Antisemitism might be uniting isolationists with Islamist apologists and anti-Israel Democrats, in the same ad hoc way it did with Islamists and progressives although American intervention in Iran would pose little risk to American lives. American boots on the ground? No. Bunker buster bombs? Yes.
Politics makes strange bedfellows. Israel makes stranger ones.
The unexpected alliance between Progressives and Islamists bloomed into an actual love fest after October 7. A common bond of Jew hatred triumphed over antithetical values.
Leftists who pride themselves on unrestrained impiety joined with strict followers of Sharia law. Muslim women in hijabs united with women who disrobe as a form of social protest. And members of the LGBTQ community linked hands with those who would have thrown them off buildings in Muslim controlled states.
The left adopted the keffiyeh as their symbol of resistance – not against terrorists but in support of them. In so doing, they wed themselves to a culture that subjugates women and scorns the liberties they take for granted.
But a new and even stranger alliance has emerged, threatening the Jewish State and by extension Jews worldwide.
Claiming to represent the MAGA movement, isolationists among influential conservatives are loudly and publicly denouncing American support for Israel’s war against Iran. They are being led by former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and ex-White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who oppose any American aid to Israel in its bid to destroy Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
The two have ignited a public spat with MAGA superstars Fox News hosts Mark Levin and Sean Hannity. They called Levin and Hannity “warmongers” for pointing out the obvious – that Israel’s aim of wiping out Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs protects not only Israel but America, Europe and Sunni states in the Middle East.
Isolationist policy, which promotes negotiations with Iranian Mullahs over intervention, de facto promotes an alliance with radical Shite Islamists bent on destroying Western civilization. Advocating for diplomacy with the Iranian regime, which is as untrustworthy today as the day it seized power in 1979, is not just naïve or even stupid. It’s intentional negligence. Worse, it’s a form of passive collusion with the enemy.
It is also unsurprising considering that Carlson suggested, last year, that the U.S. had lost its “moral authority” because it has refused to call for a cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hamas.
Such rationale also merges the radical right with the radical left.
It reinforces progressive Democrats, who have slammed Israel’s self-defensive strike against Iran. Rep. Bernie Sanders introduced legislation on Monday to prevent the use of federal funds for any “illegal wars” in or against Iran without Congressional approval. Of course, AOC is on board.
Senator Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, stated, “Israel’s alarming decision to launch airstrikes on Iran is a reckless escalation that risks igniting regional violence.” And Democrat Congressman Joaquin Castro said, “What does ‘America First’ even mean if Trump allows Netanyahu to drag the country into a war Americans don’t want?”
Former disgraced Representative Matt Gaetz accused Israel of pursuing “regime change” in Iran as their “true goal”. And he blames Prime Minister Netanyahu and the neocons for having dangled the threat of weapons of mass destruction to entice America to war with Iraq. But he omits the fact that even the IAEA, the UN associated organization that is no friend of Israel’s, confirms Iran’s nuclear threat.
Would Gaetz and other isolationists bemoan the removal of a genocidal dictator who routinely menaces the United States and terrorizes his own people? Did they complain about the overthrow of the Assad regime in Syria? Do they want the Houthis to continue using Iranian money and arms to threaten American ships and disrupt global trade?
Playing the ostrich is playing with fire. Had some isolationists lived during World War II, they would probably have opposed America fighting against the Axis, even after Pearl Harbor. Rather than focus on the threat to America, they conveniently forget that America was attacked on 9/11 by Islamist radicals. Iranian mullahs continue to threaten the Great Satan.
What part of “Death to America” do they not understand?
Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene shot off a rambling rebuke of Israel that brought her squarely into the camp of Progressive Democrats. She tweeted, “Anyone slobbering for the U.S. to become fully involved in the Israel/Iran war is not America First/MAGA…We are sick and tired of foreign wars…Real America First/MAGA wants world peace for all people.”
Her diatribe, which mixed kumbaya with doomsday scenarios, ended with a disclaimer. “Taking this position is NOT antisemitic. It’s rational, sane, and loving toward all people.”
Methinks the lady doth protest too much. Especially after Greene was the only Republican to vote present rather than endorse recent Congressional resolutions against antisemitism, finding herself in the company of known antisemite Democrat Rep. Rashida Tlaib.
It is disturbing to think that antisemitism might be inadvertently uniting isolationists with Islamist apologists and anti-Israel Democrats, in the same ad hoc way it did with Islamists and progressives. Especially since it seems obvious that American intervention in Iran would pose little risk to American lives. American boots on the ground? No. Bunker buster bombs? Yes.
The naysayers forget the fatalists who wrongly predicted that the sky would fall if President Trump moved the American embassy to Jerusalem back in 2018.
Obliterating an Iranian nuclear threat now protects American interests in the Middle East and weakens adversaries like Russia and China, who are watching from the sidelines to ascertain that America defends its own interests and those of its allies.
Luckily, President Trump is not buying it. He realizes that American intervention has the potential to deescalate rather than escalate Middle East tensions. On Monday, Trump wrote on Truth Social, “Somebody please explain to kooky Tucker Carlson that IRAN CAN NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON.”
The president, a true friend and ally to the Jewish State, also rejected his Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s claim back in March that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon. “I don’t care what she said,” Trump told reporters yesterday. “I think they were very close to having” a nuclear weapon.
President Trump understands that banning American involvement is actually an expression of Iran First, not America First. And he understands that in going after the Mullahs in Iran, he is going after America’s enemies.
When we pray for Israel, we pray for America too.
Sara Lehmann is an award-winning New York based columnist and interviewer. For more of her writings please visit saralehmann.com.
