OPINION:
Amid an air of antisemitism that has stunk up some of America’s most esteemed college campuses came a massive pro-Israel rally in Washington, D.C., that drew together Democrats and Republicans, far leftists and conservatives.
There hasn’t been this large a public show of bipartisanship between Dems and GOPers on Capitol Hill since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the U.S.
And that’s fitting, given the Oct. 7 terrorist attack by Hamas against the Jewish people has been called Israel’s own Sept. 11.
“We are here united, Democrat and Republican,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said, “to stand we stand with Israel.”
Schumer is Jewish — his family is Jewish, from western Ukraine — but he’s a Democrat who’s moved further and further left, ideologically speaking, as his political career has progressed.
He once served as a moderate in the House, then ran for the Senate as a “law-and-order Democrat” with a tougher record fighting crime than the Republican Sen. Al D’Amato he tried to beat. Fast-forward to May 2023, and The Heritage Foundation ran this headline: “Schumer on Cusp of Defunding D.C. Police Department as Crime Explodes.”
The analysis went on to suggest that “when you hear Schumer and other politicians talk about how they take crime, especially violent crime, seriously, watch what they do, not what they say,” and explain how Schumer, as Senate majority leader, did nothing to reject a crime and justice reform bill that would have partially defunded D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department.
From tough on crime too soft on crime.
That’s not the only hard left turn Schumer has taken over the years.
“Chuck Schumer isn’t an ‘angry centrist’ anymore,” Politico reported in August of 2020. “On the verge of seizing the Senate, the New York Democrat explains why he’s moved to the left.”
He pointed to his constituency and the changing concerns of the people he represents.
“Schumer said his priorities … include many of the top issues favored by progressives: ‘income and wealth inequality, climate [change], racial justice, health care, and improving our democracy,’ along with the ongoing response to the economic and health-related fallout from the coronavirus pandemic,” Politico wrote, in the 2020 piece.
Yes. He’s been one of the progressive-slash-socialist-slash-Marxist’s best friends in the Senate, running roughshod over the Constitution and individual liberties; doing the bidding of the likes of the Barack Obama band of anti-American forces that have swept into the halls of political power in recent years; standing strong for Deep State rule over MAGA and America First principles and doing everything he could to incite anger against conservatives, against Supreme Court justices, against Donald Trump, against pro-lifers and pro-American patriots.
But after October’s terror attack on Israel, he got one right.
He called out the evil of Hamas — using that exact word, “evil” — and reminded of the long-running, never-ending alliance between America and Israel.
“There are no words for the horror that happened one month ago in Israel, the most Jews killed in a single day since the Holocaust,” Schumer said during the D.C. rally that included the attendance of tens of thousands from all over the country.
“When antisemitism rears its ugly head, if it’s not dealt with forcefully and directly, it grows into a deadly force,” Schumer said.
“History reminds us also of one thing that even in its darkest days, the United States has always stood with Israel, and we will do everything to see that that never, ever changes,” Schumer said.
“Let us not forget my friends the evils of Hamas. When Hamas says from the river to the sea, they mean all of present-day Israel should be a Jewish-free land,” Schumer said.
“Never, never, never will we forget the evil of Hamas. Never again,” Schumer said.
When evil surfaces, politics and partisanship rightfully recede.
It’s a hopeful note for America, for Israel, for all that’s still good in the world to see that even Democrats, some Democrats, given the right circumstances, will still speak out against evil, as well.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.
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