I am known to be outspoken regarding the causes I advocate.  For me, however, the survival and security of Israel is a priority way above and beyond all others.  It is for me existential, a matter absorbing my very heart and soul.  To explain, let me relate my personal story.

I am a descendant of the Malovany and Gurman families of Rozan and Pultusk Poland.  The combined family basically split into three branches.  I am a great-grandson of the American branch, those who immigrated to America in the first part of the 20th Century.  The second branch remained in Pultusk and Rozan and was exterminated virtually completely in the Nazi Holocaust.

The third branch escaped to the former Soviet Union and survived the Second World War in Siberia.  After the war, they emigrated to Israel, where they found safety, security, and hope.

Today, my family in Israel is threatened with genocide by the totalitarian regime in Iran and their unspeakably despicable proxy of Hamas. Yesterday, the American branch of my Malovany family celebrated a simcha, the joyous occasion of a marriage.  We danced and sang to the songs of Israel.  We were not unmindful, however, of the life and death danger facing our family members in Israel.

For the pro-Israel community of New Jersey, the now disgraced US Senator Democrat Bob Menendez was our very best friend.  His descent into vile corruption is a tragedy for the Jewish people of New Jersey. Unlike various self-deluding fools in the far-left fringe of the Democratic Party whom I have continuously denounced, Bob Menendez clearly saw that the Iranian regime is the greatest genocidal threat to the Jewish people since Nazi Germany.

For that reason, Bob Menendez was our unshakable ally in opposing the foolhardy deal with Iran made by the avatars of Iranian appeasement, former President Barack Obama and his Secretary of State John Kerry.   This earned him the undying enmity of the Obama administration and their desire to remove him from public life.

The Obama/Kerry doctrine on Iran found a staunch ally in the Jewish lobby J Street, which up until now has promoted appeasement of both Iran and Palestinian genocidal entities.  In 2018, the J Street PAC endorsed Obama administration veteran Democrat Andy Kim in his initial successful campaign for the US House of Representatives. He firmly supported the Obama/Kerry Iran deal, the ultimate appeasement of a mortal foe of the Jewish people.

The bankruptcy of the Obama/Kerry Iranian appeasement doctrine was proven beyond any reasonable doubt during the past week in the killing fields of Hamas.  To its credit, J Street has now reversed course and is supporting the congressional resolution that pledges unconditional support to Israel’s war in Gaza.

Andy Kim now speaks of standing in solidarity with Israel.  He is entirely untrustworthy in this regard.  As recently as May, 2021, he was implicitly promoting the doctrine of moral equivalence in the then hostilities between Israel and Hamas, advocating reopening the U.S. Consulate in East Jerusalem “to strengthen U.S. engagement with the Palestinian people” and the reopening of the PLO mission in Washington, D.C.  And Kim has never renounced his previous deplorable support of the Iran appeasement deal.

This record of Andy Kim is not the record of a friend of Israel, especially when compared with the record of Democratic pro-Israel Congressional proven stalwarts like Josh Gottheimer and Don Norcross.  When it comes to confronting the enemies of the American-Israel alliance, Andy Kim is a modern day Neville Chamberlain.

Yes, the corruption of Bob Menendez warrants his resignation from the Senate.  He would leave behind, however, a record of unwavering pro-Israel support, a legacy Democrats must honor in selecting their next Senate nominee.

Let me put this in full perspective.  I despise the pro-Trumpist policies of Congressman Jeff Van Drew.  He can be trusted on Israel, however, unlike Andy Kim, a person with a record of dubious, unreliable support of Israel who now is making supportive statements on behalf of the Jewish State out of purely opportunistic political motives.  In a Van Drew-Kim US Senate race, a most unpalatable choice, I would have no alternative but to endorse Van Drew.

Andy Kim was and is the archetypal Obama Democrat who at heart sees moral equivalence between Israel and its Arab enemies.  This is to be distinguished from the pragmatic progressive Clinton Democrats, whose support of Israel by and large was unflagging.  The future of the American-Israel alliance is not to be trusted to ultra-progressive Democrats like Andy Kim.

Alan J. Steinberg of Highland Park served as regional administrator of Region 2 EPA during the administration of former President George W. Bush and as executive director of the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission.