ZIONIST ORGANIZATION OF AMERICA IN THE MEDIA     ZOA’s Mort Klein Quoted in Wall Street Journal: Israel and the Democrats RFK Jr. and John Fetterman buck the party by standing up for the Jewish state. “What is so shocking about a decent and principled man siding with a democratic state that respects human rights and is defending itself against Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group that just massacred and raped 1,200 mostly Jewish Israelis and kidnapped 250 more, while promising to commit this inhuman horror again and again?” asks Morton Klein. By William McGurn (April 1, 2024 / WSJ) Ever since President Harry S. Truman became the first world leader to recognize Israel in 1948, supporters of the Jewish state have considered the Democratic Party their political home. But the war in Gaza is laying bare a rift over Israel’s standing in modern American liberalism. It says something that today liberalism’s most vocal champions of Israel are Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. John Fetterman and independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Mr. Fetterman is best known for wearing hoodies and shorts. Mr. Kennedy is a descendant of Democratic Party royalty. Each is a man of the left, which has become increasingly hostile to Israel. Pressure from the left has led both President Biden and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) to temper support for Israel with unprecedented public criticism of the country’s elected government and its war effort. The criticisms are striking because they come on the eve of an offensive in Rafah that Israel deems essential to root out the Hamas leadership and destroy its ability to inflict another attack like Oct. 7. Messrs. Fetterman and Kennedy might have been expected to succumb to progressive pressure. But they didn’t. The question for a post-Joe Lieberman Democratic Party is whether the Fetterman-Kennedy resistance marks a restoration of support for Israel to its place in American liberalism—or a dying last gasp. Following the Oct. 7 attacks, Mr. Fetterman dismissed the near mystical faith among progressives that a ceasefire is the solution in Gaza. “We can talk about a ceasefire after Hamas is neutralized,” he tweeted. He’s also signaling that pressure on him to bend—demonstrations outside his office, an open letter from former campaign workers, the resignation of staffers—won’t work.   CONTINUE READING     DONATE     Share This Email Share This Email Copyright © Zionist Organization of America 2024, All rights reserved. Zionist Organization of America | 633 Third Ave, 31 B, New York, NY 10017 Unsubscribe [email protected] Update Profile | Constant Contact Data Notice Sent by [email protected]