’Tis the season when Conservative Inc. celebrities compete for the honor of being the most militant Israeli nationalist. Commentary veteran Ruth Wisse has just reissued her book on “the liberal betrayal of the Jews,” while neocon heroines Bari Weiss  (the CBS news boss who describes herself as a “Zionist fanatic”) and columnist Batya Ungar-Sargon are steamed about the way the left has betrayed American Jews—who, I’m supposed to think, have had nothing to do with this historic development.

Apparently, everything was going just fine as the country was moving leftward on social and cultural issues, and even some economic ones, but stood foursquare, no matter what, behind Israel. At some point, however, the left’s stand on Middle Eastern politics fell into line with its pro-Third World, anti-Western orientation. And from what I have learned, 43 percent of New York Jews back Mayor Zohran Mamdani because, unlike Democratic members of AIPAC, these Jews are consistent in their leftist convictions.

A recent editorial in a paper some people believe is a model of conservative commentary, The New York Post, urges Michiganders, to save the Democratic Party by voting for Haley Stevens. The reason this Murdoch-owned daily is pulling out all stops for Stevens is that her primary opponent for the Democratic nomination for U.S. senator, Abdul El-Sayed, is a vocally pro-Palestinian, anti-Israeli candidate. Opting for Stevens would be painful for me because, among other reasons, she’s among the dumbest politicians I’ve ever heard. Although (Heaven knows!) I don’t agree with most of what El Sayed advocates, this Rhodes scholar and trained physician seems to enjoy a cognitive advantage of at least two standard deviations in relation to his dumpy half-wit opponent.

One need only to listen to Stevens speak to grasp her insipid mediocrity and to sympathize with the husband from whom she received a divorce after one year of unhappy marriage. Don’t trust the algorithms on your computer, which are shamelessly pro-Democrat, and look her up! One soundbite should be proof enough of her inability to frame a coherent sentence. She makes Jasmine Crockett sound like Demosthenes.    

Stevens’s opponent has complained that Michigan’s (very woke) Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, has been bundling huge sums of money and sending it to Stevens. Since Stevens has made a key issue of this campaign her unqualified support for the Israeli government, El-Sayed’s charge seems entirely plausible. AIPAC has made it a priority to support Stevens, which is consistent with its long-established policy (praised by the New York Post) of backing financially, and with votes, pro-Israeli Democrats against the other kind of Democrats.

In full disclosure, I couldn’t ever bring myself to vote for either candidate in the Michigan race, since both back all the usual LGBTQ shlock and, aside from their differences about Israel, seem equally insane on most issues. But, if asked to choose one or the other based on intelligence and presentability, I would vote for El-Sayed hands down.

What seems to me more important in terms of our general political situation is precisely and unsurprisingly what the New York Post entirely ignores. Getting the Republican candidate, Mike Rogers, across the finish line this time (he missed in a close election two years ago) is imperative if we wish to preclude the possibility of a Democratic takeover of the U.S. Senate.

Of the two Democratic candidates for that office, Rogers believes El-Sayed will be the easier to beat. Since I wouldn’t care to have the woke, insurrectionary Democrats running either house of Congress, but would especially dislike them controlling the Senate, I would rather have Rogers run against the weaker, but more intelligent and presentable, of the two Democratic contenders for the Senate nomination.

I also wouldn’t put it past AIPAC to flood Stevens with funds, since she represents their one overriding geopolitical concern. But I’ve no idea why someone on the genuine right would ever want to “save” the Democratic Party in Michigan—even the Democratic Party as it existed just before it reached its present degree of insanity. Speaking for myself, I’d be happy if that party went the way of the dinosaur.

I must also ask myself why the Democrats would follow the advice of a Republican, if not impeccably conservative, national newspaper on how it should save itself, apparently by nominating strongly pro-Israel candidates. Most registered Democrats oppose American support for Israel, and a few weeks ago 100 Democratic members of Congress voted against giving the Jewish state further aid. This situation disturbs profoundly the editors of Powerline, which may take the prize as the most unswervingly and predictably pro-Netanyahu website in the country.  If Democratic politicians want to hold on to their present constituencies, they would do well to ignore the councils of AIPAC and the New York Post. Let me point out that if the neoconservative press simply explained that it was pro-Israel in Middle Eastern politics (which is at least an understandable position), I’d be silent about the Post’s obnoxious editorial. It’s the paper’s smarmy moralizing about the soul of a national party that has none which drew my critical attention.