For my entire adult life, I have identified with the liberals in the Democratic Party. 

This started becoming more difficult after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, when I noticed a shift in attitude. Suddenly (or maybe it wasn’t so sudden. Maybe I just didn’t notice it before) it was “conservative” to be pro-Israel. 

This meant that it also became “liberal” to be pro-Palestinian, and since the Palestinians have always been dedicated to the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people, I have a problem with that. 

The more die-hard liberal members of my family have been telling me I’m wrong, or exaggerating – that the Democrats have not turned on the Jews and on Israel, and I want to believe them. I really do. 

But I’m having an increasingly difficult time of it. 

First, there’s the revelation that former U.S. President Jimmy Carter (he of the vicious, swimming rabbit fame) is and evidently always has been, a practicing anti-Semite. 

There’s the problem with my own area congressman, a high-ranking, longtime Democrat who has fairly consistently voted in ways that would seem to indicate a pro-Palestinian/anti-Israel bent. 

And now, this week, an Arab-focused Web site called The Majlis reports that “U.S. congressman Brian Baird (D-Washington) told a group of Palestinian schoolchildren in Gaza (recently) that the United States should unilaterally send supplies through the Israeli blockade.” 

For those who have been living under a rock, Israel and Egypt imposed a blockade of Gaza – the coastal strip abandoned by Israel to the Palestinians a few years ago – when it was violently overtaken by the Islamo-Fascist Hamas terrorists. It is from Gaza that southern Israeli towns have been bombarded with rocket and mortar fire for nearly a decade – a situation that finally prompted last year’s military operation in Gaza. 

“We ought to bring roll-on, roll-off ships and roll them right to the beach and bring the relief supplies in, in our version of the Berlin airlift,” Baird reportedly said. 

The story notes that like many Democrats, having stuck their fingers in the air and sensed a foul political wind caused by an anti-Obama/Pelosi/Reid backlash, Baird has announced that he will not seek reelection this year. 

I wonder if Baird would have said what he did in Gaza out loud if he were seeking re-election. I wonder if others in similar professional straights are beginning to show their true colors now – now that they no longer have to keep up appearances. 

Baired also reportedly said that President Obama’s Middle East envoy George Mitchell, should visit Gaza “to get a firsthand look at the destruction caused by Israel’s military offensive last year,” the AP reported. 

He evidently did not suggesting a tour of the bomb craters in southern Israeli towns, or the hospitals and nursing homes where what’s left of the Palestinian suicide-mass murderers’ victims fight for some semblance of a normal life. Hmmm. 

On his own Web site, Baird says he condemns the constant rocket fire directed at Israeli cities and that “hate speech, calls for the destruction of Israel, and anti-Semitism must not be tolerated wherever it occurs.””And he insists that criticizing Israeli policy vis-a-vis reacting to violence directed against it from its enemies is not an indication of a desire to see Israel destroyed. 

And he probably believes that, but that’s just not the way it works in the real world, where a billion Arab/Muslims, not to mention God-knows-how-many Nazis, neo-Nazis, skinheads, Klansmen and whatnot, are actively working, or stand ready to accept the annihilation of Israel and the Jews. 

The Majlis Web site notes that “the United States could earn enormous respect in the Arab world if it broke the Israeli blockade to deliver humanitarian assistance to Gaza, but the chances of that actually happening are next to zero.”

Interesting, I think, by way of comparison, is a comment made by Rep. Mike Pence, a Republican from Indiana, during an interview on CBN — the Christian Broadcasting Network. 

In that interview, Pence said that while the United States wants to be fair in its treatment of the Middle East conflict, is interested in justice and compassion and “prays for the peace of Jerusalem,” we must always make it clear that we are unequivocally on Israel’s side.

I don’t know. If I can’t find a Democrat who feels that same way, I may have a real problem come the next election. 

 

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