Three Cheers for Mark Levin

Mark Levin has had enough.

Newsmax (where, full disclosure, I am a contributor), whose founder Chris Ruddy appeared as did Mark at the recent Republican Jewish Coalition’s Annual Leadership Summit, headlined this of Mark’s speech at the RJC Summit: “Mark Levin Slams Tucker Carlson: ‘If You’re a Jew Hater, You’re a Christian Hater.’”

The story reports:

At the Republican Jewish Coalition’s Annual Leadership Summit in Las Vegas over the weekend, conservative commentator Mark Levin delivered an explosive defense of Israel, Christianity, and American values — declaring, “If you’re a Jew hater, you’re a Christian hater.”

Levin, the nationally syndicated radio host and author, used his fiery speech to confront what he called the “poison” of antisemitism spreading on both the left and parts of the right.”

…..

He named names — from Tucker Carlson to Nick Fuentes and others — accusing some in the conservative movement of betraying the principles of liberty and faith.”

I confess. This seems like such an obvious “no-brainer”  that at first glance one wonders about the need for any sensible American, let alone an American in the political party of Lincoln, Reagan, and Trump, to underline what Mark said.

But alas, as noted in some detail by Mark himself, there is a need to say this. Specifically, he went on to say: “You don’t get to claim you’re ‘America first’ while you line up with the Marxists, the Islamists, and Hamas. That’s not America first. That’s sick.”

Bad enough that the American Left was once (years ago) a citadel of Jewish support for the Democrat Party that placed the first Jew on a national ticket (Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, the 2000 running mate of Vice President Al Gore).

But a portion of that Jewish support for Democrats came because, in fact, Democrats were also staunchly supportive of Israel in the post-World War II era when Israel came into being. In fact, it was Democrat President Harry Truman who made support of the creation of Israel official U.S. policy.

Truman recounts his decision to support Israel in Volume One of his presidential memoirs. Truman wrote:

Now that the Jews were ready to proclaim the State of Israel, however, I decided to move at once and give American recognition to the new nation. I instructed a member of my staff to communicate my decision to the State Department and prepare it for transmission to Ambassador Austin at the United Nations in New York. About thirty minutes later, exactly eleven minutes after Israel had been proclaimed a state, Charlie Ross, my press secretary, handed the press the announcement of the de facto recognition by the United States of the provisional government of Israel.

With that, the United States and Israel were both friends and formal allies. And domestically, that meant the political support of a lot of American Jews for Democrats.

But in today’s political world, Democrat lack of support for Israel, not to mention the rise inside the Democrat Party of a zealous antisemitism, is a standard, if alarming, feature.

In today’s Israel, there is no doubt about the popularity of President Trump. Courtesy of Newsmax, I spent a week in Israel in August, and there was no doubt of the strong support for the president from Israelis. And no doubt either about the tight bond between the Republican American president and the Israeli prime minister.  Indeed, about the time of Trump’s first term, even The New York Times reflected that “President Trump’s treatment of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been nothing short of lavish.”

Indeed. And it still is.

But there is, beyond mere sentiment, a serious reason for the support of Israel by conservatives. The hard fact is that in that section of the world, the urge to fascism and dictatorship and a decided anti-American view of the world runs strong. Americans need little reminding that 9/11 was the result of fanatic Islamic extremists whose hatred of the Western world is so deep that anything — anything — that threatens America or, as mentioned, any other section of the Western world is seen as not simply acceptable but necessary.

And as Mark Levin also noted, there is a belief that there are some on the Republican side of the aisle, notably in the commentary section (as seen, he specifically named Tucker Carlson), who have tolerated antisemitism or endorsed it outright. A position that has, to say the least, nothing to do with conservatism.

Mark also went on, as the story reported, this way: “Levin called out what he described as cowardice within the conservative media world, saying, ‘We’re surrounded by cowards who have microphones, cameras, websites, and columns.’”

Suffice to say, in this column corner, there is no hesitation about speaking up in staunch support for Israel. Not to mention, as is true in this corner, of heading off to Israel for a week this past summer to personally see the facts on the ground in person and listen personally to Israeli officials from Prime Minister Netanyahu down the line to rank and file members of the Knesset and private Israeli citizens.

So.

Three cheers for Mark Levin. He is absolutely right to stand up for Israel and to take a very public note that antisemitism is not going to be tolerated in the party of Lincoln, Reagan, and Trump.

No matter where it originates.

READ MORE from Jeffrey Lord:

Newsom, Not Trump, Is Code Red for America

Trump Improves the White House East Wing

Trump the Builder Improves the White House

By mfnnews