Alan Gubernick

Debate over U.S. foreign policy, including America’s relationship with Israel, and its effect on the midterm elections is entirely legitimate. However, only 4% of voters rated foreign policy as their primary concern. When leaders like Vice President JD Vance and commentators ignore the data and instead choose to assert that voter behavior was about Israel, it’s not just a deeply flawed analysis but can be weaponized to assign collective blame to Jewish Americans for policy decisions or political outcomes. Antisemitism is rising and drawing energy from extremes of both sides of the political spectrum. Israel is neither diverting federal resources away from our communities nor the reason groceries are more expensive. Hostility toward the Jewish state too often has become a fig leaf for targeting, scapegoating, and excluding Jewish Americans. Elected officials in both parties have an obligation to engage responsibly, to challenge rhetoric that blames Israel or the Jewish people for America’s political outcomes, and to bring our country together. Now is the time.