DEMOCRATS FOR ISRAEL CALIFORNIA CONDEMNS GOP CONTROLLER CANDIDATE LANHEE CHEN’S 2016 WALL STREET JOURNAL OP-ED FOR REPEATING TRUMP-STYLE ANTISEMITIC TROPES 

Los Angeles, CA October 24, 2022. Democrats for Israel California, the California Democratic Party chartered voice of the Jewish community to the California Democratic Party called out GOP Candidate Lanhee Chen for using antisemitic tropes in a co-written 2016 Wall Street Journal op-ed criticizing “progressive proselyting” for why Jews and Asians vote Democratic titled “The Mystery of Jewish and Asian-American Democratic Loyalty.”

The article, co-written with former Bush Deputy HHS Secretary Devi Troy, encourages young voters to vote Republican, stated that because Jews and Asians make more money they should vote Republican and then repeats the falsehood that only the Republican party supports Israel, arguing that for both selfish economic reasons and out of a loyalty to Israel, young Jews and Asian-Americans should vote Republican and would do so but for the “proselyting” of teaches and academics, following a recent trend of anti-intellectualism in the Republican party.

DFI-CA President Andrew Lachman made the following statement:

“It is ant-semitic to imply that the American Jewish community is part of some economic elite.  There are large segments of both the Jewish and Asian-American community that experience poverty and they both share a long history of experiencing discrimination that Chen seems to have forgotten such as the educational quotas and immigration restrictions in place well into the 1960s.

Notwithstanding the fact that Democrats continue to overwhelmingly support the democratic Jewish state of Israel, for Chen to imply that American Jews should forfeit their duty as American citizens to uphold their values because of Israel is very similar to former President Trumps recent claims that the American Jewish should hold a greater loyalty to Israel than their support for the American democracy he and his supporters tried to overthrow on January 6, 2021. Both Asian Americans and Jewish Americans are frequently targets of the dual loyalty trope and for these two to play right into the same arguments shows how the Republican party set the table for the white supremacy of Charlottesville a long time ago. 

It is because Republicans like Trump and Chen do not share the same values as American Jews that they vote Democratic, as 75% of them did in 2020.  In light of the rise in antisemitism and anti-Asian violence under the most recent Republican administrations, we call on Chen to apologize for this article and the insulting implication that young voters are not capable of critical thought.”

In the June 15, 2016, Wall Street Journal op-ed, Troy and Chen criticized Jews for supporting Obama, noting that “78% backed Barack Obama in 2008, and 70% did in 2012, and then falsely claiming that this took place “despite a foreign policy that at best could be described as rough on Israel.”   The op-ed also implies that Jews are “disproportionately represented” at elite schools and blames academic influences at these schools for why young Jewish (and Asian) voters despite “socioeconomic factors that might suggest greater support for conservative causes and candidates.”  The only “socio-economic factor mentioned in the op-ed, is the claim that Jewish and Asian-Americans have higher incomes.  The op-ed’s closing paragraphs imply that money (and Israel) should be the only reasons to vote Republican with the ominous warning “…it’s not too soon for Jewish and Asian freshmen to start thinking about where their long-term interests lie.” 

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Source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-mystery-of-jewish-and-asian-american-democratic-loyalty-1465943377  (full reprint from Hudson Institute - https://www.hudson.org/domestic-policy/the-mystery-of-jewish-and-asian-american-democratic-loyalty)