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World

30 | DECEMBER 26 • 2019 

ISRAEL AS DIVIDER
This year saw serious cracks in what has long been a cherished fea-
ture of the U.S.-Israel relationship: bipartisanship.
In February, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., came under fire for 
a series of controversial tweets, including one charging — false-
ly — that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) 
pays politicians to be pro-Israel. Omar drew quick rebukes from 
leading Democrats and subsequently apologized. The following 
month, President Donald Trump piled on, calling the Democrats 
the “anti-Jewish” party. In August, Trump upped the ante, saying 
that anyone who voted for a Democrat was guilty of “disloyalty,
” a 
comment that drew condemnation from critics who said it evoked 
classic anti-Semitic tropes.
Meanwhile, Democratic politicians were trending leftward on 
Israel, with several of the leading candidates for the presidential 
nomination saying they were prepared to use American aid as 
leverage to pressure Israel. The shifting center of gravity on Israel 
prompted pushback from the party’
s so-called moderate wing 
and prompted the creation of a new organization, the Democratic 
Majority for Israel, dedicated to cultivating support for the Jewish 
state in the party.
With a sure-to-be-nasty presidential election looming in 2020, 
both sides were preparing to spend heavily on the Israel issue. The 
Republican Jewish Coalition announced a $10 million ad campaign 
painting the Democrats as a shanda — Yiddish for “disgrace” — in 
part because of their position on Israel. Democratic 
groups pushed back with an ad blitz of their own.

BRITISH JEWS UNNERVED 
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected 
to pursue an anti-BDS agenda after winning last 
week’
s general election.
Johnson’
s Conservatives handily defeated the 
opposition Labour Party led by Jeremy Corbyn. 
Corbyn, a fierce critic of Israel, had promised to 
recognize Palestine and cease arms sales to Israel if 
elected.
Concern over Corbyn reached a fever pitch 
in the months prior to the Dec. 12 vote. In early 
November, Britain’
s oldest Jewish newspaper, the 
Jewish Chronicle, published a front-page editori-
al pleading with Britons not to support Corbyn, 
noting a recent poll suggesting that approximately 
half of Jews would consider emigrating if he were 
elected. Weeks later, in an unprecedented interven-
tion, British Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis wrote of 
British Jewry’
s justified anxiety at the prospect of a 
Corbyn premiership in a Times of London op-ed, 
warning that “the very soul of our nation is at stake.
”
Corbyn, who once defended a London mural showing bank-
ers playing monopoly on the backs of dark-skinned people that 
was widely seen as anti-Semitic, said Zionists have “no sense of 

TOP: Rep. Ilhan Omar seen outside the 
Capitol Hill building, Sept. 12, 2019. 
BOTTOM: Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn 
speaks at the University of Lancaster 
in England, Nov. 15, 2019. 

 AURORA SAMPERIO/NURPHOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES

ANTHONY DEVLIN/GETTY IMAGES