Jewish Insider: Republicans and Democrats Struggle to Own Conversation on Jewish Vote
In a set of dueling interviews with Jewish Insider, Matt Brooks and Halie Soifer, serving as executive directors of their respective organizations, parried each others’ criticisms and pounced on the vulnerabilities of the other side.
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“Trump has [given] racism and hatred a green light in this country, to the point where [racists] feel legitimized enough to run for office. We’ve never seen that before,” Soifer asserted. “The Republican Party has to now contend with that. Also, they may have said, ‘Oh, they’re not going to win anyway,’ and disassociated themselves, but we have not seen them go as far as to endorse their Democratic opponents in order to ensure that they’re defeated.”
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Soifer denied moral equivalency, saying she “would not equate Neo Nazis, white supremacists, and Holocaust deniers, all of whom are running for office as Republicans, with those on the left who may have espoused different views with regard to Israel.”
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Soifer defended her organization’s conduct in disassociating itself from the candidates who have gone against the mainstream views of the Democratic Party. “We’re talking about three candidates out of 470 running for the Senate and House on the Democratic side this election cycle. I would not say they represent the mainstream at all on this issue,” she explained. “In addition, if you look at the records in Congress, in the Senate and the House, when it comes to aid for Israel… you see no diminution in support of that assistance or U.S. support of Israel on either side.”
The Republican Party does not own the Israel issue, Soifer insisted. “U.S. support for Israel continues to be a bipartisan issue. That is what we support, and we have seen no change in terms of that in Congress, and specifically within the Democratic Party, among elected officials.”