Will Obama Hold the Jewish Vote?
The exit polls from the 2008 presidential race suggested that Barack Obama overwhelmingly defeated John McCain with Jewish voters, winning by 78% to 21%. As I wrote at the time, while it was certain that Obama handily defeated McCain with Jewish voters, his actual margin of victory was not at all clear.
Exit polls have consistently under-sampled Jewish voters as a share of all voters and are likely to interview a somewhat skewed sample of the Jewish population (more liberal voters and fewer Orthodox Jews, who tend to be more conservative voters). In fact, the exit polls have consistently overstated the Democratic share of the vote overall and in individual states for years, as President-elect John Kerry (for 8 hours) learned on Election Day in 2004.
The exit polls do not claim to survey a random sample of Jewish voters or other subgroups within their total population. Nonetheless, the results from exit polls of one presidential race can be compared to those from other presidential contests to get a sense of any movement within the Jewish community over time. Jewish support for Republican candidates was in the 30% range until George Herbert Walker Bush ran for re-election in 1992 against Bill Clinton and saw his Jewish support level crash to barely 10%. That level crept up for a few elections to hit 25% in the 2004 exit poll until sliding a few points in 2008.
With the 2012 election a few weeks away, various surveys are purporting to show that Barack Obama is maintaining a very large lead among Jewish voters this time around, though his support level may have slipped a few points from 2008. Many articles were written after an IBD/Christian Science Monitor/TIPP survey in September suggested that Obama was defeating Romney with Jewish voters by only 59% to 35%, which, if carried forward until November, would be the weakest performance by a Democratic presidential candidate since Jimmy Carter won only 45% of the Jewish vote in a three-candidate race in 1980 (Reagan 39%, Anderson 15%).
The number of articles written about this poll result probably matched the number of Jews in in the IBD/CSM/TIPP survey. Only 808 registered voters were polled nationally, and given the Jewish split of the vote that is listed, it is fairly apparent that the sample likely contained 32 Jews (almost 4% of all those surveyed, an over-representation). They split 19 for Obama, 11 for Romney, and 2 undecided. No one should spend two seconds obsessing over, or drawing conclusions from, this sample.
Now, the American Jewish Committee (AJC) is out with its own survey, a random sample of 1,000 Jews, and it indicates that Obama has a big lead (almost 41 points ) over Romney among Jewish voters, 65% to 24%. For liberal Jews, the AJC survey is a sign that all is well in the Jewish world. It assures them that, despite attacks by groups like the Republican Jewish Coalition directed against President Obama for his problems in dealing with Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu and Israel or his dithering on Iran’s nuclear program, Jews are, for the most part, staying on the Democratic reservation again.
I was just thinking, if Israel falls, we would get a lot of immigrants from there. The immigrants would be similar to the Cuban exiles – very conservative. That would be a few million new voters for the Republicans.
While your flip attitude is surely disturbing-(and by the way, if heaven forbid Israel falls, so too will much of the west-think:Samson Option), it is also the case that a majority of Jews in Israel are conservative, regardless of the noise generated by the left, a left which is small in numbers, barely 3-5% of the Jewish citizens. So, in effect, your overall statement-though highly disturbing-is correct.
That being said, it is also the case that too many Jews will unfortunately vote for the Radical/Islamist-in-Chief, regardless of the perils, not only to Israel, but most especially to the U.S.
Therefore, the following needs to be quickly digested, hopefully by those who need it most!
2012/09/07/what-will-it-take-for-american-jews-to-finally-understand-what-barack-hussein-obama-has-in-store-for-america-as-well-as-for-israel-commentary-by-adina-kutnicki/
2012/08/08/leftism-lethal-to-jews-their-overall-health-others-too-commentary-by-adina-kutnicki/
It is what it is.
Reading Arutz Sheva everyday, your words are empty. Israel follows the liberal line that by going back to the old borders, the Palies will agree to accept Israel’s right to exist.
Based on that premise, it is no wonder that the locals like Obama. Problem is that Israel is not defensible, and every year makes its deterrence at once less credible and less possible.
I think the US has decided that having Israel go, might be a real option. Cheaper certainly, but would also isolate Iran by showing that its nucs are to cow the other kids. As to conservative, Israel is way to the left of Obama.
Please quit mocking my intelligence.
It’s impossible to mock the intelligence of a person who doesn’t have any. I am a conservative Jewish American who reads Arutz Sheva everyday, and all I can say is, if you find that leftist, you are truly to the right of Attila the Hun. Arutz Sheva is the voice of the religious nationalist community. I don’t know how on earth anyone can construe that as leftist.
Israel to the left of 0bama? Are you nuts? The vast majority of Israelis loathe 0bama, even some of Israeli leftists who understand you need to defend your own existence. Your post is libelous from beginning to end.
I think it depends on what you mean by right and left.
Israel certainly has its share of socially conservative people. But economically, it’s extremely left leaning. Kibbutz are pretty much close to being the closest form of communism that exists in the world (China is communist in name, but not in practice)
Not exactly an historian, are you, Bob?
To Benver Dob
What do you think Israel will do with all those nukes they have if and when they get “kicked out of there”? There is the premise that a nuke a day keeps Arabs away.
And that mistake could be fatal. If Israel activates the Samson Option, it is well within the realm of possibility that Israel nukes Moscow and triggers Perimetr, causing Russia to counterattack not against Israel, but rather the United States and England, because the control missiles will think WE attacked Russia, rather than Israel. Result: the entire Russian land-based nuclear arsenal attacks the US and England: 50-100 million dead.
the perceived conservative of the Jewish vote does not match activity on the ground, where election preferences are as predictable as those among blacks. And with each, self-interest is voted against in a sort of battered wife syndrome only a liberal can understand. I lose sympathy for the state and its people when their actions counter logic.
“Self-interest is voted against in a sort of battered wife syndrome only a liberal can understand.” Excellently said! I’m Jewish, and nauseated by how much glue so many Jews have on their left side. Whatever happened to the old joke, “Where you find three Jews, you find four opinions?” John McCain had a wonderful article in Reader’s Digest, sometime around 2003, about what a good friend we have in Israel.
I agree that abortion, dear to the heart of many Jews and me, has to take second place in this election. Our country’s survival is more important, and abortions will not become illegal as quickly as some would like to believe. I say we support Romney, who may, in his heart, be pro-choice but afraid to widely admit it, and deal with any problems we have with him as they arise. At least he supports this country, which can’t be said for Obama. What good is the right to chose abortion in a country under terrorism?
I am not sure that William of Bedford is being flippant, so much as he is being cold-blooded. Israeli Jews as a class are both more intelligent and more highly educated than the run-of-the-mill immigrant to these shores. The West could not have won World War II so neatly if it had not been for the contribution of Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany. Never underestimate the capacity of any government for evil.
What makes all of you think that the Jews of Israel will want to come here? This will be the country that stabbed them in the back. They will be more likely to back the opponents of the US and in a big way. German Jews have already been mentioned, they came an contributed to this country to defeat Germany. Historically the Jews of Spain when thrown out went where they were welcome. Many went to Turkey where they became the arsenal builders of that empire. Spanish steel became Damascus steel. Cannon designs that worked for the Spanish fleet now worked for the Turkish army and fleet. Note that Spanish advancements in armament and warfare stopped. On the other hand Turkey’s took a leap forward. If I were an Israeli who just lost everything in Israel, would I blame the hoards of Moslems you knew to be predictable or the country that was supposed to back you in a war against those hoards?
Adina, while living near Kikar Rabin in Tel Aviv, I attended many, many political rallies. All were right-of-center oriented. Tel Aviv has a lot of North African-origin and Russian Jews living there. They usually vote Conservative. Of course the kibbutzim are leftists, but they are not the majority. Most Israelis that I have encountered in my 20+ years of living/visiting there were conservative.
Just a reminder; Israel is forever; because of the covenant that the Sovereign Lord made with Abraham which he called “everlasting”. Israel WILL NOT “fall” even though Israel may have to go it alone for a while. Who, after all is the commander of the hosts and general of the armies that will come against the enemies of Israel? The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; Yahweh. This is the reality of the situation.
No, no, no, no! We ought to welcome the white refugees from Southern Rhodesia and South Africa. Now, those guys will be reliable Right-wing voters (Conservatives and moderates never accomplish anything other than, maybe, slowing Leftism’s advance down — for a while). Jewish refugees from a defeated Israel will be just as Left-wing as the Jews who are here now. Same people; same politics. The only immigrants we should admit at all are straight Europeans. Notice as you read through polling data that white people (actually, white men) are the only dependable pro-American voters left. But escapees from behind the Iron Curtain are more Right-wing than even native-born American whites. We have to do all we can to encourage serious people to immigrate to the US, as so few Americans are serious (serious: ready to kill for your freedom; not just vote).
Have you ever met any Israelis? I bet you never have.
Hmmm. I wonder if Isreal might be a refuge for Americans escaping Obama’s Sharia compliant marxist utopia.
Got racism?
You’ve not visited Israel before have you? It probably won’t fall but if it does, it’s far from a GOP coup.
My bet? 65-70% this year will once again be lemmings over the cliff for Obama.
“The Famed Jewish Vote” is one of the items in my index to my blogs on antisemitism, overt and embedded alike. Here is the link: http://clarespark.com/2012/09/29/index-to-blogs-on-antisemitism/. The notion that “Jews” all share the same interests is in itself risible.
Max. You are unfortunately correct. Jews in America would vote for Hitler if he ran on the democrat ticket.
I think many Jews in our country would throw their fellow Jews in Israel under the bus. They are Obama supporters and nothing would change their minds. Just a feeling about them. I worked with one and she was a devout Jew and a devout Democrat.
Wow, you knew a Jew, a Jewish woman at that, that makes you a real expert!
A man can be a Jew or he can be an Obama supporter, but he can’t legally be a Jew and be an Obama supporter … except in the usual way: one of the two with the mouth, the other with the heart. The spirit of Judaism proclaims the survival of Israel and the meaning of that has no longer been left to guesswork, but made tremendously definite … the Jew must fight all who would commit or enable another genocide or enslavement of the Jews. That is the spirit and the law of Judaism.
Well, Obama has his beliefs and actions and it is a perfectly definite set, there is no vagueness about it. He commands that the Jew bow to the Muslim at every turn they do him hurt or threaten him and his children with death. Word it as softly as you please, the spirit of Obama is the spirit of the evil shadowed specter of the Beast of Austria insidiously billowing in and building and building to ever more horrific heights. The moment there is a question about a boundary line or a building or some Muslim somewhere complaining about any matter, see Obama rise, and see him spit at the Jew from the corner of his twisted mouth. The spirit of Obama being in its nature narcissistic and selfish — it is in the man’s line, it comes natural to him — he can fully live up to all of the teachings of Jeremiah Wright and even of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; for the spirit of Judaism is entirely impossible to him.
I have to agree with you.
By his 20 year attendance in Jeromy Wright’s so-called church, by his saying “The Arabic Call to Prayer is the most beautiful sound on Earth”, by his celebrating Ramadan in the White House, by his 2009 speech in Cairo praising Islam, by his call to go back to the pre 1967 war borders, by his giving the Muslim Brotherhood and their auxiliaries entrance to the White House, the State Department and even the military, by his deep bowing to the Saudi King, by his declaring “The future does not belong to those who insult the prophet of Islam” – By each of these things Obama’s calling is plainly revealed. That all united should fail to enlighten the competent inquirer is almost inconceivable.
Feral Cat… you could also add Madonna’s recent proclamation “We have a Black Muslim in the White House!” Indeed, the zombies abound and seem to increase every day. Truly scary for those of us still possessing critical thinking skills.
I’m not sure the author’s conclusions are entirely accurate.
Many Jews when asked about Israel don’t like to open themselves up to charges of dual loyalty, they down-play the importance of Israel in their replies.
There is a great deal of social pressure as well, ”everyone” is a Democrat in their social circle & family.
That said, for sure, the majority will vote for Obama.
But, it may be a lot less than this author assumes.
You well could be right, Terry. But for similar reasons we may never know the truth of it.
Indeed.
Ahhhh…but you are such a stiff-necked people. (cf Deuteronomy 9:6)
The label of dual loyalties is another politically correct way of shutting Jews up. Since when do we in America have to chose between loyalty to America and God? What is this some third world country? Wait…don’t answer that.
Welcome to the club. Catholics have been dealing with that same false accusation here for generations.
So 80% of Jews will vote for Obama and 80% of Muslims will vote for Obama. One of these two groups is collectively insane.
Faulty logic…it is entirely possible that BOTH groups could be insane.
Just crazy fo altogether different reasons.
In the long run, if the ismalists acquire power, they’ll be socially conservative in ways that will make Todd Akin blush. But their path to power runs through the extreme left. If I were some islamist wanting to project my antisemitic, homophobic, misogynist ideology in the long run on America right now, I’d support Obama.
Crazy like a fox.
Yes, quite.
“Forward”…to the 14th century!
There is nothing insane about it. Leftists and Islamists all have their totalitarian tendencies closer to the surface than the rest of us and THIS is what creates the kinship between them. The author points out that American Jews are really just secularist leftists. This connection bewteen people that are at war in Israel but are chummy in Europe and the US was pointed out a couple of years ago by Mark Steyn. It’s astounding when you first contemplate this but it makes sense when you see it in the light if totalitarian thinking.They have a common enemy – the individual. Jews in the US are as unthinking and committed to an almighty state (the opression and genocide delivery vehicle) as any other group. Some would say even more so.
Someone once told me that: The Jews are just like the rest of us only more so.
Everywhere they go, the majority of Jews have cleaved to the Left of the political spectrum under the mistaken notion that morality dwells there. American and European Jews especially in academia worked hard to misattribute Hitler’s Germany to the Right when they were creatures of the Left (Nazi = German acronym for national workers socialist party) and western Christians fought this particular socialist cancer at great cost to themselves. After this gross misattribution of credit and blame stuck, all the Left’s other holocausts have been studiously ignored by Jews e.g. the blood soaked Soviet Gulag, Mao’s Red China, the post Vietnam war massacres including the Laotian/Cambodian killing fields, millions of unnecessary malarial deaths in Africa, mostly children due to leftist anti-DDT junk science etc. This betokens moral blindness.
Israel started out on the same leftist path, but contained faster learners than Jews in the diaspora, stopped trashing capitalism and rode it to a strong almost impregnable strategic position in the Mid-East. Jews are now divided, within Israel itself with conservatives slightly dominant, and between Israel and the diaspora where left wing Jews are dominant. This division in the face of an implacable eternal ascendant enemy, (Muslims who were allies of the Nazis) is what will do world Jewry in, completely self-caused.
Well well, if it isn’t agent provocateur troll Drew again, visiting from American Thinker, trying to spread his anti-Semitic rage within another blog. Once again – there are vastly more Christian leftists than Jewish leftists. As Jesus said, why not take a look at the log in your own eye before criticizing the mote in someone else’s eye?
You are certainly no Surak.
But you are feral.
I do not know who Drew is but what specifically did he say that upsets you so? Did he say something that is untrue?
Also, if you meant to say that in abosulte numbers there are more leftists that could be true but clearly not true in terms of percent of their numbers in society.
You should understand the very low cultural-historical-ideological level of the american voter at large, either jew, or belonging to any other group.Those who vote according to a cultural pattern are a small minority, even the leftist academics ,even vociferous are a handful of people.The vast majority will vote according to their wallet, then according to their beliefs or absence of beliefs, then according to some recent or last minute conviction . Since the abstention rate is modeled by post-modernism media mix ( I intend a mix of visual effects, wich are completely offuscating the analysis).How do you want to understand the long-term agenda of Obama when most of the visual complex in prime time is centered on BHO playing golf and Michelle doing pushups with the lesbian icon Ms De Generes ? A second factor, his the total lack of experience with muslim historical experience.here in France as former colonizers of North Africa ( Algeria Morocco Tunisia Syria lebanon )we have a long experience of the muslim way of acting and thinking.We are well aware of their dissimulation technique (takkyia) oftheir double speech, (one soft and accomodative speech in front of westerners and the second insisting on jihad and long-term conquest of the western countries among themselves ).SINCE 2/3 of french jews are originating of North africa, we are aware of the danger of bowing in front of the muslim demands wich always implies further surrender.Therefore almost 70% of french jews will vote for the conservative and since the left is totally embracing the arab-muslim agenda we have switched our political preference towards the right. Also we know for sure that the left has absolutely no right to moral superiority .I hope you can draw some inspiration from my view and give our example to the voters who are still illuding themselves about ” Obama’s wisdom”
“Nazi” is not an acronym, in German or any other language. It is an abbreviation. “N-a-z-i” are the first four letters of “Nazional,” the German adjective that we translate as “national,” which was clearly borrowed into German from Latin natio, a nation. The full name of the Nazi party in German is “Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei [National Socialist German Workers Party], which did make use of the acronym NDAP in many contexts (electioneering in particular)
The Jewish vote is obviously irrelevant to our dear leader based on his actions at home and abroad. His abortion surviving ,supersized feminists, collage groupies and Mega mumble-mouthed counter racists who work for him have more important constituencies to pander to!
As Terry said, the “one” will get most of the “Jewish votes” but well under 70%!
Even hard born lefists start to notice when an abysmal failure is in front of them ………..
Trump.
Shana tova v’hag Succoth sameach.
“The safest prediction one can make at this point is that Barack Obama will win as comfortably among Jewish voters in 2012 as he did in 2008 and that his drop-off in support from his 2008 margin will not be great.”
Well, if Obama is (God forbid) re-elected because of the Jewish vote, then I never, EVER, want to hear the words “Never Again” come out of their mouths. I’m just sick of it. If the Jews really, really, mean what they say, then they will NOT vote for a president that has actively worked for the destruction of Israel. He has openly called for the return to the 1967 Israeli borders, his administration will not openly say that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, he treats Netanyahu like dirt, and he has not done anything to stop the Iranians from getting a nuclear bomb. And let’s not even talk about his “outreach” to the miserable arab nations, which have repaid his “call for peace” with four dead Americans in Libya and burning American embassies throughout the Middle East, especially in places like Cairo, Tunis, Pakistan, and Yemen.
So if Obama gets huge support from Jewish voters, I just don’t want to hear “Never Again” ever again. Because it just proves that Jews are not serious about putting their votes where their mouths are and don’t really care that much about Israel. My only hope is that there was recently a congressional election in New York in a heavily Jewish district. For the first time in decades the people elected a Republican because of their hatred for the Obama administration. Do they know something the pundits in this election do not? We’ll find out on November 6.
One might think the Jews want it both ways. Imagine that.
You’re making a very elementary logical error – assuming population homogeneity. The Obama supporting Jews don’t want it both ways; they just rationalize that there isn’t a conflict. They’re rationalizing that they can have it both ways, and that there is no hard choice.
Maybe those are sort of the same thing, but they’re different, too.
Last night I watched this compelling video by a lovely and socially liberal Jewish girl from NYC. She makes a profound case for voting against Obama. Many liberals and Jews are interviewed in this 19 minute clip. This should go viral through out the Jewish community. It’s entitled “Absolutely Uncertain”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgvMGLdc908
Good video; however, I recommend everyone see Obama’s America 2016 which says it better.
This is proof, again, how mistaken it is to define a Jew by race. Judaism is not biological, it’s not in your blood. Judaism is a culture. If you are not part of that culture, if you identify with people who hate Jews, then even if your parents are Jewish you are not much of a Jew.
Sorry, but you know the rules – momma’s a Jew, you’re a Jew. You’ll have to undo thousands of years of settled Jewish law to change that.
Do you think they still claim George Soros
In America, it’s their free choice to vote for their own ZYKLON B.
But what if the “suicide voter” is actually a “homicide voter”? Our nation was founded as a Republic so areas could govern themselves as they chose and serve as “incubators” for the rest of the Nation. The Republic is long dead, we’re now approaching a Mobocracy and that’s not good for anybody.
Mobamacracy?
As far as my friends of the Jewish persuasion are concerned, Barack Obama is a God. He’s incredible at everything he does, his speeches are like beautiful music, and his wife is practically perfect in every way.
Makes me nauseous.
Hawk, you have just described my family down to the last detail. The problem is, they are getting hurt just as badly as everyone else, and at some level they know it. I’m convinced the real source of this delusional behavior is fear, real, gut level fear. I’ve also noticed that older Jews (like my spouse and I) and younger Jews (increasingly those in their 20′s) are more likely to be immune to this particular form of extreme neurosis.
This has everything to do with a belief system/personal identity– and refusing to admit that it’s wrong/flawed. Admit that I’m a fool? Never! Very hard to get human beings to reconstruct these things. It’s hard work. We’re not programmed for that. So then, they vote for Obama gain and — if re-elected — things continue to get worse. So they will look for another scapegoat or finally admit that they were wrong. It’s nauseating — considering what’s going on in Europe. But, oh, that’s a “canard.” Pay no attention to it.
I think those who vote for Obama should be solely responsible for the ruin that may come if he’s re-elected. I suppose, in a subtle way, that will come true.
My aged parents worship Obama and my younger relatives also worship him. They will defend Obama with their last breath. They seem to over-identify with him and all consideration of Israel flies out the window. One senior Jewish man I know who visits Israel all the time, STILL thinks Obama is a very pro-Israel president. They are deluded.
I encountered the same from people who I assumed would know better. It is still amazing and terrifying that anybody could be so besotted by such an obvious charlatan as Obama. I am sure we all had the same experience in 2008 of knowing how sane Germans felt in 1933. Unfortunately it is going to take a lot of pain to wake people up from their dream like trace.
Homo “sapien” my ass! More like Homo “lemming”
It is truly unbelievable. They won’t listen to reason or facts. Believe me, I’ve tried!
A few years ago I was invited to a barmitzvah in Jerusalem at the height of daily suicide attacks all over Israel. I was sure all that all foreign tourists would be long gone. When I entered the lobby of the hotel I was pleasantly surprised to see a a group of fundamentalist Christains in prayer for the safety of Israel. I shook hands with each one and thanked them for coming at such a difficult time. We in Israel know who stand shoulder to shoulder with us. Unfortunately our fellow American Jews are a major disappointment in their fair weather support of Israel.
The Jewish Obama voters make me insane..okay, others claim..no, never mind. The election has not happened yet. There are quite a lot of Jewish liberals who are, in my opinion, privately pained by Obama on Israel. How they will vote – we’ll see. I’m not giving up on all of them.
I appreciate the comment above about fear. A lot of Jews in the Diaspora are afraid of anti-Semitism in different forms, and form political allegiances in response to it. Still others, like the hardcore Jewish Obama voters, are ‘all in’ on a variation of ‘Tikun Olam’ (world-saving) that dictates both abandoning ‘parochial’ Jewish interests and supporting the underdog (no matter who he is).
It does not look to me like the Jewish votes will matter that much – except for in Florid and perhaps in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Israel, I think, will keep on keeping on regardless. And the Christian Conservative support is both helpful and appreciated.
Don’t underestimate the power of ‘Tikun Olam’. It’s a carte blanche to turn Judaism into whatever they want to turn it into.
It’s analogous to the Christians who remember the Jesus who talked about unconditional forgiveness, and the rich man and the eye of a needle, while ignoring the Jesus who drove the money changers out of the temple with a whip.
If you’re allowed to cherry pick theology, you can rationalize anything.
Excuse me … But you are relying on a poll from the AJC for ANYTHING?
HAHAHAHAHAHhahahahahahaha!!!!!!!
Amen, Amen, and Amen.
Almost all of the many Jews (mostly “cultural” Jews) I know are very intelligent people, and yet, election after election, they vote for Lefties. Is it because Karl Marx came from a Jewish family? If not, why?
Why? Because, at least in part, this has been the Jewish identity for secular Jews. If they give this up, they are lost. OK, they’re lost anyway, but that’s a different matter.
Actually, being pro-Israel was the remaining Jewish identity for secular Jews. If they give THIS up, they are lost!
Good point, Laurie J, but, sadly, I think they gave that up long ago. It takes a lot of courage to be a Jew. In fact, it takes a lot of courage to have any identity, Jewish or otherwise. I read Sharansky’s book on Identity a few years ago. I recommend it.
John Lennon’s song appeals to those who don’t want an identity, who want to anonymously slip away from any commitments, any limits, anything that would require them to take a stand. Taking a stand is taking a risk. Better to be nothing and play it safe.
As a pro-Israel Midwestern conservative, I am tired of us going it alone and expending large amounts of political capital for the support of the Israeli nation. This Presidential election will serve as a mandate for me and perhaps others: if the majority of American Jews vote for Obama, it tells us that they are absolutely unserious and indifferent to the need for Israel’s existence. We will gladly walk away and encourage Israel’s being given to the Palestinians if that is the mandate of American Jews. If they are so removed from the matter that they have not paid attention to who and what President Obama is about and they believe he is their ally, it is akin to a Jew warned of the rising of enemies in the ,I’d 1930s mocking at the alarm and eagerly voting for “this bright, energetic face of Hope and Change from Austria.”
We cannot fight every battle. If Jews don’t want Israel, we should walk away.
Thanks for supporting Israel; please continue because Israel isn’t going to be given to the Palestinians. Watch and learn.
Your choice. US Administrations seem to pay little attention to popular sentiment in any case and make all sorts of choices regarding Israel.
Why should you “walk away” from Israel because of any american constituency. Israelis fight bravely to defend their country but you base your support on what some american Jews do?
I don’t think you’re reading between the lines correctly. What I’m hearing is frustration that if their own cousins won’t support them, why should he? It’s a valid question.
It’s the same sort of frustration that we feel toward, for example, queers for Palestine. You really want these primitives to have dominion? No skin off my nose.
One problem is how little Israel communicates about her actions in the international community. As one professor of Jewish studies said, “Israel does no worldwide communication that attempts to create understanding about her actions of defense, and even that she does very poorly.” As an American Jew, I can shed some light about Jewish behavior. Many are too naive about the violent personality, and don’t understand what is necessary to contain it – a response of equal force. So let’s not quit on Israel even though most Jews are naïve about it. If she goes in the ocean, we will too. The writer Maya Angelou should be listened to as we ponder Iran’s intentions: “When people show you who they are, believe them, the first time.”
There is something in literature called “voluntary suspension of disbelief” (At least they USED to call it that – I’m old!:-) that allows people to read, and accept, totally unbelievable things. Like fairy tales. That’s what many of my Jewish friends and family did when they voted for Obama in the last election. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard, “I didn’t think he’d be THAT bad!” when referring to Obama’s treatment of Israel these past four years.
I know a handful of Jews who stayed home last election because they knew in their heart-of-hearts that Obama would be bad for Israel. (And G-d forbid they cast a vote for Sarah Palin!) Many more will do the same this election. Some will, for the first time in their lives, vote Republican (OY! OY! OY!), because they’re worried about Israel.
Obama will win the majority of Jewish votes. The only question is the number of Jews he will lose.
The most dangerous thing in politics is to have your vote taken for granted.
Losing 13 percent among Jewish voters (78-65) means he would not “win as comfortably among Jewish voters in 2012 as he did in 2008″
I figure that would mean a loss of about 670,000 votes for 0. It doesn’t seal the deal but I’ll take it.
Loss of 5% here and 2% there can add up. He’ll lose a small percentage of the black vote because of his gay marriage support, a portion of the Catholic vote for the same reason. Let’s hope it’s enough to get him out.
Of course Obama will get all the Jewish vote. I don’t understand why, but it is just the way it is.
Anyone who trusts an exit poll is being extraordinarily naive. Let us suppose that most Jews grasp the fact that there is a virulent antisemite in office, and one who not only threatens Israel but could easily stir-up antisemite hatred in the United States, if given the slightest pretext. So, who’s stupid enough to tell an exit poller — “Yeah, I voted Republican!” as I laugh. Saying “I voted Obama”, even when you did not, is a survival strategy.
IMHO exit polls are essentially worthless because they totally ignore the fastest-growing bloc of voters — those who vote early or absentee. Why anyone would stand in a long line on a Tuesday when they can vote early any day of the week (except Sunday) with little or no wait is beyond me.
Jewish American Democrats are “liberal” before they are “Jews”. Shameful.
Sadly, for many modern Jews, foremost among the Reform movement who have ‘copied and pasted’ the Democratic platform as the goals of their faith, being a “progressive” and devoted to “social justice” and other semantic vagueries of the Left, has replaced a belief in a Deity.
Despite this, I would have to concur that a drop in support from 78 to 65% would swing a place like Florida and isn’t unlikely. Shemeful given Obama’s record, irrational given where the Democratic party is headed but I’ll still take the shift.
Israel provides a first line of defense in the Middle East for THIS country. Abandoning Israel because of hostility to liberal Jews in the United States is a mistake. It would have repercussions on the ability of THIS country to defend itself against implacable enemies.
I am a registered Democrat from a family of life long working class Democrats. I did not vote for Obama and will not vote for Obama. Jewish support for Obama, according to many polls,has slipped by at least 40%. It will be more by election day. That is a sea change in the Jewish community. Obama’s actions towards Israel and Netanyahu, his associates such as Wright, Bell, Ayers and Rice have been instructive. And by the way he is destroying THIS country economically. All of his core constituencies should be taking note including Blacks, Hispanics, working class Catholics etc. etc. etc.
His disdain for Israel is important. His distain for America is crucial.
From your mouth to G-d’s ears.
When the attitude that if “they” have my phone number “they” can get my address reaches a tipping point polls become about as useful as those man on the street reports American journalists file from totalitarian countries. You know the ones I mean. The journalists are told to ask whatever questions they want. They do so and then file stories that everyone is marvelously happy in their workers paradise only to be flabbergasted when rebellion breaks out a month later.
Are we at that point? Maybe not yet but I suspect we are approaching it. Disgust with civic institutions such as the media, academia, unions and the federal government is at levels not seen in decades. Mix in the media’s constant message that to vote against a black man is racist with a government that has been out of control in its attacks on political enemies and I am not sure you can still make the assumption the answers being given pollsters are truthful.
Since most American Jews are secular Jews, a contradiction in terms that is nevertheless the way they live their lives, most will vote for Obama.
These pollsters are not talking to me or my friends. I was in a group of about 10 Jewish guys last week-all are voting for Romney.
I’m a Jewish Republican. The rest of my family are observant and visit Israel, claim to love Israel–but they hate all Republicans and love Obama. I put it to the pernicious influence of Jon Stewart, whom they seem to worship.
worships obama, and most of the congregation does also. why am I still there? to change a few minds, hopefully.
and the election? it happens what happens, malamud said in one of his stories.
but if you don’t talk to deluded fellow jews now, what can you say to them later?
and the torah service will always be there, and we gather for shabbos and the yamim tovim.
My small and unscientific sample agrees with most here, with just a small difference. The more orthodox are far more conservative politically. The more reform-ish, most leftward, Forward-reading elements still are all excited about Obama’s domestic policies but have mostly become skeptical about his support for Israel. It’s just that they cannot imagine ever voting for a Republican. Some may sit out, or maybe vote for Roseanne Barr or something.
the jewish voters who do vote for o, must never had read a newspaper, or watched a news program in the last 3 years or more likely, they just say they are jewish and do not seriously practice that religion.
It’s my understanding that 150,000 American Jews reside in Israel and will vote by absent ballot overwhelmingly for Romney because they fully understand what is at stake. Most of these votes will occur in swing states. They may not be enough to make a difference, but I’m looking for straws to clutch at this point.
It’s true that most of the American citizens living in Israel will vote for Romney. However, since most of us come from overly pro-Democratic states such as New York and California, those votes will not change the outcome, with the possible exception of Florida. Obama will have huge pluralities in New York and California which our absentee votes cannot overcome. Sad but true.
Why do Jewish voters support Obama?
Answer: They are deaf to facts,politically dumb and blind to reality.
I say this as a Jew who is forever frustrated with those Jews that live in an Alice and Wonderland World. Wake up; Obama is the mad Red Queen.
I hail from the rural South, where many Jewish families have roots that go back to antebellum times. Almost all of my Jewish friends are voting for Romney. Anecdotal, I know, but I think these are Jewish voters who do not get polled in “scientific” surveys. They love Israel but they love America more, and for both reasons they are scared of Obama.
While I certainly appreciate them voting for Romney, the pity is, they’re in the South which will go red anyway. Perhaps they can work on family/friends up north!
Yes, Obama will HOLD the Jewish vote. There are more marxist Jews than Orthodox Jews for sure! Watch!
If Jews go overwhelmingly for Obama in 2012, it bodes ill for Israel and the Jewish people in upcoming years.
Recently, I watched a film about the life of Golda Meir, and I was struck by just how boldly Nixon supported the nation during the 1973 war when it had the gravest threat to its existence since the war of independence. With no European nation even allowing landing rights, resupply cargo aircraft had to fly directly from the US to Israel. Tanks rolled off C-5s directly to the front.
In the past, Presidents of both parties from Truman have lent support to Israel, in part, because the Jewish vote has seem to make doing so advantageous. Yes, the Democrats still got more of their votes, but at least the Republicans (such as Nixon) could regard their support as winning some votes now and perhaps more in the future. It was a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. No one was hostile to Israel, so no one tested whether hostility to Israel and the Jews was cost-free politically.
Obama’s all-too-obvious hostility toward Israel has blown that away. He has treated the nation like dirt, and still the Jews are going to vote for him, at least according to the polls. That’s a strong signal to Democrats, in both local and national elections, that they can cater to Arab/Muslim immigrants, winning their vote without paying any cost in the Jewish vote. It’s also a signal to Republicans, in both domestic and international issues, that they’re wasting their time trying to help Jews or Israel beyond what is in our national interest.
The resulting impact of this heavy Obama voting tilt on both parties will be similar. Both parties will realize that, while the Jewish vote will still swing a few close elections, its not a vote that’s influenced by anything either party does. The Democratic party can treat Jews and Israel like dirt while the Republicans can do everything they can for them and Jews will still vote Democratic.
Indeed, perhaps the only real reason politicians of either party might want to assist Israel or help Jews in domestic clashes with Muslims is the Evangelical Protestant vote. I’m one of those myself, and while I may get frustrated with my co-religionists, their vote is one that does look at what politicians and parties do and changes their voting patterns accordingly. American Evangelicals think and act.
Jews, perhaps apart from the more conservative and orthodox who share social issues with their Christian counterparts, don’t do that. And once our political classes realize that, Jewish political voting is contentless, Jewish political power will shrink to virtually nothing. And this isn’t just about far-away Israel. As the dispute over subway ads in NYC indicates, in the years ahead, anti-Semitism is going to grow nastier and bolder here, inspired to a great extent, by the Obama administration’s willingness to pander to violence in the Middle East.
To sum it up succinctly:
James Baker: F*ck the Jews, they don’t vote for us anyway.
Barack Obama: F*ck the Jews, they’ll vote for me anyway.
American jews care about Israel as much as American blacks care about Africa. Their true nature is evident in their support for this President. Obama said it’s Bush’s fault for the problems here and it’s Israel’s fault for the problems there. One caused by a Christian and the other by the Jews, in his eyes that about covers who’s responsible for all the world’s problems. The sad irony is the Liberal Democratic Jewish vote identifies with a man who could be the facilitator of the next holocaust. Will history repeat itself? There were German jews who supported Hilter in the early years before his true nature became evident. Evil has the ability to assume a pleasing face and the devil knows it’s always been about identity with us. Identity will crucify integrity almost everytime. My jewish brothers and sisters, I hope and pray you can change. This election is about the fate of two nations, one Christian and one Jewish, bound together by one God and one Book, the only two in the world whose unity can be identified in those terms. Let us show the world that two great nations of two great religions can unite as one because our enemies are within and without and they are Legion.
Well said! Thank you.
For a beautifully written, intelligent account of both the rise of the Nazis, as well as how so many were fooled, check out the Eric Metaxas biography of the Christian martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy”.
I’m an observant Christian, who actually donates to Jewish organizations. I also “pray for the peace of Jerusalem” (Psalm 122).
I am utterly annoyed and, by now, really disgusted by the intransigence of so many Jews, who vote for the Democrats: in my country, Canada, they generally vote for their anti-Israeli, pro-Palestinian, political clones, the Liberals—or, worse, the kindergarten party, the socialist NDP. (More Jews are now, thankfully, voting for our adult, pro-Israel Conservatives. E.g., John Baird, our Minister of Foreign Affairs, has just chastised the UN. Our fine PM, Stephen Harper, passed on addressing the UN. Instead, he met with Benjamin Netanyahu on September 28.) I work with young children: I expect them to be irrational, self-centred, and stubborn—but so-called mature, extremely intelligent adults . . .
What.The.Heck.Is.Going.On?
I know for a fact that the Jewish people are, indeed, “G_d’s chosen people”. But consider how too many of them treat both Him and those of us who believe in Him! What’s so attractive about secular progressivism, which was responsible for the death of millions in the 20th century? Honestly, Jewish support for this ideology is perverse to the nth degree. Moses knew what I’m talking about! In the OT, the Jews are described as “stiff necked”. Of course, they need to be. But when the result of their stiff necks is support of their mortal enemies, it’s likely that those necks will be squeezed by a noose—and be stiff, along with those of the rest of us, in an entirely different way!
One wonders what it will finally take—before it’s altogether too late—for too many of such clever, accomplished, prosperous people to actually become truly WISE enough to choose truth and justice—LIFE!—over smoke and mirrors. Oy vey and Kyrie eleison!
(I’d love to hear from a Jewish supporter of Obama, who can explain why this serial liar and weasel impostor is still worth his/her vote.)
how sad that you buy into the liberal and media narrative that secular leftist JINOs are Jewish. They are the furthest thing from biblical Jews, unless you are referring the those that Yashua railed against. Even the notion of being a Jew having to do with the “race” of the mother has little or no biblical merit. Let them go and join together with those who honor G-d, the bible, country, family, values. The rest that you so dearly wish would vote “R” cannot be trusted, are of no value, and should not be honored by calling them “Jewish”. Whom will I stand side by side with in these times, my Christian brethren who bless Israel, or my fellow JINOs who curse her with a vote for the big 0 (that’s a zero folks). Hang in there brothers and sisters. We are out here, albeit still shrugging.
I should amend what I just said. It’s not the Jewish vote in 2012 that matters. After all, ballots are secret and exit polls are flawed. We can’t know for sure what that vote is.
What matters is the perception politicians have about the Jewish vote in this election. If Democratic politicians perceive that ignoring Jewish issues comes with no cost, Jewish leaders are going to find their phone calls are either not returned or not returned as promptly.
That means that the real problem lies with Jewish leaders and Jewish organizations who didn’t begin to tell the Obama administration last year that it needed to change or they would lose the Jewish vote–following that up with efforts to change that Jewish vote. They didn’t set consequences and costs then. Now, to a great extent, it is too late.
In a sense, the closest parallel to this are the elections of 1936 and 1940, when mainstream Jewish leaders (unlike the Orthodox) didn’t make trouble or put any pressure on FDR to increase immigration from Europe as anti-Semitism grew (and not just in Germany). Then, the rationale mainstream Jewish leaders gave was that they didn’t want to encourage anti-Semitism here. And therein lies the main difference. Today, support for Israel is strong outside some portions of liberalism, Muslim groups, and anti-Semitic black leaders such as Obama’s Chicago pastor. Nor are out economic woes being blamed on Jews in finance. Jews aren’t at risk of suffering any backlash any group that doesn’t already hate them. That makes the current inflexibility, stupidity, or cowardice of the Jewish leadership all that less defensible. They have nothing to fear from criticizing Obama and yet they don’t.
And keep in mind too that Israel and domestic Jewish concerns are closely linked. Those who yield to Arab pressure and threats of violence with respect to the former are likely to do so for domestic issues too. If anti-Semitism in this country, building on a Muslim base, starts to grow in this country, those Jews who live here will find themselves threatened even if they’ve never cared for Israel.
Nor is assimilation a protection, i.e. American liberal Jews being virtually identical in every way to their liberal counterparts. Germany’s Jews were perhaps the most assimulated in the world. That did them no good with Nazism began its rise to power. If having no specifically Jewish interests didn’t help the Jews of 1930s Germany, it’s not going to help the Jews of twenty-first century America. Anti-Semitism is a madness. It doesn’t need practical arguments to grow and feed hatred. All it takes is a Jewish name or a Jewish ancestor.
There’s an old medical adage that runs: In the early stages of a disease, diagnosis is difficult but treatment is easy. In the later stages of a disease, diagnosis is easy but treatment is difficult.
For Jews in America, a rapid shift is taking place between the early and later stages. In 2008, it was hard to see that Obama was bad for Jews. The only evidence were the rants of his pastor of 20 years. In 2012, things are getting much more complicated. Obama has demonstrated that someone can be overtly anti-Israel and covertly anti-Semitic without paying any serious major political costs. That’s make the defense of Jews, nationally and internationally, all that more difficult in the future. The difficult to diagnosis disease of 2008 has become the hard-to-treat disease of 2012.
–Michael W. Perry, Editor of Chesterton on War and Peace: Battling the Ideas and Movements that Led to Nazism and World War II
I am not religious and don’t have an in depth knowledge of Jewish history but I am familiar with the horror the Jewish people suffered during that infamous period in recent history known as the Holocaust. That they survived the determined efforts of a psychotic despot and those that blindly followed in his quest to create a “super race,” speaks volumes about the courageous persistence of the Jewish people to not just survive but to never again suffer another pogram. Given the horror of that event, one that many in the Middle East assert never happened, the Jewish people find themselves confronted by a set of far worse circumstances, an enemy that intends to finish what Hitler started. Hitler’s hatred for the Jews pales in comparison to that of Islamic fundamentalists who may very well have been the source of his evil inspiration.
That it is possible for any Jew, much less a majority anywhere on the planet, to forget this recent history and support Obama is beyond justification and understanding. Political affiliation is one thing but support for an individual that has an obvious malicious dislike for Israel, as evidenced by his treatment of Benjamin Netanyahu, and an obviously favorable bias for all things Muslim, as evidenced by a concerted effort to eradicate from the public discourse all reference to Muslim extremisnm or terrorism, is incomprehensible. In a more typically American political election contest where the bedrock principles associated with Democrats and Republicans are at stake a party line vote would be bothersome but likely not considered by most to be a fearful, irreversible circumstance . But this election is not that. This election is about bedrock republican principles vs a candidate and administration that, after four, long, tortuous years remains an enigma, led by a darling of a disturbingly biased press, an extremely competent and potentially dangerous con man, a community organizer able to charm the socks off an electorate deliberately and determinedly kept in a state of political ignorance.
This poll, if accurate and unbiased, indicates that a majority of American Jewry are within this group and is demonstrative of a disturbing level of the same ignorance and lack of national identity that allowed the European Jews to be led like lambs to the slaughter by Hitler. Is this even possible?
In the 9/28/12 edition of the Jewish Express there was an informal poll of its readers required to answer two multiple choice questions: Who are you voting for and Who do you think will win. Each had three answers: Obama, Romney and Other. Out of 1302 votes the answer to the first question was Romney over Obama, 71% to 20% and to the second, Romney over Obama 44% to 36%; [http://www.jewishpress.com/pollsarchive/].
Factor this into your deliberations and please do vote Romney/Ryan regardless of your party affiliation. Obama is no democrat and can anyone calmly contemplate a President Joe Biden should that ever come to pass?
Yes, I’m afraid it is. See Dr. Bernard Kirzner @55.
The Jewish population as that of the US, can say they remember the past, but actually experience the past: (WWII, slavery, depression etc.) is another thing.
People need to be careful with their next vote: WWIII or another depression may not be the experience they wish to have.
Obama needs a new slogan….Forward just ain’t cutting it, since he’s constantly looking backward (“Bush did this, Bush did that….”) I’d like to propose a slogan which would accurately reflect Obama’s attitudes and core beliefs.
New slogan:
America…shamerica…
What a deluge of comments, interesting to read them, after the article, which is isn’t convincing in its numbers. I can add that I feel ashamed as a European-Israeli Jew in respect to the US Jewish population in general. I deeply hate socialism and all smells of leftist ideas. As for the part of the US Jews, they haven’t woken up from their comfortable cocoon; the wake up call will come late, for some of them too late…
Like he said, most Jews are not religious at all. Their religion is Marxism. Jews tend to combine high intelligence with great amounts of envy. I once worked with two Jewish stock brokers in an office. Both were raving, avowed, socialists and one was a campaign treasurer for a Demo congressman. Besides envy, they are highly irrational and emotional. They don’t reason from facts. Most Jews hate being Jews, too. Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it.
How many Jews do you know who hate being Jews? I’m Jewish, and have known a few thousand who all appear to me to love it. Sure, it’s tough being the target of a lot of needy people who want US to convert religions so THEY don’t have to worry about OUR eternal souls, but that doesn’t mean we hate being Jews. We hate the religious arrogance in some people of other faiths, and the burden that places on Jews. Big difference.
“The economy (at 61%) and health care (at 16%)”
I’m stunned. So…they approve of the dems taxing the death out of them and throwing money at all the useless, wasteful programs for another 4 years? I though they were smarter than that with their money.
Then “Health Care”. The majority of doctors I know and go to are Jewish and belong to AIPAC too. And they despise Obummer and his anti Israeli stance. Every Jewish family I know has a doctor or a banker in the family too. What gives?
So basically, Obamacare means all the Catholic hospitals shut down and all the Jewish doctors move to Israel.
Of course Obama will carry the Jewish vote. Jews overwhelmingly vote Democrat. Why do we question this fact every election?
Of course he will….he’s offered em all a free cell phone. They’re no smarter than the poor people.
American Jews have forgotten “Never Again.” Too bad they’re not in Israel, safe here among the Evangelical Prots. Idiots.
How about this: Jewish Americans are credentialed up the wazoo… but just are not very intelligent?
I agree with your premise Heather, but I would word it differently. I find the majority of American Jews reasonably to very intelligent, but not terribly wise.
And wisdom trumps intellect…
OK, wisdom is important. But credentialism is the golden idol of modern American Jewry: the thinking being, if only one has piled PhDs upon PhDs, upon work for non-profits, then one is untouchable, and much much smarter than the hoi polloi; Especially, smarter than one’s ancestors who were sweaty workers in trade.
This is a re-run of the end of the British Aristocracy. Just replace “credentials” with “land”, and you have American Jewry’s story. British Aristocracy was destroyed at the Somme. We may be sitting in a front row seat, watching our 21st century version, Haifa and Jerusalem.
This tragedy does not make me sad. It makes me very very angry.
You need to understand though, that the Israeli is a completely different species. For reasons historical, psychological, and very involved, the Israeli is much more comfortable in his own skin than the typical American Jew.
I believe it is pretty simple, Snork. At the risk of broad stroke, IMO and my understanding, the typical Israeli Jew has a far better understanding of what it what it means to be a Jew, and what the shared bond of calling one self Jewish really represents.
group-think is the most influential factor in the country.
You can even see it here when a commentor (or a contibutor) deviates from the conventional conservative wisdom du jour.
Leftists exploit group-think big-time. The cases with Jews and Blacks are similar. Jews follow their premier intellectuals. Blacks follow their premier entertainers and sports heros.
Conservatives should make more of an effort to win over opinion setters, but conservatism is more natually iconoclastic…the natural desire of conservatives (and even more strongly for many libertarians) is just to be left alone.
It’s important to remember that Western Jews were not only left-wing, they were among the staunchest advocates of Leftism.
This goes back to their experiences in Europe, in which regimes dominated by staunch Christians persecuted Jews terribly: The Spanish Inquisition, the Russian pogroms, etc. The rationale for said persecutions was the (false) accusation that Jews had gotten Jesus killed.
In response to this, Jews advocated secularism, in the belief that only under a regime that didn’t take direction from Christianity could they be free of Christian-inspired persecutions. In addition, some rabbis claimed to have seen a congruence between economic socialism and some teachings in the Talmud.
The list of Jewish leftist activists and philosophers is rather long. Jews were active in socialist labor movements (the Workman’s Circle was a socialist labor organization for Jewish blue-collar workers). Jews were active in radical feminist movements (Andrea Dworkin, Bella Abzug, etc.) Jews were active in antiwar movements (Abbie Hoffman, Noam Chomsky, etc.)
Even Israel was originally set up as a democratic socialist state, with its network of communal farms (kibbutzim).
So it’s not at all surprising that so many of these Jews back Obama. Jewish leftism dates back at least 150 years.
It is true that the Jews rejected Jesus as their Messiah and King and called for Him to be crucified. It is equally true that they said, “His Blood be upon our heads and our children.” That said, only God has the right to call this to account, and furthermore, that curse becomes a blessing for those who repent, for instead of being blood-guilt, it is now the Blood that washes away guilt.
Where do I begin?
I have seen not one comment from a Liberal, which says something about who reads this column. But I will try to do my best to answer what I can.
1) Knowledge talks. Wisdom listens. American Jews are more likely Democratic for a reason. You just have to take us seriously when we talk. You need to listen better.
People on this site are presenting all kinds of disrespectful rationales for the majority of Jews thinking and voting Liberal/Democratic. I have heard no counter-arguments here to the commonly expressed reasons why Jews vote Democratic. You guys weren’t listening.
American Jews are Liberal because we value the constiutional protections of the Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion. The Republicans haven’t been as concerned as the Democrates on these issues. The Republicans seem to value the intrusion of Religion into our public life, putting clearly religious values and preferences upon us all. Republicans want government money spent on religious schooling, vouchers for religious schools. Repoublicans are pushing for draconian religious restrictions on birth control and abortion. Judaism has a centruies old Talmudic protection of the mother over the fetus if only one is to survive.
A majority of Jews want to keep Church/Synagogue and State separate. We trust the Democrates more on these type of issues. It is the best protection Jews have against anti-semitism to have a separation of Church and State.
There aren’t any Democrates in the crazy Islomaphobia issue, but the ADL lists all those crazy radical religious right actions against Muslim Americans in the ADL magazine. The ADL. Protecting Muslims’ right to speak is the best thing we can do to protect Jews’ freedom in America, whether Israel and Palstinians are friends or enemies. We protect us, Jews, best by having a neutral stance for All Americans speaking up. That’s the best response to books burning and riots in the Arab world.
We trust the Democrats more to sustain the Constitutional rights of all citizens. That takes nothing away from our support for Israel.
2) Obama and Israel.
A lot of American Jews wouldn’t have voted for Netanyahu if we could vote in the Israeli elections. Did he actually get a majority of the vote in Israel? We dont’ have to take everything he says as in the best interest of Israel. We can criticize him and still support Israel. WE can disagree with him and still be looking out for Israel. We can dislike policies and still support the country, just as we could and can dislike a war but still like the country or the soldiers who are ordered to fight in it. We don’t become enemies because we disagree, do we?
Liberals, and Liberal Jews, don’t feel safe voting for people who say, “Agree with me or else you are a traitor and you should emegrate to someplace else.” Republicans have said that many times. I can’t remember a Liberal Democrat saying that. And we should feel safe as Jews living under a government that tolerates disent. We dont feel as safe under REpublicans.
I feel a lot safer for Israel and for Jews if we are supporting the freedoms of our country, rather than knee jerk supporting everything Netanyahu says. Sometimes the truth hurts. Israel having a ally who doesn’t say yes to every request can supply some perspective. Friends can say things enemies can’t. The US under Obama or Romeny stays that friend to Israel. They are not that far apart, but I trust the think-before-you-speak Obama more than the shoot-from-the-hip Romney, but you guys don’t have to leave the country if you disagree with me.
Thank-you Bernard for your input, although I could counter every point you made it’s obvious your mind is set against anything that could ultimately shake it to its core, our people’s history has proven that fact over and over again, I guess it’s part of the jewish , every group has it’s own. The fact is this Democratic Party is not our father’s Democratic Party and that seems to allude you. Anti-semitism is rampant on the Left but you choose not to see it. I have seen it face to face. The God that the Democrats removed from their party platform was our God. The God that the same Democrats booed was the same God you and I pray to, if you do indeed pray, most American Jews use their religion for social networking for business and making money just as most Christians do, Muslims use their’s to preach ways to kill us both. The fact that you needed to put M.D. after your name proves my intial point that it’s all about identity and despite your formal training it also proves my other point, education does not necessarily denote intelligence. When the hand writing is on the wall only a fool will choose not to see it.
Don’t break your arm patting yourself on the back.
all ass backwards, Doc, and are way too far gone to help.
But don’t worry, if G-d forbid, Obama is re-elected, you’ll find out soon enough.
Hope and pray it never happens, for your own sake Doc.
I could pick your reasoning apart reason by reason and line by line with numerous examples of your mistakes, but really all that needs to be said to expose you as an utter fool and/or fraud is this.
This theocracy you fear, Dr. Kirzner? I hope you note that the Democratic Party the newly adopted party of the vast majority of Muslims. And I look around this globe, I can give numerous examples of theocracies, and virtually all Muslim.
And being it was mostly Protestant Christians who wrote the Constitution providing us with the Bill of Rights, and being we’ve now existed 236 years without this phantom Christian theocracy you fear, and being at least three out of four people in this country still would call themselves Christian, you’re either woefully confused, willingly blind, or egregiously dishonest.
I really hate it when people misrepresent Jewish teachings. The Talmud does command abortion in the case of danger to the mother’s life. But the very same Talmud also forbids partial birth abortions (Ohaloth 7:6, if I remember right). Abortion is a sin in Judaism whose God told the world, “Choose life” (Deuteronomy 30:19).
[Knowledge talks. Wisdom listens. American Jews are more likely Democratic for a reason. You just have to take us seriously when we talk. You need to listen better.
I have heard no counter-arguments here to the commonly expressed reasons why Jews vote Democratic. You guys weren’t listening.]
We are listening: From Cairo- June 2009; through Cairo/Libya September 2012, more importantly we have eyes open!
[American Jews are Liberal because we value the constitutional protections of the Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion.] Your tolerance has led to intolerance.
[The Republicans haven’t been as concerned as the Democrats on these issues. The Republicans seem to value the intrusion of Religion into our public life, putting clearly religious values and preferences upon us all. Republicans want government money spent on religious schooling, vouchers for religious schools. ]
Vouchers for religious schools: For Americans who pay real estate taxes into the public school districts and still pay parochial school tuition. I value our constitutional protections and have the right to Freedom of Religion.
[Republicans are pushing for draconian religious restrictions on birth control and abortion. Judaism has a centuries old Talmudic protection of the mother over the fetus if only one is to survive.]
You have drunk the LLMSM cool-aid! Roe versus Wade has not, nor will it be repealed, it wasn’t under Reagan or both Bush(s); No one and that includes Republicans wants to go back to the days of back alley abortions.
[A majority of Jews want to keep Church/Synagogue and State separate. We trust the Democrats more on these types of issues. It is the best protection Jews have against anti-Semitism to have a separation of Church and State.
There aren’t any Democrats in the crazy Islomaphobia issue,]
New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, N.Y. Gov. David Paterson, Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY), Comedians Bill Maher to name a few and Jon Stewart, who likes to play both sides of the fence.
[But the ADL lists all those crazy radical religious right actions against Muslim Americans in the ADL magazine. The ADL!]
NO NOT THE ADL – it’s the ACLU. The same ACLU that defended the Nazis right to march in Skokie, IL.
[Protecting Muslims’ right to speak is the best thing we can do to protect Jews’ freedom in America, whether Israel and Palestinians are friends or enemies.]
Listen to yourself!
You are defending the rights of YOUR enemies.
Why is it Democrats completely ignore that Muslims only want free speech for themselves? Why is it Democrats completely ignore that Muslims want freedom of religion only for themselves? Not for Jews, Christians, Atheists, etc.
[We trust the Democrats more to sustain the Constitutional rights of all citizens.]
Hillary Clinton condemned the anti-Islam video as “disgusting and reprehensible. How did Obama respond?
He condemned anyone who might have “hurt the religious feelings of Muslims.”
The Islamists killed 4 people, What about their rights?
.
[That takes nothing away from our support for Israel.]
The Democrats favor the Islamists. The Islamists refuse to accept Israel as a country. They want to wipe Israel off the map. To be Jewish is to support Israel. You cannot pretend to compartmentalize the two.
There is a mindset among American Jews – if things get really bad here (US) I can always go to Israel.
What happens if there is no Israel?
“If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them”
Karl Popper
AmericanLiberal Jews are Liberal because we value the constiutional protections of the Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion.No, you don’t.
Dear Mr kirzner, you are living in a bubble , separated from reality and history in a marvelous fairy-tale way.Since 1993 (the 1st twin towers attack ) the Western world has seen a full-blown intellectual-cultural-military-demographic offensive by militant islam either sunni or chiite or plainclothed in state-cloured disguise .It took place and is still going on in the Mideast ,Europe, America, Asia ,Africa.That you prefer to rationalize this reality and bury yourselves in your PAROCHIAL american ( state vs church-freedom of speech – civil rights etc..) is a nice camouflage :maybe you are naive, maybe you are frightened, may be you are provincial and parochial.And imho you are assuming all those postures.So I will stop trying to explain to you the world reality , the acute thresold of historical events that will be crossed once your charming prince BHO will be reelected . Keep your eyes wide shut , and do not bother one more second for the rest of us jews in Europe,Israel .Rumkowski had to shoot himself, your “so-moral” posture is nothing else but an invitation to turn your head to the other side while a second holocaust is on the boiler.
I need to make a correction concerning history : Rumkowski the judenrat chief in the Lodz ghetto was killed in auschwitz, but Adam Czerniakow judenrat chief in the Warsaw ghetto commited suicide.Of course you are not identified with any of those sad and depressing charactewrs. After all they acted on behalf of their nazis masters , exactly as the jewish courtisans of Obama act now to please the president who will speed up the second holocaust.That you remain a commited democrat in the present circumstances just shows how disconnected from reality you are.But your last sentence ( Obama thinks before he speaks- Vs Romney who shoots from the hip ) underline your total aloofness and despise of the people are maimed, killed, raped , dismembered ,thanks to the world muslim offensive and among them christian, jews, copts,non-believers , free-thinkers , who suffer from your apathy and inertia in front of historical events.
i have always had questions as to why, leading up to wwii, more well off Jewish people didn’t just get out. things didn’t just happen overnight. there was a buildup of animosity, signs. things were going south for the Jews, yet they just hung in there, and had their rights taken away, slowly at first from what i have read. i don’t want to judge those doomed people, just never could understand it. here in the America of our founding fathers, we still have weapons (no thanks to obama and hitlery) so 6 million people = 6 million armed resistance fighters, and we number a lot more than that.
today, i no longer wonder. i see for myself the same thing now. dishonest, underhanded people who wouldn’t spit on Jews, guaranteed their vote, and with no gain in sight. i once considered them a smart people too. wasn’t it the progressives in russia who, after they had won power, rounded up all the party ‘intellectuals’ and either stood them in front of a wall, or sent them to siberia to die? weren’t those the ‘useful idiots’ that helped the commies to power? this obama bunch worships at the same may pole, they are just still on the alinski page about denial being necessary until the objective has been realized. unless i miss my bet, that phase will begin nov. 7, if we lose the election, or maybe either way. however, we are prepared and won’t be so easily rounded up. over 900 new executive orders taking our rights away won’t mean diddly when the fur starts flying.
perhaps bedlam, mayhem and destruction of our country is all part of the plan. then again, who on G-d’s green earth could have imagined the destruction soon to be unleashed on the world by a bunch of pompus clowns?
but it sure is part of what’s-his-name, you-know-who’s nasty plan, being the prick that he is.
What utter poppycock, Dr. Bernie! Listen up.
I started reading your note with high hopes—dashed within a few seconds, as I “listen[ed] better”.
Among other preposterous things, you say, “American Jews are Liberal because we value the constiutional [sic] protections of the Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion . . . A majority of Jews want to keep Church/Synagogue and State separate”. Really? What about the Obama administration removing the Catholic Church’s First Amendment rights in order to “push . . . for draconian [intrusive, state control of] birth control and abortion”? Where HAVE you been?
Re Israel, you’re almost incoherent: “. . . Liberals, and Liberal Jews, [sic] don’t feel safe voting for people who say, ‘Agree with me or else you are a traitor and you should emegrate [sic] to someplace else.’ Republicans have said that many times.” Who? When? Where? You also say, “. . . we should feel safe as Jews living under a government that tolerates disent [sic] . . .” How about Obama’s DOJ and how it deals with “dissenters”? How about his, “You bring a knife to a fight? We bring a gun”, etc.
Obama is the uber shoot from the hip guy: “I don’t know all the facts but I think the police acted stupidly”; “The Libyan disaster is because of the movie”. “Trayvon Martin looks like the son I never had”, etc., etc.
I’m already out of your country. ’Too bad people like you aren’t—and have a vote! (BTW, I don’t think you speak for even liberal Jews. Good thing. And I still don’t know why such apparently intelligent people vote against their own, best interests.)
Hell, how about the Obama administration pulling somebody out of bed at 0 buttcrack thirty and hauling his ass to jail for blaspheming islam? First amendment, my itching butt.
Last Jew…sell.. rope to hang…next to last Jew.
You get the picture?
Was it Hitler… or The Romans, the Spanish, the English, the Dutch, the Germans…ad nauseum. The French were never your pals, either.
Were Marx, Lenin, Goebbels, (even, perhaps Himmler), the Rosenbergs, Saul Alinsky, Albert Shanker, et al, members of some strange Christian sect?
Noone stands taller in defense of Israel than I. But when I condemn Arabs for claiming exemptions from proper conduct up to and including murder by saying it’s just “extremists”, not real Arabs, I always get a lump in my throat, knowing that Jews will justify anything other Jews do, just because it wasn’t them, personally. Karl Marx is responsible for millions of dead across the globe, yet millions of American Jews still think him the greatest guy the world has ever known. Where do you think those stupid Arabs learned it? Alas, at the knee of their other Middle Eastern Brethren.
Keep voting for commie a-holes, Jews. I hope you will forgive the rest of us from failing to support you. Voting is a decision. When so many Jews always vote against us, how can you expect us to defend you? Especially when you don’t even defend yourselves.
The commies and Arabs are planning your ultimate destruction. I always wondered why more Germans didn’t rally to your support in the ’30s. I’m beginning to see their quandary: why should I help those who aid in their own destruction.
Gut check time. You say, “Never again.” Yet, you support, actively, the very scum who wish you dead. Liberals would leave you as roadkill and never spare you a thought. Any NGO that supports Palestinians boasts an alarming number of Jews on its board. George Soros should be on an Israeli hit list for his betrayals during WW2. He should be public enemy number one for what he’s doing, now.
Again. Why should we defend you, when you won’t even defend yourselves? Indeed, the greatest Jew hunters have always been undoubted Jews themselves.
Go ahead. Vote for Ostupidhead. Don’t worry. They won’t come for you ’til later. Meanwhile, rope sales will be booming.
“Will Obama Hold the Jewish Vote?”
It depends (as you might expect) on what is meant by the *Jewish* vote.
Does one mean “practicing” Jews or mere Jews by ethnic default who may as well be Zoroastrians or what the hell ever.
More precisely, and meaningfully, the question should be: “Will Obama Hold the pro-Israel Jewish Vote?”.
Anyone who votes to re-elct the LYING , Unqualified, Incompetent, Inefficient USURPER for a second time is either a Benefit Junkie a dedicated Communist an Islamic infiltrator or a certified maniac.
If the American voting public does re-elect Barry HUSSEIN Soetero Kardashian then there is no hope left for a country where the populace are so moronic and they will get the Government their STUPIDITY deserves.
There has always been plenty of ‘disgusting and stupid Jews’ from the Warsaw Ghetto controllers to the Concentration Kamp Kapos to the Obama loving Jewish morons of todays voters.
They and most other Americans too would do well to remember the wise words of Sir Winston Churchill who said:-
“An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.”
He also was wise when he said:-
“Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has no heart; and any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains.”
And he certainly knew Islam too his words about that CULT being as true today as when he first said them in the 1870′s . Words which the whole of Western Civilization would be well advised to heed.
“How dreadful are the curses which Islam lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live.
A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property‹either as a child, a wife, or a concubine must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Muslims may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen; all know how to die; but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it.
No stronger retrograde force exists in the world.
Far from being moribund, Islam is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science -the science against which it had vainly struggled -the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome.”
The good Doctor at #55 proves my revolutionary contention: the modern American Jew is just not bright. Great credential… but moderate IQ.
We have a liberal Jewish friend who made it perfectly clear what her thoughts are, “Would you have this country send your sons to fight and defend Israel?” Its hard to point out that not one American soldier has ever had to fight to defend Israel. Israel prides itself that it is capable of defending itself. I would put an Israeli female soldier up against most soldiers of most countries. The real problem is how do you get America to defend itself. All the Grad missiles, anti-tank missiles, mortar shells and small arms our soldiers had to face in Iraq and Afghanistan came from Iran. Nothing is ever said about it.
The Democrat world-view that still holds an anachronistic stranglehold on many Jews has to be reminded that no ethnic vote is cast in stone, that Jewish support for Republican or Fusion candidates like Jacob Javitz and Fiorello La Guardia turned its back on the corrupt Democratic Tammany political machine in New York in the 1940s and 50s. Jews, from the time of the first post-Civil War election until 1932 traditionally voted Republican or even Socialist rather than for the party identified in large parts of the country until the 1960s with Sunday “blue laws,” discrimination against blacks, and segregation.
Even as late as 1948 American Jews were still sufficiently sober and proud to give a deserved slap in the face to the Democrats in the run up to the presidential election of 1948 in spite of their idealization of FDR. By early 1948, Truman had been cowed by his State Department advisers to abandon the partition proposal for Palestine and were preparing to announce that U.S. preferred “international trusteeship”– meaning no Jewish state.
White House adviser Max Lowenthal urgently warned Truman that if a Jewish state were proclaimed without U.S. recognition, Republicans, the left leaning American Labor Party and the newly formed leftwing Progressive Party under former Vice President Henry Wallace would lead a chorus of protests and capture the Jewish vote. The administration would pay a high political price in Jewish votes for it is especially important in the upcoming presidential election. Truman received crucial phone calls from Bronx Democratic leader Ed Flynn and former New York governor Herbert Lehman, warning about the electoral repercussions in New York if he abandoned the Jews. A Congressional vote in the Bronx had already unseated a veteran Jewish Democrat to fill a vacant seat and Truman realized he had to make good on his original pledge of partition and recognition of Israel.
Under Democrat President Wilson, with his dismissal of Blacks from federal jobs, apathy to lynching, restrictive immigration policy, attendance at a special festive showing of the racist film Birth of a Nation in the White House, sympathy for the Ku Klux Klan and promotion of the notorious sedition laws (‘red scares’) in which thousands of East European and Jewish immigrants were deported and imprisoned for their stand against American entry into the war, caused a revulsion among Jewish voters. In 1920, they threw out two Democrat Jewish congressmen and elected 10 Republicans and two Socialists to Congress. This information that no ethnic vote is cast in stone hasn’t yet been absorbed by Jewish dinosaurs who can swallow any insult and proclaim that black is white or that Jewish values mean same sex marriage and unlimited abortion as long as the democrats have proclaimed that it is “progressive.”
Many Jewish liberals whose identity had been stamped three generations ago by their grandparents under FDR, continue to picture themselves as enlightened and the true inheritors of the mantle of Jewish concerns for “social justice,” followed Obama wherever he led, rather than view the candidates with an open mind. This election will see the pot boil over for those Jews who need no more evidence. They will have to face up to taking the cure or remain partners in their own demise as an influential and respected community.
It is of course, non-Jews who can most clearly discern this. Whatever exceptional respect Jews have enjoyed has stemmed primarily not from winning Noble Prizes but from the close association in the minds of most American Christians that the Jews imparted much of their high ethical code, moral values and beliefs in the dignity of all people through Christ and the New Testament to all humanity.
It is no accident that Martin Luther King (a life-long Republican and a strong friend of the State of Israel) was animated to appeal to non-violence and the words of the scriptures from the Old Testament to convince his white fellow citizens in the cause of equal rights for his people. What would the Reverend King have done at the DNC in Charlotte were he still alive?
He would have told the nay-sayers that they have rejected their own dearest heritage and that generations of Christian clergymen and statesmen from Disraeli through Sir Winston Churchill and President Harry Truman came to advocate the Zionist cause. Without their help and encouragement there would indeed be no Israel today – “a world without Zionism” as the Iranians would like to contemplate. Israel cannot be undone and not just because of the heritage of the Bible alone.
As early as February 1941 in spite of the wholehearted desire of the American Protestant establishment not to risk involvement in World War II, Reinhold Niebhur spoke out convincingly through the journal he founded “Christianity and Crisis” and sounded a clarion call of warning about Nazism. Its final goals were not simply the eradication of the Jews but the extirpation of Christianity and the abolition of the entire heritage of Christian and humanistic culture.
This is the only kind of “World Without Zionism” that the Iranian and many Arab leaders long for. Niebhur based his views not on any literal “Evangelical” interpretation of Biblical promises but the essentials of justice for the nations and also called for some form of compensation to those Arabs in Palestine who might be displaced if their own leaders refused to make any compromise possible.
Liberal Jews who cannot be dissuaded from their narcotic like support of the Democrats take refuge in spurning Israel to feel comfortable with the “Progressive” camp or recall that their major interest is really in furthering what they think is “social justice,” linking it to the traditional Jewish concern for “Tikkun Olam” (Repair of the World). In this regard they are mistaken and have accepted the contemporary Hollywood ultra-liberal Reform interpretation that Jewish tradition and the Biblical injunctions of the prophets promoted what they think are “progressive” social and economic policies. As argued cogently by biblical scholars not in the thrall of apologizing for the Democratic Party and author Hillel Halkin in his article “How Not to Repair the World” (Commentary magazine, July, 2008), the expression “Tikkun Olam” is not the automatic Liberal agenda on social and economic policy so fondly embraced by a majority of the Jewish electorate – including abortion, feminism, pacifism, opposition to gun rights, affirmative action, environmental conservation, etc.
On almost all these issues, observant Jews are fundamentally at odds with the Secular/Liberal Jewish majority. Basically, the thrust of Tikkun Olam is in the opposite direction…. “For the Sake of the Public Interest” rather than “Repairing the World.” It was this concept that was cited by many rabbis in the Middle Ages when they ruled that Jewish communities should not rescue Jewish captives taken by pirates if it meant paying an excessive ransom. To do so would actually encourage more attempts at kidnapping and put the entire community at greater risk.
Indeed, several varying concepts are embraced under the terms “Tikkun Olam” but the predominant one that emerged from the two great failed revolts of Judea against Roman rule in 70 and 135 A.D. that ended Jewish independence for almost two thousand years, was the fundamental need NOT for prophetic utopian visions but the necessity for laws, authority, routines, and organization to prevent future wild and unrealistic messianic fervor.
Likewise, appeals to Jews by Democrats committed to higher and higher taxes for the “common good” ignore the many rabbinic rulings and Old Testament’s definition of charity as a purely voluntary act and that its highest form is from an anonymous donor to an anonymous recipient. Taxation to support the priestly class was the tithe – a flat tax of 10%, NOT a progressive one! Their scant knowledge of both the Bible and Talmud is, as could be expected, derived from supporters of a wholly secular Democratic platform.
Some prominent American Jews, particularly among those who cannot escape the trance they have inherited as “progressives” and are essentially secular and ultra-critical of capitalism and American society with its underlying Christian values, have developed a new kind of psychological self-hatred to exhibit a disassociation from the State of Israel and their religious heritage. They are upset over the close Israeli-American friendship and wish to be absolved from the heinous charge that they once may have actually subscribed to a sense of Jewish solidarity when that meant only solidarity with victimhood – the Jews as eternal martyrs.
Now, that Jewish solidarity is politically incorrect and Israel is so resented as a successful and prosperous society by so many among the world’s poor and “oppressed,” they must seek compensation and expiation from their fellow “progressives” by identifying with the prevailing winds of antisemitism disguised as anti-Zionism. What has changed over the past 40 years is that many prosperous and decadent Europeans and Americans feel embarrassed by the Israelis’ gallant defense of their homeland against great odds.
Sixty years after its founding, Israel has become an outcast among the nations and the Jews a pariah people once again. How did this occur? From Darling of the Left to Pariah State, subject to continual venomous attacks coming from those who consider themselves “progressive“ and “morally sensitive,“ i.e. the mainline churches, university faculties clamoring to boycott and “disinvest“ from Israeli owned companies, the media elite and those on the Left side of the political spectrum to which, at least half the Democrat delegates in Charlotte, roared their approval.
The Diaspora Jewish critics of Israel easily see its many flaws (both real and imagined) among which, the worst is that Israel, like America is a “privileged” society, enjoying wealth amidst a world of misery. Why should American Liberal Jews renounce their previous worship of the Hollywood Celebrity Cult of “cool” as proclaimed in dozens of Woody Allen movies? This fitting idol of the Jewish Cultural Left (there is a statue in his honor in the Spanish city of Oviedo) granted an interview to the Spanish newspaper, Vanguardia, on May 17, 2010 Allen stated “I am pleased with Obama. I think he’s brilliant. The Republican Party should get out of his way and stop trying to hurt him. It would be good…..if he could be a dictator for a few years because he could do a lot of good things quickly.” This from the man who is a major critic of Israel which he has never visited, made a career out of ridiculing Jewish tradition, mocked his parents and changed his name, and married his former wife’s adopted daughter.
A majority of Jewish voters are either unconcerned with the increasingly low moral image of the Party’s politicians and candidates and party hacks (David Axelrod, Rahm Emanuel, Elliot Spitzer, Richard Blumenthal, and Anthony Wiener). Collectively these five represent some of the worst in American politics. Both Joe Lieberman and former Democratic governor/senator of Georgia, Zell Miller told the Democrat party faithful the same message when they supported George Bush and John McCain – the Democratic Party is a national party no longer! For many Jews, still in a time warp of the 1930s, the message is only slowly beginning to penetrate.
Being the atheist conservative I`d prefer more friendly attitude towards the “secular” Jews.I`m sure that many “secular” Jews are quite consrevative in key economical questions but the difficult problems of the “Judeo-Christian heritage” frighten them off.
What “difficult problems of the ‘Judeo-Christian heritage’”?
If the Judeo-Christian heritage were so difficult, why have Jews flocked to and prospered in societies founded on “Judeo-Christian” virtues: freedom and rule of law?
Mere assertion doesn’t cut it, PR. Chapter and verse, please.
I find it disturbing when a practitioner of one religion belittles another. An atheist believes there is no god. That is your belief and you are entitled to it. Say what you will of your belief, but to refer to another belief system as having difficulties and being frightening is bigotry.
The sad fact remains that demographics show religious voters do not always follow their faith when voting. Many choose to ignore their religious faith in favor of their political faith. Truth be told, I find both major parties and pretty much all significant other parties to have elements of their platform contrary to my faith.
Please don’t vote for the Socialist Antisemite!!!
Russian Jews vote for Republicans 4:1. Why are American Jews afraid to vote in their favor?
This point you make about the vote of Jews, while a continuing and supposed conundrum, is the distinction “Jews” v the “Malshinem”. See prayer #12 of the 18 prayers (“Shemona Esre”) said 3 times each day. This 12th addition dates from 70, the destruction of the Second Temple, the greatest disaster ever, to this day.
RJL