Why Are So Many American Jews Liberal?

This article first appeared in New English Review.

An op-ed this week in the Los Angeles Times written by former county supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky (a Jew) and Salam al Marayati, director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, a Muslim Brotherhood-linked organization, once again caused me to ask the old question: Why are so many American Jews liberal-and more specifically, why do they come to the defense of Muslims? The op-ed challenges President Trump’s travel ban imposed against 6 Muslim-majority nations.

To be sure, I am not the only non-Jew (or Jew) to ask that question. American Jews do tend to be liberal and also tend to support the Democratic party. They do so even though it is the Republican party that wholeheartedly supports Israel while the Democrats are highly divided on that issue. Not that American Jews are 100% behind Israel. The American Jewish community is highly fragmented in most every area, and some are even virulent enemies of Israel.

But to the larger question of Jewish liberalism, no doubt the Holocaust is a large part of the explanation. Jews in the US have traditionally been supportive of those who suffered from discrimination. Among Caucasians, Jewish Americans were highly represented in the Civil Rights movement much to their credit.

However, in spite of liberal propaganda that attempts to put blame for the resurgence in anti-semitism on the right (KKK, neo-Nazis, skin heads etc), the evidence shows that most anti-semitism today comes from the left, is inspired by pro-Palestinian sentiment, and is mostly stirred by pro-Palestinian and Muslim quarters. The focal point for American anti-semitism today, in my opinion, is on our university campuses and points directly at the pro-Palestinian groups like Students for Justice in Palestine and the Muslim Student Association. Yet, many national Jewish advocacy groups like the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Federation, and many campus Hillel chapters simply refuse to address it. They would rather stand with their Muslim “allies” against Islamophobia. They choose to ignore the fact that not only is Israel opposed by the Arab and Islamic world because of supposed land disputes, but that Jew hatred (and hatred toward Christians as well) is deeply ingrained in the teachings and the texts of Islam. Any Jewish-Muslim alliances in the US are (for the Muslims) only marriages of convenience. MPAC’s parent organization, the Muslim Brotherhood, has no sympathy for Jews whatsoever.

As for the op-ed itself, I can only quote the reader comment I sent in to the LA Times in response.

“It is sad that Yaroslavsky has been taken in by the head of MPAC, a Muslim Brotherhood front group that does not defend Jews from anti-semitism in the MIddle East.