I’ve followed politics closely for decades, and I must say, Brad Lander has a truly unique campaign strategy for the homestretch. Rather than pounding the pavement of his district or holding local rallies, he traveled to the West Bank, a place not exactly packed with his constituents, to pick olives and accuse Jews of ethnic cleansing.
A pure PR stunt as a closing argument. I would say bold move, except there is nothing bold about pretending to be arrested on a comfortable coach bus, and certainly nothing virtuous about a made-for-social-media stunt that doesn’t help a single Palestinian.
Bashing Israel and trying to make himself look like the “good Jew” to gain the acceptance of antisemites is par for the course for Mr. Lander, but he seems to be upping his game.
Bear-hugging Zohran Mamdani, even when he hammers Jews exercising their free-speech rights as monsters, at a rally to boost Lander’s own campaign, and making common cause with fellow presumptive anti-Israel member of Congress Darializa Avila Chevalier, just wasn’t enough. Now, he’s taking his absurd accusations international.
What was Mr. Lander even hoping to gain from this week’s actions and rhetoric? This is someone who already joined the anti-Israel crowd in opposing all aid to Israel. Astonishingly, for someone who claims to care about innocent civilians, this includes funding for the purely defensive Iron Dome. He accused Israel of a potential genocide in Lebanon while speaking at a mosque and called for a coalition with anti-Zionists.
Sadly, this is nothing new for Jews throughout history. Anti-Jewish voices among the Jewish people have often been the very most dangerous voices at the most perilous of times. Mr. Lander’s actions, as he sits on the precipice of increased political power, make him an influential link in that horrific chain.
Every time it appears he’s gone far enough, he’s mugged by the reality that nothing is far enough. Yet, despite all evidence to the contrary, the lesson he seems to draw is that it’ll get better if he keeps going further against Israel, keeps going further in making Jewish Americans feel less safe. After everything he’s said and done to distance himself from Israel, he was still publicly berated as a “Zionist.” His response? To minimize the incident as a few loudmouths and then double down on falsely accusing Israel of genocide and apartheid.
It seems Mr. Lander is having a hard time understanding what’s at play here, so I’ll lay it out clearly: No matter how much he turns on Israel and the Jewish people, there is no hechsher strict or pure enough for the mob.
Winston Churchill famously said, “(a)n appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.” If anyone should understand the danger of appeasement of those who hate them, it’s the Jewish people. And it is crucially important that Jews entrusted with senior positions of influence understand and internalize the reality of history and its lessons for the present. Does Mr. Lander believe he will somehow be the first to ever tame the crocodile? History says otherwise.
In Congress, Mr. Lander will have a choice that will go beyond his own ambitions and personal antipathy to the Jewish national project: he can use his Jewishness as a shield for the worst anti-Israel voices among his new colleagues and a cudgel against his own community, or he can stand with his community. So far, every choice he has made points in the same problematic direction.
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© Divuach Ne’eman R”A, 2025
