Yay! Rep.-elect Claire Valdez (D-Brooklyn) said Tuesday she’s “appalled by this blatant act of antisemitism,” full stop — referring to vicious “F–k Israel, Free Palestine” graffiti on a fleet of Satmar Hasidic school buses.
That the staunch progressive avoided mealy-mouthing about the heinous vandalism as being merely “anti-Zionist” is significant.
Her colleague-to-be Brad Lander (D-Brooklyn) — who calls himself a “liberal Zionist,” though he’s close friends with people who want Israel taken off the map — is almost there: He also condemned the vandalism, but qualified it, “Blaming all Jews for the actions of Israel is antisemitism (and you really expose your blind hatred of Jews when you target those who are explicitly not Zionists).”
Sorry, Brad: Does that mean it would be kosher to vandalize Jewish property in the name of Palestine if it’s owned by Zionist Jews? Surely it’s the same “blind hatred” either way?
But they’re the radical extreme; happily, the blue tsunami washed in a lot more centrist Dems who can counter the party’s Jew haters.
And the poison highlighted by the vile Michigan ad where a married couple blames their high grocery bill on Israel.
What’s the Jewish state got to do with the price of eggs? Everything, according to extremists such as Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
President Donald Trump moved to sink that canard Monday by announcing that Washington will stop giving Jerusalem $3.8 billion in annual credits to buy weapons here.
This shift in the US-Israel relationship has been a long time coming, but removing the frequent anti-Israel talking point now will reveal who the hypocrites are.
Vicious demagogues like Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) instantly moved the goalposts, insisting that only a complete weapons embargo on Israel will do.
Khanna & Co. won’t be happy until Israel is no more, but centrist Dems can cite the end of the arms credit as evidence that US-Israeli relations have matured, to treating each other on the same basis as other allies.
Dem leaders Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer now have the leverage to steer their party’s internal chatter away from obsessive fretting about Israel and on to matters that truly affect the American people.
Let’s hope they have the backbone to keep their extremists on the fringes, where they belong.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
