Eric Cantor The resurgence, now on both sides of the Atlantic, of what is usually interpreted as extreme conservative politics—but might better be called right-wing populism—is likely to spark a new debate about present and future threats posed by political extremism to Jews. Since the Revolution of 1848—when according to a story an Orthodox rabbi with a long beard who preferred to sit on the left side of the Frankfurt Assembly was asked “why” and answered “because Jews have no Right”—the predilection of Jews to believe that they have enemies only on the Right has been demonstrated and documented. Sometimes, it has had disastrous consequences as with the Old Left’s blind spot to Stalin’s anti-Semitism and the New Left’s flirtation with Stokely Carmichael’s. But the history of Jews in relation to right-wing politics has yet to be fully written. The reflexive anti-Semitism of the European Right—from France’s Dreyfus Affaire to the Russia’s “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” to the pre-WWII French Right’s declaration “Better Hitler than Blum”—is of course well known. There is even an American parallel in the propensity to anti-Semitism of late nineteenth-century American Populists obsessed with the world’s crucifixion on “a cross of gold,” though New Left historians are still arguing that Populists like William Jennings Bryan (who wanted the U.S. declared “a Christian nation”) were somehow immune to anti-Semitism because their “progressive” economic nostrums somehow cancelled out their right-wing religious and racial prejudices. There were certain hints, after the 1960s, that there might be a limited Jewish rapprochement with the Right as Jewish neo-conservatives (and neo-liberals, sometimes hard to distinguish!) offered a critique of the excesses of both Great Society and New Left, and Ronald Reagan emerged as the smiling Franklin Roosevelt (that American Jewish icon) of the Right. But Jewish aversion to the religious “social conservatism” of New Right conservatives like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell radically contained this rapprochement. And Jewish alienation from the New Right was further cemented by the anti-Israel virulence of Pat Buchanan-Ron Paul right wingism which, arguably, had less to do with their love of Palestinians than their fears that Jewish “neo-conservatives” were “taking over” the GOP. There have been may ups and downs on the partisan roller coaster ride of American politics since the 1990s, but—through it all—the American Jewish vote has remained reliably 70 percent or more Democratic and center-left, as in both Obama’s presidential victories. But now in both the U.S. and Europe, there is some rethinking. The recent victories by right-wing or populist parties across Europe have reinforced concern about reinvigorated reactionary extremism— with good cause especially in Eastern Europe. On the other hand, the picture in Western Europe is more complicated. Right wing parties seem at least willing to entertain the idea of a new alliance with Jews against a purported emerging common enemy, i.e., Islamic extremism. Gert Wilders in the Netherlands in no anti-Semite, though his supporters tend to want to outlaw circumcision, while Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s National Front, is publically feuding with her father, National Front founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, over his latest “joke” about Jews and Nazi gas chambers. Has Marine Le Pen really outgrown anti-Semitism? There is reason to be skeptical. Yet there is also abundant reason for her to jettison that albatross in order to better exploit other demagogic issues like Islamophobia with more political mileage. Protest Henry of Navarre said “Paris is worth a mass” to explain why he converted to Catholicism to gain the French throne. Certainly, abandoning anti-Semitism would seem, on cynically logical grounds—and if her followers are willing to go along—a price worth paying to make her future prime minister or president of France. In the U.S., the dramatic defeat of “establishment” conservative Jewish House Majority leader Eric Cantor by a populist insurgent in a GOP primary is likely to reinforce the reflex that Jews’ main enemies are on the right. The truth is that Virginia conservatives elected Cantor when they thought he was a reliable Tea Party ally, and then kicked him out when they discovered he was “soft on amnesty.” In neither case did his being Jewish have anything to do with it, though a case can be made that Jewish conservatives—because of their own ethnic history—tend to be less hostile to immigration reform than non-Jewish conservatives. How this will all play out between now and 2016 is an open question. On the one hand, Jewish disillusionment with Obama’s foreign and domestic policies would seem to have the potential to drive up the GOP percentage of the Jewish vote above the magical 30 percent. On the other hand, a Rand Paul nomination is likely to send shivers down the spines of even Jewish conservatives. If I were a betting man, I would wager that Hillary Clinton—if she is the Democratic nominee in 2016—may not win less Jewish votes than Barack Obama but more. Centrism is for Jews a safer choice, historically considered, than populism or any other kind of extremism. Postscript: The “New York Times” is quoting observers who argue that the recent redistricting–making Cantor’s district more rural and “conservative Christian”–may have tilted the race against him because he was a Jew. This is highly speculative, and unconvincing given both Cantor’s previous landslide victories and his decisive loss this time. If he wasn’t vulnerable on the immigration issue, he almost certainly would have won.