opinion
US Politicians Jump Into
Israel’s Elections
BY JAMES SINKINSON
en. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), one of Israel’s
most stalwart — and passionate — supporters,
dropped a bombshell last week when he warned
former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
against forming a coalition government with Israel’s
far-right Religious National Party, one of whose
leaders is the outspoken attorney-politician Itamar
Ben-Gvir. Mendendez’s bold statement raises the question
as to whether Israeli politicians may also exercise
their right to suggest whom American political par-
ties should allow into their coalitions.

Menendez reportedly told Netanyahu that includ-
ing Ben-Gvir in Israel’s next government would
threaten U.S.-Israel relations. As chair of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee, Menendez has the
power to make that danger real.

Menendez’s warning was echoed by Rep. Brad
Sherman (D-Calif.), who urged Israeli politicians to
“ostracize extremists like Itamar Ben-Gvir.” Neither
Sherman nor Menendez specified any Ben-Gvir
views to which they object.

Ben-Gvir hasn’t made Netanyahu’s decision
easy: He has a reputation for making statements
against Israeli Arabs — such as suggesting the
deportation of those who attack Israeli soldiers, a
proposal some consider racist.

This past weekend, when Arab rioters attacked
a prayer service that Ben-Gvir was attending in
Jerusalem, he drew a pistol and waved it at
stone-throwers. On the other hand, Ben-Gvir swears he is not
racist — that indeed he is an anti-racist, fighting
antisemitic instigation within the boundaries of
Israel’s “homeland” by the likes of the Muslim
Brotherhood, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad,
with the aim of defeating them “just as the United
States defeated Al-Qaeda.”
Netanyahu’s decision on Ben-Gvir is likely to
come soon, since Israel’s next national election
— its fifth in just four years — happens on Nov. 1.

Because so many parties are vying for control of
the Knesset, top politicians will almost surely face
huge challenges in negotiating a ruling coalition
partnership … once again.

Currently, Netanyahu’s Likud Party looks likely
to capture the most seats in the Knesset — pro-
jected at 32 — but nowhere near enough to clinch
a 61-seat majority. This means that in order to
govern, Netanyahu may well be forced to include
the National Religious Party, which with 13 seats is
likely to rank as the nation’s third-strongest party.

Americans should note that in a rough-and-tum-
14 OCTOBER 20, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
Melinda Nagy / AdobeStock
S ble Israeli election, one thing is fairly certain: About
62% of voters will support right-leaning parties.

This percentage has grown substantially over
recent years, mostly at the expense of the political
center (now about 24% of voters) and the left (now
about 11%).

Even so, Netanyahu’s path to the premiership is
not certain: Some polls show him only able to mus-
ter 59 or 60 seats, short of a majority — throwing
more uncertainty into the mix. While right-leaning
voters are a clear majority in Israel, their division
among the various right-wing parties still makes it
difficult to form a right-leaning government.

In other words, if Netanyahu’s only path to gov-
ernance is by coalescing with Ben-Gvir and the
National Religious Party, he is going to do it. (And
so, we believe, would Menendez.)
Contrast Israel’s voter sentiments with those in
the United States in the runup to the midterm elec-
tions on Nov. 8. We can safely say American voters
are generally split between left and right, with most
voting in the center. While coastal states lean left
and the country’s center leans right, no one party
shows a clear advantage.

Indeed, Democrats’ margin of control in the Senate
is just a single vote. Its majority in the 435-member
House of Representatives is just eight — which could
easily be swept away in the midterms.

Notably, one of the Democrat’s newest Senate
members, Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), has accused
Israel of being an apartheid state — clearly a false-
hood and clearly antisemitic on the grounds of
demonization and delegitimization of the Jewish
state. How receptive would President Biden — or
Menendez — be to Israeli suggestions that
Democrats exclude Warnock from their governing
coalition? Likewise, six members of the Democratic “Squad”
in the House — made up of Reps. Ocasio-Cortez,
Omar, Tlaib, Pressley, Bowman and Bush — have
all made anti-Israel (and many openly antisemitic)
statements. Should Israeli Knesset members recommend
that Squad members be disavowed by House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi or stripped of their member-
ship on key House committees?
While Menendez’s support of Israel is respected
and highly valued, his attempt to influence the will
of Israeli voters and the composition of Israel’s gov-
ernment is misplaced and unwelcome.

Likewise, while a handful of American politicians
in both the House and Senate have made clearly
antisemitic and anti-Israel remarks, Israeli mem-
bers of the Knesset have rightly resisted making
recommendations to either political party as to who
should serve in the United States government. JE
James Sinkinson is president of Facts and Logic
About the Middle East, or FLAME.




feature story
Josh Shapiro
Versus Doug Mastriano
WILL THE JEWISH DEMOCRAT BECOME
PENNSYLVANIA’S NEXT GOVERNOR?
A vectorfusionart / AdobeStock
JARRAD SAFFREN | STAFF WRITER
ccording to the polls, Josh Shapiro should
win the Pennsylvania gubernatorial race
going away.

Th e Jewish Democrat leads Republican opponent
Doug Mastriano by an average of more than 10
points. As FiveTh irtyEight’s aggregation tool shows,
recent polls from Suff olk University, Emerson College
and others got the same result: Shapiro is ahead by
between 10 and 15 percentage points.

But “according to the polls” has become a loaded
phrase in American politics in recent years. Before
2016, it usually meant what the numbers showed: a
victory for the candidate who was ahead. But then in
2016, Donald Trump defi ed consistent defi cits to stun
Hillary Clinton and become president of the United
States. Four years later, Trump nearly did the same
thing against his Democratic challenger Joe Biden.

Perhaps the fastest-rising star in American politics
right now, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, won his guber-
natorial race in 2018 aft er trailing in the polls. In the
most high-profi le race of the 2021 election season,
Virginia Republican Glenn Youngkin did the same.

And in that same off -year season, just over the bridge
in New Jersey, Republican Jack Ciattarelli nearly
upset incumbent Gov. Phil Murphy. Th e Democrat
led by double digits in the polls in late October but
only won by 3.2%.

So, should Josh Shapiro trust the polls?
Probably not.

But does that mean he is going to lose in a shocking
upset to a man who, as a state senator, tried to over-
turn Biden’s victory in Pennsylvania in 2020?
Not necessarily.

Th e Jewish Exponent spent a day with both cam-
paigns to take the pulse of the race. As you should
expect by now in American politics, the reality is far
more complicated than the numbers show.

Why Shapiro Shouldn’t Trust the Polls
It’s a rainy Saturday morning in early October.

Outside of a Phoenixville fi re hall, the parking
lot is almost full. Stickers on the back of one car
say, “Doug Mastriano Governor” and “Socialism
Destroys Nations.” Another car’s front license plate
reads, “One Nation Under God.”
Inside before the meet-and-greet with the
Republican candidate, seats are fi lling up fast. Th ey
come from Chester County, the Philadelphia region’s
westernmost territory, and the surrounding area.

Many say they love Trump, who endorsed
Mastriano before the Republican primary; many
others say that they are conservative voters sup-
porting the Republican candidate; and still many
others blame the Democrats, who hold power in the
Pennsylvania governor’s mansion (Tom Wolf) and in
Washington, D.C., for rising crime in communities
and prices at gas stations and grocery stores.

Not a single person said they were there to see
Mastriano the candidate, the man, the politician.

(He’s a fi rst-term senator in the Pennsylvania General
Assembly.) “Th ey are screwing our state,” said Alan Walter, a
Chester Springs resident, of the Democrats.

When asked in what ways Democrats were “screw-
ing” the Keystone State, Walter laughed. But then
he said, “Well, I don’t even feel safe going down to
Philadelphia.” Th ough they may not be drawn to Mastriano the
man, supporters kept walking in, eventually fi lling
hundreds of seats. Campaign volunteers later esti-
mated that about 600 people attended, though the
real number was probably between 300 and 500.

Nonetheless, according to volunteers, the planned
meet-and-greet transformed into a rally.

When Mastriano walked through the back door
with his wife Rebbie, they proceeded to a podium
that was already set up. Th e candidate spoke for
more than 30 minutes, handing the microphone off
to other speakers at various points throughout his
remarks. Mastriano has been described by the mainstream
media as extreme, and it’s not an unfair description.

Mastriano said three years ago that women should
be charged with murder for getting abortions. He
organized buses for the Jan. 6, 2021 protest against
the election result that turned into a storming of the
Capitol Building in D.C. Earlier in the campaign,
he joined a social media site, Gab, known as a safe
haven for antisemites and white nationalists. While
Mastriano did not say anything antisemitic on the
site, he did pay Gab and its founder, Andrew Torba, a
$5,000 consulting fee.

During his speech in Phoenixville, the candidate
doesn’t back down from any of those positions.

He also brings up a right-wing media opportunist,
Norristown native Jack Posobiec, who has more than
a million Twitter followers, to off er rambling remarks
to the crowd about how dangerous Philadelphia is
these days, among other topics. (Th ey mostly yawn
and tune him out.)
At the same time, it is not any of these positions
that Mastriano emphasizes in his speech. Instead,
he leads with the issues that seem to be defi ning this
campaign. He also ties them to a Democrat who is in
power: his opponent, Shapiro, Pennsylvania’s attor-
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