Democrats Must Rise

Time to push out pathologically anti-Israel "progressives" from the party

Like many of us, this has been a bewildering and frightening week. Everything is an emergency, it’s a war! Go and read and cry and scream. But also…. we’re totally safe. We’re at home. There’s food in the fridge. Work needs tending.

Then we’re back at the news. Things get worse and worse and worse. Horrors unfold like evil blossoms. But hold on, I have to reply to a client email.

It’s confusing.

Since Saturday’s news of the massacre, I spent all weekend at synagogue for Shabbat, Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah. I went to a very subdued and conflicted holiday gathering where you’re supposed to dance and sing. I went to a UN rally with tens of thousands. I sat at a small candlelight vigil with new friends who cried as they shared news of loved ones murdered and traumatized in Israel.

At the UN rally I was interviewed by a right wing news outlet. Not my choice of publication.

I’ve wrangled online with moral equivocators and reached out to those I know in Israel. My four siblings and I — we were all in Jerusalem many years ago — reached out just to say we love each other. It felt really good.

But what can I do as an individual? Give money? Go to more rallies? Gather at schul? It feels right but also half-baked.

Then I’m reminded of what older folks sometimes tell younger activists when we’re protesting in the streets. It’s what many Black elders talked about in Georgia in the past two nailbiter senatorial elections. Yes, do all those things. March. Declaim. Wear the t-shirt, give money. But most of all, vote.

This is an email I sent to my representatives, in the New York city council, state and federal representatives. I live in the same city as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, but I’m not in her district so I won’t spam her.

Since she’s the cultural leader of progressive Democratic politicians, I’m thinking of her and the wing of the party she magnetically represents. I’m thinking of Ayanna Pressley, from my Boston hometown. I’m thinking of their colleagues who mistake orthodoxy for morality.

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Dear Representative,

I'm your constituent and life-long Democrat. I voted for you. Please continue your support for Israel after the horrific attacks from the vote-winning representatives of Gaza, who are called "Hamas militants" by the mainstream press, but they're the government. And also, they're vicious terrorists in the mold of Al Qaeda, ISIS and the Nazi Party if you want to get technical about Palestinian support of Hitler in World War II.

Hamas won a popular and fairly-held election across Palestinian lands in 2006. They were briefly deposed. After a violent coup they took over Gaza in 2007. They remain its uncontested leaders. Hamas scores well in opinion polls among Palestinians. And among some Harvard, Stanford and NYU students, apparently.

You are a person of power and influence, your stand for Israel is vital and I'm grateful for it. I'm asking you to do more. Please root out the pernicious, ever-adapting virus of antisemitism from within the Democratic party. It's easy to point out Republican extremist racists and authoritarians, they don't hide their odious beliefs. They're obnoxious and faithless to America, but what about the pathologically anti-Israel politicians within our own party?

Why do they focus so much time and energy on attacking Israel versus any other state? What do they mean by "Free Palestine?" Free to do what? To be what? To act like what?

Why do they use faddish elitist language like "anti colonial" to abnegate Israel, yet they speak English in America on former native lands and hold US passports?

Irredentist conflicts are complex. There are no easy answers. But bigotry is simple.

Please pressure your colleagues and the Democratic party to isolate and expunge Democrats who spread disinformation about Israel, who advocate for and give cover to the vicious, illiberal and hateful Hamas government. The DSA-sponsored rally in Times Square is a small example of the hate speech and racism that animates this wing of the party.

If liberals support illiberal actors in Palestine yet nowhere else, only antisemitism explains their motivation.

Why are they antisemitic? Why does this cloud the judgement of people who base their identity on human rights? I wish I knew. It's an adaptive pathogen.

I ask you to defend Israel, and in doing so, to defend the values of the Democratic party.

I like to think we hold ourselves to a high standard. Please prove me right.

Thank you,

Zachary Thacher

Crown Heights, Brooklyn