Since the GOP mega-donor began funding academic projects run by those hostile to Israel, Jewish Democrats hope to leverage stigma into an attack on Republicans who take Koch money
WASHINGTON — With the 2018 mid-term elections approaching, Jewish Democrats are scrutinizing Republican vulnerabilities with Jewish constituencies throughout the United States. At a time when 77 percent of American Jews disapprove of US President Donald Trump, that might not be so hard. But they think they’ve found a new line of attack.
Tablet Magazine recently revealed that the Charles Koch Institute, the policy wing of the industrial tycoon who is known for his massive donations to conservative and libertarian causes, is now giving $3.7 million over five years to a joint Harvard-MIT project led by someone notoriously hostile toward Israel.
The Grand Strategy, Security, and Statecraft Fellows Program is led by Barry Rosen, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology political scientist, and Stephen Walt, a Harvard University political scientist. The initiative will grant graduates a post-doctoral fellowship to pursue their research.
Walt is best known for a book he co-authored with John Mearsheimer, “The Israel Lobby.” Upon its 2007 publication, the book was highly controversial for its contention that the pro-Israel and Jewish lobbies work to steer US foreign policy toward Israel’s interests and away from America’s.
Critics cast it as seething with anti-Semitic resentment for Jewish political enfranchisement and inflating the influence of organizations like AIPAC and the Anti-Defamation League on US foreign-policy makers.
Now that that one of the Koch brothers — who own Koch Industries, the second-largest privately-owned company in the US and who give hundreds of millions of dollars to GOP candidates every election year — is teaming with Walt, mainstream Jewish Democrats think the association could hurt Republicans who take money from the Kochs. (The two brothers plan to spend more than $400 million in 2018.)
In short, these Democrats think they can attack Republicans who take money from the Kochs the same way conservatives slam Democrats who take money from George Soros. The Holocaust-survivor billionaire gives generously to liberal causes, including NGOs that are critical of Israeli policies, some of which support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel.
“A lot of Republicans get donations from Koch brothers right now and the Republican Party is still fervently pro-Israel,” said Ron Halber, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington. “Obviously, it’s not making an impact.”
Virtually all GOP elected officials in the nation’s capitol are firmly, some would say unconditionally, supportive of Israel and US President Donald Trump’s policies toward the country. Since taking office, Trump has gone where none of his predecessors would — recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving the US embassy there from Tel Aviv. He also followed the lead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal.
One leader of a DC Jewish organization thinks that most of the Republicans who take money from the Kochs clearly understand their isolationist inclinations, but are unaware of their recent relationships with academics whose output is anathema to the pro-Israel community and traditional GOP foreign-policy thinking.
“I was shocked to learn that the Kochs would be funding such extreme anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, in some cases anti-Semitic, work under the guise of academia,” said Josh Block, who heads the Israel Project.
“I would imagine that governors and senators and other mainstream Republicans would be similarly shocked to learn that the Kochs are spending their money to undermine and isolate America’s closest ally in the Middle East and the only Jewish state in the world. I would hope they would object to that and express quite clearly that they expect them to end that kind of work or reconsider their association,” said Block.
Yet there are even non-Democrats who think that, if tactically implemented, an attack campaign against candidates in districts with large Jewish and pro-Israel constituencies who accept Koch money could be effective.
“If I were a candidate in a close race and my opponent was taking a lot of money from someone close to people part of the movement to destroy Israel, people expressing ideas that are offensive to Jews and the vast majority of Americans who believe in a strong US-Israel relationship, you can be sure I would use it in my campaign,” said one leader of an American Jewish group.
“At a minimum, it becomes a distraction for candidates who have to distance themselves from something like that — or then go out and assert their own bona fides in order to inoculate themselves from these attacks.”
Klein recognizes that Israel might not be the number one priority for the Koch brothers, who are known more for their interest in domestic policy. But their libertarian bent has driven them to advocate that the United States keep away from the political affairs of other parts of the world.
“It’s an isolationist policy that Israel gets drawn into,” Klein said. “And for those of us who support Israel, isolationist policies don’t work well.”
As reported by The Times of Israel