Fact Check: Democrats Try to Smear J.D. Vance as Antisemitic, Anti-Israel

CLAIM: J.D. Vance backs antisemitic “replacement theory,” votes against Israel, and won’t oppose antisemitism.

VERDICT: FALSE. All of these are lies circulated by pro-Israel Democrats losing the battle within their own party.

A group calling itself “Democratic Majority for Israel,” which is trying (and failing) to keep the Democratic Party pro-Israel, reacted to the nomination of Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) as former President Donald Trump’s running mate by casting him as an antisemite who won’t support Israel. Their propaganda is currently being shared on social media.

Each of their claims is false:

1. “Promoted the antisemitic ‘Great Replacement Theory’ that inspired the Tree of Life murderer.” The idea that Democrats favor migration partly because they believe migrants will eventually vote Democratic once they become citizens is not an antisemitic theory; it’s a reasonable conclusion. There is a crazed version of this theory that is, in fact, antisemitic, which holds that “the Jews” are in charge of this migration. That’s clearly not what Vance believes.
2. “Voted against aid to Israel after 10/7 terrorist attacks.” It’s hard to overstate how disingenuous this is. Vance has in fact led Republican efforts in the Senate to provide aid to Israel. He has adamantly supported Israel against Hamas. He voted against one bill because it also contained aid to Ukraine, which some Republicans oppose for principled reasons. (He pushed other bills to aid Israel, which Democrats opposed for their own reasons.) Vance has made a careful distinction between Ukraine and Israel. And he went into the lions’ den, so to speak, delivering a speech to an “isolationist” think tank arguing that the U.S. should support Israel.
3. “Refused to co-sponsor the bipartisan Countering Antisemitism Act.” Similarly, the fact that a member of Congress opposes one particular bill, or may not support it as enthusiastically as others, does not mean that he or she opposes what that bill is trying to do. Democrats and Republicans have competing approaches to antisemitism. Many Democrats — including Jews, like Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) — have opposed Republican bills on antisemitism that seek to define extreme anti-Israel speech as antisemitism. Notably, Vance introduced a Senate bill to force colleges to remove antisemitic encampments, which many Democrats oppose.

In addition, many conservative Jews and pro-Israel voices expressed their delight Monday at Vance’s selection.

It is one thing to criticize Vance’s approach to Israel and to antisemitism on policy grounds, for whatever reason. It is quite another to pretend that he is antisemitic and anti-Israel when the record quite clearly indicates otherwise.

The fact that Democrats have to stoop to gross distortions and outright lies to cast Vance in a way designed to frighten Jewish voters away from voting Republican suggests they are rather desperate and have little material to work with.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of “”The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days,” available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of “The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency,” now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.