For Schumer, left Dems trump Jews

Even politically conservative Jews were proud of Senator Chuck Schumer when he stood up to President Obama and refused to vote for the JCPOA, the flawed Iran deal. Then in 2017, when he took over the Senate Democratic caucus as minority leader, Schumer was opposed by some of the most liberal members of his party’s base because of that Iran position.

Chastened by that opposition and trying to keep his party together, Schumer reacted by throwing fellow Jews under the bus and covering up the anti-Semitism of the Democratic far-left.

During the first week of March 2019, the most liberal congressional Democrats worked with the Congressional Black Caucus and blocked a resolution condemning the anti-Semitism of Democrats including Rep. Ilhan Omar. Instead, they passed a generic vanilla resolution that said that being mean to others is a bad thing.

Many objected to the party’s lack of courage. But not Senator Schumer. Speaking at the AIPAC convention two weeks later, he protected the haters in his Party with a claim that the objections came from people who wanted to use anti-Semitism as a political weapon.

As for people who point out that there are too many BDS supporters in his party, Schumer added, “Those who seek to use Israel as a means to score political points, our politics more polarized than ever, but it is incumbent on all of us who care about U.S. Israel relationship to keep it bipartisan and keep the polarization of Washington away from poisoning to bipartisan support that Israel has always enjoyed.”

Always enjoyed? Was he asleep during the reign of Barack Obama? What did he think when the 2012 Democratic Party platform removed four pro-Israel planks?

On Oct. 2, the day after Rosh Hashana, and the 81st Anniversary of the Tiberias Massacre when Arab attackers massacred 21 Jews, Schumer appeased the radical left of his party by trekking to the halls of the New York Public Library to attend the 65th birthday gala of Al Sharpton, the anti-Semite who incited two pogroms in New York.

At the gala, Schumer gave a short speech praising the Jew-hater:

“At a time like this, we need Reverend Al like never before,” Schumer said. “We quote the scripture, let not your heart be troubled. That’s what we believe. We are going to keep fighting the fight until we win. Until Donald Trump is no longer in power in any way and until America returns to its highest ideals. Let me make a toast to a man who, more than just about anybody else, who is working to make that happen, Rev. Al Sharpton. Lift your glasses to the birthday of the great and wonderful Rev. Al Sharpton.”

I wonder what Schumer thinks is wonderful about Sharpton? Perhaps the Senator took the Jew-hating Sharpton’s advice and pinned his yarmulke back on before he went to the birthday party. Maybe the Senate minority leader thinks the Crown Heights pogrom was great. Or Freddy’s firebombing.

Does Schumer think Sharpton was great when he compared a Jewish New York State attorney general, Robert Abrams, to Hitler? Maybe Schumer likes the fact that Sharpton promoted the Michael Brown “hands up don’t shoot” fraud even after it was proven to be a myth.

Sharpton made a career out of hating Jews and others. Still, the senator from the state with the largest Jewish population in America chose to appease the far-left part of his political base by honoring an anti-Semite.

While this is the season of forgiving and atonement, the first step is apologizing for the offenses, something that Sharpton has never done.

Schumer will next be joining Nancy Pelosi as a keynote speaker at the annual conference of the faux pro-Israel group J Street, which was created and supported by the extreme left, the Jerusalem Post reported this past weekend.

J Street, founded in 2008 with money from progressive sugar daddy George Soros, markets itself as a kind of left-wing AIPAC. From its very beginnings, the group went out of its way to emphasize its motto of “pro-Israel, pro-peace.” While officially they claim to support Israel, at J Street’s 2010 national conference, J Street co-founder Daniel Levy called Israel’s rebirth in 1948 “an act that was wrong.” J Street’s Advisory Council member Marcia Freedman told the 2015 J Street conference: “Israelis should not have a state.” The 2017 president of the J Street U student group sent a letter to Congress saying it was unfair to label as anti-Semites those who oppose Israel’s existence.

J Street has argued that Israel does not need to be recognized as a Jewish State. J Street’s Vice President for Communications and New Media Isaac Luria wrote in 2010 that peace is possible without the Palestinians recognizing Israel as a Jewish State. “Israel’s Jewish character is a matter of self-identification, and it does not matter whether the Palestinians — or anyone else for that matter — recognize it as such,” he said.

That comment and others like it ignores the stated Palestinian goal of resettling any Arab claiming to be a refugee within Israel proper. According to the UN, only 30,000 of the original refugees remain, but the UN also gives refugee status to the children of those 30,000, their in-laws, first cousins once removed, etc. In that way, Israel can be flooded with more than five-million “refugees” who would vote Israel’s Jewishness out of existence.

Everything about J Street stated above is public knowledge, including its opposition to Iranian sanctions and support of the Iran deal (which Schumer opposed). There are many more examples of J Street’s anti-Israel and anti-Semitic policies, but that will be saved for another day as this week’s column is about Schumer.

Ever since Trump was elected, Schumer has endeared himself to the radical left by opposing almost every proposal the president suggested, even to the extent of opposing programs Schumer himself used to support, such as the border wall. However, that is not the concern here. 

This is a different matter. Opposing everything a president does is politics. Covering for the anti-Semites in his own party, praising a man who has promoted anti-Semitism and other types of hatred his entire life, and giving a keynote address to an anti-Jewish/anti-Israel organization is personal.

Four years ago, Schumer stood up to an anti-Semitic president and opposed a deal that would allow the Iranian mullahs to build a nuclear bomb in 2025. Now he has thrown his fellow Jews under the bus so he can worship the golden calf of the far-left that has taken control of his party.