MOSHE HILL OPINION COLUMNS AUGUST 07 2024
Kamala Harris determined that Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro was simply too Jewish for the Democrats. Despite having far more political benefits, Harris went with radical Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her Vice Presidential pick. Given the Democrats’ track record of throwing unpopular candidates over the side of the highway if they poll badly enough, let’s see if Walz, unlike Joe Biden, can actually make it to election day.
For a while, the betting markets called that Shapiro, Governor of Pennsylvania since 2023, would be the pick. Shapiro is seen as a popular moderate of a swing state that can turn the election for Kamala. Shapiro, readying himself for a prime-time spot in the Democratic Party, was doing everything he can to undo his past positions that are unpalatable to the Democrats’ voting base. In Shapiro’s case, that is his position on Israel.
After completing his undergraduate studies, Shapiro joined the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). He served as a volunteer in the Sar-El program. The Sar-El program is a volunteer program through which individuals from around the world assist the IDF with non-combat logistical and support tasks. Volunteers in this program typically help with activities such as maintenance, logistics, and supply chain tasks, which are crucial to supporting the daily operations of the military.
Shapiro likely lost to the Veepstakes when The Philadelphia Inquirer uncovered the essay that Shapiro wrote for his student newspaper in the 1990s. In the article, Shapiro said that “Palestinians will not peacefully coexist” because “they do not have the capabilities to establish their own homelands and make it successful even with the aid of Israel and the United States.”
“They are too battle-minded to be able to establish a peaceful homeland of their own,” Shapiro wrote, identifying himself as a “past volunteer in the Israeli army.” He referred to the Arab world as divided and “belligerent.”
Shapiro was correct when he wrote that. It was true then, and it’s true now. But now, the truth is too inconvenient for a politician like Shapiro to have, so he’s claiming that he was “young” and his position “evolved.”
“Since he wrote this piece as a 20-year-old student, Gov. Shapiro has built close, meaningful, informative relationships with many Muslim-American, Arab-American, Palestinian Christian, and Jewish community leaders all across Pennsylvania,” Shapiro’s spokesman Manuel Bonder told Fox News Digital in a statement.
“The Governor greatly values their perspectives and the experiences he has learned from over the years – and as a result, as with many issues, his views on the Middle East have evolved into the position he holds today,” Bonder continued.
Therein lies the problem with Shapiro’s candidacy as a Vice President. Since October 7, the Democrats’ already tenuous relationship with the Jewish state has been growing further apart as the chickens of the liberal mindset have come home to roost. For generations, Liberals have taught that all power struggles are determined by a matrix of oppressor vs. oppressed. It doesn’t matter what Hamas or Hezbollah does to Israeli citizens, because Israel is the oppressor and Palestinians are the oppressed. October 7 forced liberals to confront that lie, and too many of them did not see through it.
It’s been speculated for the better part of a year that the election may come down to Dearborn, Michigan, which is the largest Muslim community in the country and virulently anti-Israel. Joe Biden was so unpopular there that during the primary elections, 13% of the voters claimed they were “uncommitted” as a message to the Democrats.
Kamala Harris is now the Democratic Party candidate, not because she earned it through a democratic primary process, but because she made backroom deals with Party elites to throw Biden off the ticket and install herself at the top of it. She knows she cannot be too pro-Israel, because then she’ll lose Michigan and possibly Minnesota, another state with a large Muslim population. She also needs Pennsylvania, where Shapiro is popular. The political calculation coming from Harris, who is a master manipulator, is that she can still win Pennsylvania without Shapiro but cannot win Michigan with Shapiro.
So, Harris made a massive mistake and chose Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. Unlike Shapiro, who had some foibles but was mostly seen as moderate, Walz is a target-rich environment for Republican attacks. He oversaw massive riots in his state in 2020. He is apologetic to socialism, claiming that “One person’s socialism is another person’s neighborliness.” He is to the left of Harris on every issue, and that is a considerable statement, considering that Harris was declared the most leftist Senator during her short tenure in the US Senate. Democrats are literally doubling down on their radicalist base.
This is the state of the modern Democratic Party. They are not interested in moderates who will literally throw away their entire life belief system to bend fealty. They take those people for granted. They need the die-hard radicals to come out in droves, and so they double down on that. Independent and moderate voters should take note, as should Jewish ones.
