We are taught that the Torah is like black fire written on white fire. From this we learn to be conscious of the meaning found in not only what is said, but what is left unsaid. To attain understanding, we must be attentive to both context and subtext, not only in Scripture, but in all matters.
If politics is anything, it is the art of using context and subtext to signal messages while saying as little as possible. If they could, politicians would never say anything directly at all. They prefer leaving voters to try to divine meaning from the context and subtext of political posturing while politicians themselves hope their messages are sufficiently vague to ensure that everyone thinks they heard what they wanted to hear.
The Democratic National Convention was a master course in how this is done. From the “we love you Joe” chants by the people who forced him into retirement to the rave format of the ceremonial roll-call vote, complete with DJ, the spectacle of the convention obscured from view almost anything that might stink of policy. The sole objective was to explain that Kamala Harris is not Donald Trump and to unite the party behind that single fact.
Within this context of a political pep rally, those of us who are deeply concerned about the trajectory of the Democratic party toward Israel and the Jewish community are forced to closely examine important pieces of subtext in the proceedings.
The most notable of which has been the underwhelming anti-Israel protests taking place outside the convention hall.
That these protesters remain outside tells us something vital about the extent of their influence while inside the party adopted a platform stating, “President Biden and Vice-President Harris believe a strong, secure, and democratic Israel is vital to the interests of the United States. Their commitment to Israel’s security, its qualitative military edge, its right to defend itself, and the 2016 Memorandum of Understanding is ironclad.”
Party platforms ultimately have little to do with governing, but it is an important bit of signaling that the policies of a prospective Harris Administration are unlikely to deviate substantially from her Democratic predecessors, for now.
While that bit of subtext is encouraging, it was not all puppies and rainbows for Jews at the DNC. The Uncommitted delegation was inside the hall and unfurled an anti-Israel banner although it was obscured by other signs, preventing it from disrupting the feel-good parts of the show. No word uttered by any speaker has been cheered more than the word “ceasefire” except possibly the words “aid to Gaza.”
Most concerning though was Joe Biden’s gaffe during his speech in which he said that the protesters outside have “a point.”
The context of that statement is crucial, spoken by the sitting President inside the convention hall during what might be the last monumental speech of his political career.
What on Earth he meant by it is harder to understand. Surely, he was trying to say that people who care about the lives of Palestinians as human beings are making a valid statement, but intentionally mischaracterizing the protests to try to appease the anti-Israel elements of the party is a dangerous game.
That Biden said this might be dismissed as old-age ramblings given that such ramblings are the reason he is being dismissed from his job. Unfortunately, he was merely echoing comments by Vice-President Harris before the convention when she said that protesters are “showing what the human emotion should be.”
Taken together, these comments are deeply troubling because the “point” of the protesters is genocide, and their “human emotion” is hatred.
While the President and Vice-President sought to contextualize the meaning of the protests, the subtext of what was actually going on among the protests tells a different story.
The BBC carried a story (Aug. 19), in which it briefly profiled a Colorado Springs woman, Karyna Lemus, beneath a photo, presumably of Lemus, carrying a sign saying “Globalize The Intifada” bracketed by two red triangles. The red triangle has become known as a Hamas symbol used to mark intended targets.
That Hamas chose the red triangle is hardly an accident.
The red triangle was also the badge that the Nazis forced political prisoners to wear in concentration camps. That the symbolism would be immediately apparent to Jews in Israel while non-Jews might not be conscious of its history, is undoubtedly a purposeful warning of the coming of a new Holocaust.
That the President and Vice-President would gloss over this to telegraph a welcoming political message to its anti-Israel flank is terrifying.
At the same time, we should be careful to avoid ascribing intentionality to actions where naivete is equally plausible. It should be remembered that back in 2022, Harris created a stir by serving wine at a Passover seder from the P’sagot Winery. The seder itself was a signal about diversity reaching the Naval Observatory, but the wine conveyed a different message.
The winery sits just under eight miles from Jerusalem on the other side of the Green Line. Thus, the wine is quite literally the Arab-Israeli conflict in a bottle.
Situated in the ancient Land of Israel, P’sagot Winery is in a settlement, the presumptive archenemy of the two-state solution. The wine’s symbolism was not lost on Israel’s adversaries even while Harris contended the drink was not political. Unfortunately for her, subtext is inescapable in politics, even if the subtext is ignorance.
In sum, the DNC has done its best to be a white fire spectacle. The little that has been said suggests that a change of course in policy toward Israel in the near term is unlikely.
At the same time, worrying statements indicate a change in messaging is being workshopped that threatens to normalize a murderous ideology by pretending its advocates do not actually mean what they say.
The vast amount left unsaid suggests the Democratic nominee wants you to believe what you want to believe as long as you know she’s not Donald Trump.