Strategic Consultant Ruth Lieberman, a consultant for many senior politicians from the US and from Israel, speaks to Israel National News about the US midterm elections on Tuesday.
When asked if the midterms are relevant for Israelis, Lieberman explains that the policies of a supportive American administration have a deep impact on Israel.
“Maybe it's just that we're curious and we want to see what big brother America is doing but on the other hand I think we've all felt in the past few years especially through Trump that so much can happen with a supportive government that really affects Israel,” she says. “When you take just the policy of moving the US embassy to Jerusalem. Israel mostly agrees on that issue. It's not a partisan issue among Israelis and yet in America it took so many presidents to actually come and do it, so that's something that does affect Israel and we're hoping to see a supportive government in the United States for Israel.”
Lieberman believes that a Republican Congress could have enough influence to impact the Biden administration’s policies towards Israel.
“The administration is definitely the source of power in an American political world. In the current political framework, I think that we're feeling that Biden hasn't done much with us anyhow so we may not see a change. On the other hand, we are going to have vociferous, vehement loud voices in Congress in both the House and the Senate, if they take both, and it does seem to be the case, who will push the administration to be good to Israel. What does that mean? Maybe it means real initiatives that can make change. Maybe, and in my opinion this is almost as important, to let us decide our own policies, to give us the leeway to back off and say, ‘Israel, we support you, you go for it.’”
Commenting on the fact that this US election cycle, we are seeing less Israel-oriented campaigning and less talk in general about foreign policy, Lieberman describes that Americans are “looking inside themselves” to focus on domestic issues.
“They traditionally look at the economy but they're looking at it more than that this time,” she says. ”I believe from talking to people and seeing what the campaigns are focusing on, and a lot of research goes into this and not mine, that people are looking at mainly two things beyond the economy: Their own personal safety, how they feel about the streets they walk on, the police who police them, the people who are allowed or not allowed through their borders, and the other issue that they have is the personal rights of having a family or having the ability to live beyond that traditional family role, what their kids are being taught in school, what are their kids being given in their educational system. So these are things that are very internal and Israel doesn't really factor into that.”
She notes that while Jews have traditionally voted for the Democrats in high numbers, there is a shift going in parts of the community toward the Republicans.
“The Jewish vote, much of it that doesn't have to do with Israel has to do with family values,” she says. “So you'll have extreme opinions on both sides among all Americans but Jews may have a tendency that's being identified by Republican campaigns to not want to destroy the family – the structure of the family, the fabric of society that is more conservatively based in political terms – so you’re seeing that the extremism on both sides, Democrat and Republican, has pushed people to vote in numbers, more people are voting now in almost all the elections. We’re seeing that the the high numbers include people who are in the middle and I think the Republicans are going to be the ones to benefit from that because they have managed to find candidates who are not so extreme, who can relate to a Jewish vote that doesn’t necessarily vote down ticket always Republican and they're moving them over.”
With Trump’s announcement of his campaign for the 2024 presidential election imminent, Lieberman predicts that if Republicans take back both Houses of Congress and focus on domestic issues important to Americans, then Trump has a good chance of winning.
“People know who Trump is. He doesn't hide, he doesn't change his persona to be allowed back on Twitter. He is who he is, take him or leave him, and and that’s probably a good thing, and he gets around all of the the politicking, and he just says it like it is. That also turns a lot of people off,” she says.
“I'm hoping that we’re gonna see a race based more on issues than personalities but it seems that when Trump is in the room it's just all about the personality. I was pretty sure that Democrats would try to get together and have a candidate who is not – let's say, at the end of his political career – and I was hoping Biden could retire and happily go back to his family. But it seems they're going to run him again."
She adds: "If we have another Biden-Trump showdown, I think it will be even closer and I think that if the Republicans do well for two years running both Houses of Congress – if they do well there for the economy, if they help bring down the price of gasoline, if they help show that their borders are strong and that you feel safe walking on streets – then Trump can win."
