Dennis Prager, Alan Dershowitz, and My View on Democrats and Jews

Dennis Prager has this piece in which he points out Alan Dershowitz impassioned defense of Israel and then asks Dershowitz why then he is a Democrat.

But in another regard he is even rarer. He regards himself as a man of the left, yet on one of the defining moral issues of our time, attitudes toward Israel, he has nothing in common with the left. He is not only one of Israel’s staunchest supporters, he spends much of his time defending Israel. He has written innumerable articles and four books defending Israel: “The Case against Israel's Enemies: Exposing Jimmy Carter and Others Who Stand in the Way of Peace,” “The Case for Peace: How the Arab-Israeli Conflict Can Be Resolved,” “The Case for Israel,” and “What Israel Means to Me: By 80 Prominent Writers, Performers, Scholars, Politicians, and Journalists.”

Given that Israel’s security is so important to you, given that you believe that the ability to morally distinguish between Israel and its enemies is tantamount to the ability to distinguish between good and evil, and given that those who condemn Israel for its “disproportionate” response to Hamas terror-rockets are almost all on the left in America and Europe, why do you continue to identify yourself as a man of the left?

Everyone who thinks sometimes differs with one’s ideological compatriots. But when one’s ideological compatriots are morally wrong on the greatest moral issue of the moment and perhaps the very clearest as well, don’t you at least suffer from cognitive dissonance?

Now, Prager calls Dershowitz' dual positions on Israel and as a member of the Democratic Party cognitive dissonance. It really is not. I have already written about this phenomenon. The reality is that while Dershowitz is an impassioned defender of Israel it is not his single most important issue. For Dershowitz, like many Jews, Israel takes a back seat to the issue of abortion.

Dershowitz is a microcosm of the Jewish vote in general. His case maybe even more extreme than most. Here is an individual who doesn't merely find the issue of Israel important. In fact, it is so important that it is an issue that he often debates, writes columns about, and even dedicates full books. Yet, it is an issue upon which he can forgive a politician or even a whole party for. In fact, even an impassioned defender of Israel like Dershowitz finds the issue of abortion more significant than the issue of Israel.

So, to Dennis Prager I say the reason that Dershowitz continues to be a Democrat is because no matter how important Israel may appear to be to Dershowitz it is not nearly as important as the issue of abortion. That is in fact the general view of most Jewish voters.