Courtesy of JNS. Photo credit: Mike Wagenheim
(Seated, from left) The Democrat strategist and pollster Mark Mellman, “Newsweek” opinion editor Batya Ungar-Sargon (moderator) and Republican pollster Frank Luntz at the Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly in Washington, D.C., Nov. 11, 2024
(JNS) — A Monday panel titled “Political Shifts and the Jewish Vote: Analyzing Election Results and Their Impact” at the Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly, held at a Washington hotel less than a mile from the White House, drew unusual debate between panelists and audible audience gasps.
Batya Ungar-Sargon, the Newsweek opinion editor and book author, moderated a conversation between Mark Mellman, who runs an eponymous consulting and polling firm and is founder and president of Democratic Majority for Israel, and Frank Luntz, a Republican consultant and pollster, known in large part for his Fox News focus groups.
Asked why the Jewish vote appeared to move to the right, after decades during which many took Jewish support for granted in the Democratic Party, Luntz cast the party as antisemitic.
“I assure you, this may be a party you have supported, but this party did not support you,” he said. “The Democrats have been turning against the Jewish community and against Israel now for at least 15 years.”
During the session, Luntz, who like the other two panelists is Jewish, said on several occasions that he regretted having not spoken out more about Jew-hatred on the left over the years.
“I was finding that we had a problem and we stuck our heads in the sand, or we allowed people to politicize it by saying, ‘You can’t target Democrats,’” he said. “Well, you know what? It was a problem with the Democratic Party, and it continues to be a problem.”
“All you have to do is go to Michigan to see it. Go to Columbia and NYU and my school of USC, which I quit because I got fed up with them doing nothing to stop it,” he said of Columbia University, New York University and the University of Southern California.
“I’m not going to do that anymore,” he said of remaining silent.
Mellman said on several occasions that Jew-hatred exists on the political right, and that the Democratic Party was not only far from irredeemable as far as Jews are concerned, but that it had taken steps to root out politicians who are antisemitic. The right has not done that, he said.
“We had a fight over whether Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush were going to remain in Congress, and we beat them, and we’re going to beat more of those folks,” Mellman said.
The New York and Missouri representatives, respectively, who are part of the so-called “Squad” of anti-Israel progressives, were both ousted in their primaries this year.
“We have to make it clear to people that being pro-Israel is morally right, is the correct position,” Mellman said.
Mellan took issue with an interruption from an audience member, who reacted to Luntz’s rhetorical question about why Vice President Kamala Harris did not select Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish and pro-Israel, as her running mate. Many analysts have said that the decision responded to Jew-hatred in the Democratic Party, and the audience member said, “because he’s Jewish.”
“How the heck do you know that?” Mellman said, raising his voice. “Were you present in the room? Were you part of the discussion? Do you know what the considerations were? No. You have an opinion and a strongly held opinion, but it is not based on any single fact at all.”
Mellman noted that Shapiro has said publicly that he and Harris didn’t see eye-to-eye on certain issues.
The Democratic consultant added that the voices of many in the room — that Jew-hatred is rampant in the party — are out of step with most Americans, as Mellman said a forthcoming poll will show. He also said, after informally polling the room, that many believe based on skewed coverage in the news that Muslims make up a much larger percentage of Michigan voters than that demographic actually represents.
Ungar-Sargon asked Mellman whether it is a problem for Democrats that a large percentage of American Jews see antisemitism as a major issue on the left.
Mellman disagreed with the premise of the question.
“That is not the perception that most Jews have. You all, who believe that, are out of touch with the majority of Jews,” he said. “Most Jews do not think that there is a primary antisemitic thrust from the left and not from the right.”
That comment elicited some gasps and groans from the audience. Mellman said that a forthcoming poll, which he said would be released this week, backs up his statement. “You aren’t the majority of people. The reality is you’re just wrong,” he said.
Luntz spent much of his speaking time encouraging audience members to use language that he said he had poll-tested to shape their debates and conversations. He tried to run through a full slide presentation but was asked to wait until the end of the session. As time ran out, he scrolled through his slides — which he asked the audience not to share on social media, as he said it would be fuel for anti-Israel critics — often as Mark Mellman was talking.
“I think the Federation owes Mark a huge apology. I say that as someone who endorsed Trump and disagree with him very strongly on politics,” Ungar-Sargon told JNS on Wednesday.
Luntz told the audience that the word “Zionist” that “young people like to say on college campuses is harmful and is going to get them beaten up.” He added, “I know that so many of you want to recapture that word but now is not the time, and this is not the environment.”
He suggested using other words in the context of debate, especially on Israel, including “equality.” The vast majority of those taking part in antisemitic activity, especially college students, don’t realize why it is antisemitic in the first place, he said.
“I will challenge the communication that’s coming out of Israel because they keep talking about Western society, Western values, Western civilization,” Luntz said. “That is not what the American people respond to.”
Instead, he urged turning to “the ‘H’ words, not the ‘W’ words.” That includes “humanity, human rights, humanitarian and inhumane,” he said.
“This is language that’s a little bit left of center, but it reaches everybody. But instead of promoting Western civilization, you promote human rights and a humanitarian approach,” Luntz said. “It’s one thing to say to condemn antisemitism. It’s another thing to do it effectively and efficiently, and that’s what this is about.”
