The suburbs outside of Philadelphia have turned into a psychological battleground. The messages run the gamut regarding outright lies about Israel, to sinister threats of bodily and property destruction against registered Republicans who don’t vote for Kamala Harris.

A nephew and his girlfriend recently received letters threatening them not to vote Republican. The threats contain words to the effect of, “We know where you live and if you vote Republican there might be a dead dog or cat, or a fire at night. We know where you live.”   

One of the letters was turned over to local police. Their response was that without video evidence, or a return address, there was nothing they could do.

Coincidentally at the same time, due to a surprising conversation I had at a beauty salon I have been going to for years, I started a non- scientific anecdotal survey.  My single question was:  How many Jewish people do you think there are worldwide?

Not one person answered under 100 million! This is extremely disturbing and quite dangerous. The correct answer is somewhere between fifteen and seventeen million Jews globally—but when a people are perceived falsely as so powerful and mighty, lies about them are more readily accepted.

Then this week, an astute and accomplished Christian girlfriend, Gayle, reached out to me about an email she had received—she wanted to know how Israelis felt about our upcoming presidential election because the email stated that Israelis overwhelmingly wanted Harris to win. (Gayle lives in a heavily Jewish area, and received the email erroneously.)

Gayle didn’t believe the message and sought clarification—so allow me to clarify.

Arutz Sheva is a Zionist religious media network that publishes in Hebrew, English, and Russian. It is known in English as Israel National News and has the third largest weekend circulation in Israel. It began as a radio station, and its name in Hebrew means Channel 7.

On October 29, 2024, Arutz Sheva published the results of a survey it had conducted about the U.S. presidential election. In the general Israeli population, including Jews, Muslims, Christians, and other religious demographics, 66% preferred Trump, 17% preferred Harris and 17% were undecided.

Of the Israelis who make up the conservative coalitions who voted for current Prime Minister, Benjamin  “Bibi” Netanyahu, 93% preferred Trump, and only 1% preferred Harris! In no way is Kamala Harris the preferred candidate of Jews; see also Susan Quinn’s piece, “American Jews are shifting to the right” published November 4, 2024.

It would appear the lies regarding Israeli preference are due to the fact that the bestial crimes, perpetrated against Israelis over one year ago, created a dent in the almost monolithic Jewish support for Democrat candidates.

These illegal acts represent election interference, dirty scare tactics, and outright intimidation. Probably, unfortunately, the perpetrators will never be caught, but one hopes their fears of a Trump victory are well-founded.

Image: Free image, Pixabay license.