JOSHUA MURAVCHIK AT HTAA: ATTITUDES TOWARD JEWS ‘INSEPARABLE FROM ATTITUDES TOWARD ISRAEL’
03/08/2018 02:00:07 PM
At a recent Shabbat lecture in Silver Spring, Maryland, Joshua Muravchik, distinguished fellow at the DC-based World Affairs Institute and adjunct professor at the Institute of World Politics, shared his concerns about a growing divide between Democrats and Republicans on their support for Israel. The leaching of radical left ideas into moderate left circles creates “real worry” that the Democrats, the party with which most American Jews historically align, will become anti-Israel, he said.
сAuthor of 11 books and writer of hundreds of articles in magazines, journals, and newspapers, touching on international politics, U.S. foreign policy, socialism, democracy, political ideology, the United Nations, and the Arab/Israeli conflict, Muravchik spoke at Har Tzeon-Agudath Achim (HTAA), a Traditional synagogue, on Feb. 17.
Muravchik cited a recent poll by the Pew Research Center, which showed that Republicans and Democrats are growing further apart in their support for Israel, with Republicans remaining staunchly pro-Israel and Democrats drifting away from identifying with the country.
Muravchik argued that despite claims of opponents of Israel that their anti-Israel attitude isn’t anti-Semitic, attitudes toward Jews are ultimately “inseparable from attitudes toward Israel.” He queried, “If the Jewish state is as evil as they claim — apartheid, genocide, imperialism, colonialism, etc. — how can the Jewish people be innocent?” Further, he asked, “Would it make any sense to say ‘Poland or Hungary or France is a terrible country, but at the same time I have nothing against the Poles or Hungarians or the French?’”