No I Didn’t Vote

No, I didn’t vote in these United States elections, but I did suffer through them like everybody else. And I fear for the US, a country which has been relatively kind and hospitable to the Jewish people.

I don’t vote because as I wrote back in July, I didn’t want to find myself caught between a liberalism flirting with anarchy, and a Christian conservatism that’s alien to me. I, like many Jews holding US citizenship, am no longer sure where to place myself on a two-dimensional political spectrum that’s becoming exceedingly extreme.

As a Jew and an Israeli, I found the kind of partisan urgency among rabbis and leading national camp figures to be both unsettling and humiliating. Entangling ourselves spiritually and politically in US domestic concerns didn’t feel right and brought back disturbing memories of Washington’s interference (bulldozing?) in our affairs.

I pray too. But I wasn’t blowing any shofar, nor did I prophetically bestow the status of a Cyrus, Aḥashverosh, or the Messiah on the US president. Joe Biden doesn’t rate as Amalek or Haman either. I do grounded, normative prayers, such as praying that governments be wise and decree favorable laws, and that we as a people not be forced to rely on others or upon another nation… you know, that kind of stuff.

Yes, there was no denying that President Donald Trump had Israel’s back-side, kept promises and slam-dunked diplomatic gestures with great haste – especially in the days leading up to these elections. But having lived through the agony and the ecstasy of the Madrid conference, various wars, the Oslo Accords, terrorist uprisings, the Gaza Disengagement, et
al., I’ll cautiously reserve judgement and wait for a little history to run its course. And I’m hoping for the good.

The bottom line is that Israel needs to roll with the punches and come out on top regardless of who sits in the Oval office. Hundreds of millions of christ-centered evangelicals cannot stand-in for disenfranchised Jews. It’s simply not their place. So when a close pro-Trump relative sent me a picture of an American flag atop the Temple Mount with the slogan “Trump Towers,” I cringed… no… I trembled.

Israel, we have work to do. But we perform very well under pressure – especially when the odds are against us.

So mourn for a week if you must, but then stand up, dust yourself off and extricate yourself from all of that “Judeo-Christian” refuse. You really don’t wear it very well, and we desperately need to get back to ourselves.