If Israel is looking for a friend in its hour of need, it better look elsewhere.
It certainly will not find one among the nine members of the U.S. House from Massachusetts, all Democrats, who voted to strip Israel of $3.3 billion in military and humanitarian aid a week ago.
The aid bill passed but not before 104 Democrats voted to halt the aid, fueling the growing anti-Israel sentiment — with tinges of antisemitism — among Democrats.
The message to Israel was simple: If you want a friend, get a dog.
These Democrats are practically elbowing one another aside to appease the radicals of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) whose platform calls for an end to any kind of support -— military, financial, you name it — to Israel, along with the prosecution of its leaders for alleged genocide in Gaza. If it’s for Israel, the DSA’s against it.
Israel is not only the U.S.’s strongest ally in the Middle East, and the only democracy there, but given NATO’s lack of support for the Iran War, it is America’s strongest ally in the world.
The aid bill passed but without the support from any Democrats from Massachusetts, a state once considered a strong supporter and economic partner of the Jewish state.
Given the role Israel has played in stopping the radical Islamist zealots from obtaining a nuclear arsenal, one would think that grateful Democrats would give Israel $6 million instead of just $3 million.
The gutless leaders of the Democratic Party are so frightened by the radical socialist takeover of the party and the thrashing of its traditional values that they are willing to sell Israel down the river to make sure they are not next on the DSA hit list.
In a display of good cop, bad cop, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries voted for the aid while Rep. Katherine Clark, the minority whip and second in command, voted to kill the assistance package.
Clark, from Revere, is also the leader of the Massachusetts delegation to the U.S. House. She, like Jeffries has benefited from generous campaign contributions from the lobbyist group AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
Voting with Clark to strip Israel of the $3 billion in aid were fellow Massachusetts Reps. Richard Neal of Springfield, James McGovern, the leftist looney from Worcester, Lori Trahan of Westford, Jake Auchincloss of Newton, Seth Moulton of Salem, Ayanna Pressley of Boston, Stephen Lynch of South Boston, and William Keating of Bourne.
While Clark said she supported Israel’s “right to exist” and “the right” to defend itself, “We should not provide a blank check or military aid to any country that does not comply with U.S. law. interests and values. The Netanyahu government has failed to meet that standard.”
She called for more aid to Gaza, the halting of construction of settlements in the West Bank and upholding the rights of the Palestinian people.
Rep. Trahan, also a recipient of generous AIPAC campaign contributions, echoed Clark. Trahan agreed that Israel had a right to exist, but that Netanyahu “has used American assistance funding to carry out atrocities in Gaza, embolden violent settlers in the West Bank and continue indiscriminate bombing in Lebanon.”
Other than that, the Israelis were okay.
Rep. Auchincloss, the only Jew in the delegation, who also has taken AIPAC money, said it was all a matter of trust.
He said, “With their disastrous war against Iran, their empowerment of settler violence in the West Bank, and their strategic incoherence against Islamist terrorism, both President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu sacrificed that trust. Congress must act when the executives have failed.”
So long Israel, it was good to have known you.
Peter Lucas can be reached at peter.lucas@bostonherald.com
A woman holds up her hands, painted red to symbolize blood with the words in Hebrew “we will not forget” during a protest marking 1,000 days since the Oct. 7 2003 Hamas-led attack on Israel, outside the prime minister residence in Jerusalem, earlier this month. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)