Israeli Lives Don’t Matter to Progressives

There’s no good argument to oppose funding for Iron Dome. Unless, of course, your goal is to hurt Israel and perpetuate conflict. By Aaron Kliegman You’ve got to hand it to the progressives for their candor. Israel-haters on the left used to couch their hatred for the Jewish state as genuine criticism of Israeli settlements or the so-called occupation. Their goal, they claimed, wasn’t destruction but liberation — helping Palestinians rather than hurting Israelis. But now, these leftists openly oppose Israel’s ability to defend itself, undermining the security of a U.S. ally. And they’re proud to do so. Last week, progressive Democrats in Congress tried to block $1 billion in funding for Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system. They forced House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to remove the funding from an emergency spending bill, which needs to pass to avert a government shutdown. Rep. Ilhan Omar then tweeted, “Here’s an idea: Don’t sell arms to anyone who violates human rights.” What makes this left-wing campaign so revealing is that Iron Dome is purely defensive with zero offensive applications. Its only function is to identify and take out rockets fired at Israel by Hamas and other terrorist groups, which explicitly target civilians. Without Iron Dome, heaven only knows the slaughter that Israel would have suffered from the thousands of rockets launched from Gaza. Over a decade of operation, Iron Dome has saved countless civilian lives — and not just Israeli ones. By greatly reducing the number of Israeli casualties, Iron Dome reduces political pressure on Israeli leaders to escalate their military response. Without an effective missile defense system, Israel would have no choice but to launch a ground invasion to eliminate Hamas’s rocket arsenal. Any other decision would be suicidal. In short, opposing funding for Iron Dome means denying Israel the ability to defend itself. It means supporting Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group, against Israel, a long-time democratic ally. It means war, not peace. What’s more, the U.S. is now deploying Iron Dome to protect American troops. Improvements to the system, with the help of U.S. funding, help develop technology to defend Americans. Simply put, there’s no good argument to oppose funding for Iron Dome. Unless, of course, your goal is to hurt Israel and perpetuate conflict. And that’s the point. The only logical conclusion one can draw from this progressive opposition to Iron Dome is some far-left Democrats want to undermine Israeli security and destroy the U.S.-Israel alliance. They see Israel as a colonial outpost of Western imperialism, a creation of Europe, triggered by guilt for the Holocaust, that uprooted the indigenous peoples of Palestine. This is in part why progressives always talk about protecting Palestinian human rights from Israeli oppression. But Israel is the one actually championing democratic, even progressive values, not the Palestinians. Some will argue the outrage over the progressive push to block extra funding for Iron Dome is overblown. After all, they’ll say, the House ended up overwhelmingly passing the funding in a separate bill by a vote of 420 to 9 on Thursday. And 85 of the 95 members of the Democrats’ progressive caucus voted yes. But does anyone seriously think the momentum isn’t with the progressives on this issue? It’s no secret that, as the Democratic Party — both voters and politicians — has moved further to the left in recent years, the progressive wing has gained significant influence. As a result, more Democrats in Congress, even moderates, are openly castigating Israel, and a growing number of Democratic voters are more supportive of the Palestinians than the Israelis. The likes of Sen. Bernie Sanders and The Squad are the future of the party, and all of them are deeply hostile to the Jewish state. Moreover, even though most progressives ultimately backed the Iron Dome funding, they made clear the days of unquestioned support for Israel are over. Shortly before the vote on Thursday, Rep. Andy Levin announced a bill that would enshrine a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as U.S. policy. But the bill includes restrictions on how Israel could spend U.S. funding, with explicit bans on spending on West Bank settlements. “The bill makes clear that assistance to help Israel to address its very real security challenges should continue at not one dollar less,” Levin said. “But it cannot be used in a manner that violates internationally recognized human rights, or for activities that perpetuate the occupation or enable de facto annexation” of parts of the West Bank. Of course, progressives consider Israel’s very existence, let alone anything it actually does, as a violation of Palestinian human rights. Such language should do nothing to assuage the fears of those concerned about the Democratic Party becoming increasingly anti-Israel. Most importantly, whether nine people voted against Iron Dome funding or 90, the events of the past week have made clear the word is out: Progressives will face absolutely zero consequences from the Democratic Party for disparaging Israel or undermining the U.S.-Israel alliance. We shouldn’t be surprised. In 2019, House Democrats pushed a resolution to condemn Omar for a string of antisemitic remarks. But when it came time to vote, both rank-and-file Democrats and party leaders chickened out, rewriting the resolution and passing some meaningless measure that condemned all forms of hate and completely obfuscated the original purpose. Just last month, Rep. Rashida Tlaib echoed Omar’s not-so-subtle antisemitism. Speaking to the Democratic Socialists of America, Tlaib alluded to certain people “behind the curtain” who “make money” by oppressing people “from Gaza to Detroit.” She wasn’t talking about Jehovah’s Witnesses. Lawmakers shouldn’t think it’s OK to use such antisemitic rhetoric so liberally. But the Democratic leadership has appeased Omar, Tlaib, and others when it comes to their bigotry, making it now an acceptable part of our politics. Leftists have long sought to abolish the Jewish state, demonizing, delegitimizing, and applying crippling double standards to Israel. Worse, they pushed policies that, if successful, would result in the destruction of Israel by force of arms. But in America at least, progressives understood their anti-Israel animus would be off-putting to others and tried to disguise it. Plus, they didn’t have the political clout to advance their agenda. This is no longer the case. Progressives are loud and proud about their hatred for Israel, announcing concrete initiatives to hurt the Jewish state. And while most Democratic lawmakers basically support Israel today, they won’t stand up to their peers when things get hard and uncomfortable. They are allowing a rot to fester within their ranks. It’s manageable now, but eventually what’s festering will turn into something much nastier — and more widespread. More from Aaron Kliegman: