, with such consistent statements of support for Israel, does one sense that the ship of America’s support is not, in fact, firmly tied down, but drifting away?
To cite two recent examples of drift:
1. Kamala Harris’ boycott of Netanyahu’s July 24 speech before Congress, an act of disrespect mimicked by other Democratic representatives, earning temporary applause from the party’s growing anti-Semitic leftists.
2. Harris’ bypassing as a running mate the relatively moderate and popular Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, mystifying many in her own party by choosing instead the leftist Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a mirror image of herself. Why? Working against Shapiro, it seems, was his Jewishness and support of Israel, Kamala’s choice hoping to appease the party’s anti-Israel coalition.
Sadly, this political drift from support of Israel is mirrored by many mainline Protestant church leaders, a progressive trend evidenced in recent surveys by the Public Religion Research Institute and the Religion News Service.
I am a conservative pastor in one of Protestantism’s increasingly progressive mainline denominations (United Methodist), one of only 14% of mainline clergy identifying as Republican, according to a September 2023 survey of 3,066 mainline clergy by the Public Religion Research Institute, a project revealing half identifying as Democrat and 28% as Independents.
The survey showed the opposite among evangelical pastors, who are overwhelmingly conservative and generally vote Republican.
This stark difference among the clergy, though, is NOT replicated in the pew, as the congregations in the pews of both mainline and evangelical churches remain solidified in their support of Israel, especially after October 7.
As a leader of frequent tours to Israel/Egypt/Jordan/Turkey, I have personally witnessed what these national surveys have shown, that with respect to support for Israel, there is greater distance between mainline clergy and their congregations than is the distance between evangelical clergy and their congregations.
I have clergy colleagues who are emphatic in sermons and in their social media accounts about their support of issues such as abortion, LGBTQ+, same-sex marriage, but have remained strangely silent regarding Israel.
This relative muting of mainline clergy’s anti-Israel sentiment seems to be because, on this subject, their congregations have been significantly slower to drift away from supporting for the Jewish state.
This, of course, is same reason the Democratic Party walks on a tightrope when it comes to Israel, careful not to fully embrace the party’s venomous anti-Semitic elements. That tightrope was pointed out this week by CNN commentator Van Jones, suggesting that the anti-Semitism problem in the Democratic Party prompted Harris to drift past the obviously more logical pick of the Jew, Josh Shapiro.
The question for progressive mainline clergy (and for the Democratic Party) is, “Will leaders be bolstered by the minority of their pro-Palestinian members to be more vocal, or will they heed to the significant, albeit mostly silent, pro-Israel majority?”
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