I have lived in Israel for the last 24 years. In that time I have voted in every U.S. presidential election, until now.
I am proud of my right to vote in the country of my birth, and the country that took in my father after the Holocaust. And it is both a right and a responsibility that I take very seriously.
Even though my life is centered around living here in Israel, I do not feel like an imposter when I vote in the United States. On the contrary, I am very proud of my American citizenship and identity. And I definitely have a personal interest in what happens across the ocean in my birth country.
I still file and pay taxes in the U.S., and have some assets there. But, more importantly, many of my loved ones, both family and friends, live there – most significantly my mother and my brother and his family. I want my loved ones to live in the best possible United States, and I want my two nieces to live and one day raise families in a country that will value them and protect them. So when I vote in a U.S. election, as an American Israeli, I believe that I must vote for the candidate who I think will be best for America, not just for Israel. It doesn’t feel right to vote solely based on Israel simply because I live here.
I have never been a one-issue voter when it comes to voting in U.S. elections, even though Israel is clearly an important, if not the most important, issue.
The truth is that, this year, neither candidate seems like he or she would be good for Israel. I could go through all the reasons why, but it has been widely covered here at Ynet and in dozens of publications. I do know that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is racist, misogynistic, capricious, power-hungry and divisive, and not the kind of person that I would like to see elected to lead the United States, or to hold any other office for that matter. And while many of my fellow citizens here believe he would be the best candidate for Israel, I am pretty confident that we can not assume that he will support or make decisions favorable to Israel, taking into consideration recent and past statements and, well, rants.
I am sure I will feel a twinge of regret that I did not cast a ballot. And I hope to do so again in 2028.
I feel reasonably comfortable with Democratic candidate Kamala Harris on domestic U.S. issues, but I am not completely comfortable with how she might fall on foreign policy, most particularly on the Middle East and especially Israel.
Which is why I did not send in an absentee ballot for Tuesday’s election.
I requested one, because I could not imagine not voting. But when push came to shove, and because of some uncharacteristic inertia (which served as a red flag), I did not fill it out and send it in.
The truth is, I am pretty sure that in my home state of Ohio not voting is not going to make a bit of difference in the Electoral College since it is reasonably certain that the state – which vice presidential candidate JD Vance currently serves as junior senator and which is served by a Republican governor - will go red for president.
But I would have liked to be counted in the popular vote in order to let my disgust with the Republican party’s candidate be known. And so that the people counting the absentee ballots in Ohio know that not every Israeli American has drunk the Kool Aid, thus casting their ballot for Trump.
I will still spend Election Day glued to the news and wait with bated breath for the projections, and continue to pay rapt attention in the days (and weeks) that it likely will take until a winner is announced. I am sure I will feel a twinge of regret that I did not cast a ballot. And I hope to do so again in 2028.
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