[BurkesLaw]

Hmmmmmmm.

[dfwgator]

I ask the same question about American Catholics.

[cynicom]

To Bush the jews are fair weather friends. If Kerry were to take a pro Israel stance, they would drop Bush like a pair of dirty socks.

[kinsman redeemer]

I recently asked my 80 year old Jewish friend (who is VERY intelligent and VERY up-to-date on current events) that very question.

His answer: "I never thought about that before... Good point!

I guess he had a brain burp and was finally glad to be relieved of the pressure.

[Rummyfan]

It's a mystery.....

Bush is a better friend to Israel than any democratic President since Truman yet Jews are in the majority Democrats......

The Democrats are the party of abortion on demand with no restrictions yet the majority of Catholics remain Democrats....

Democrats keep blacks down through their control of the public school system and backing of affirmative action, yet blacks are overwhelmingly Democrats.....

It's a mad, mad world!

[Temple Owl]

The two persons, who may the brightest persons walking on planet earth, are Jews named Milton and Rose Friedman. They vote Republican.

[Ciexyz]

Maybe because their organization leaders tell them to?

[clintonh8r]

I've wondered about this for a long time. It's even more puzzling now, with all the anti-semitism on the left.

[bert]

HOW CAN SO MANY AMERICAN JEWS STILL SUPPORT THE DEMOCRATS?

It is quite simple really, the American Jews are at heart socialists. Democrats are socialists. QED

[MrB]

I've actually heard it explained (from a Jew) like this:

Just as the Democrat party keeps minorities on the plantation by saying "we'll protect you from mean ol' racist whitey"

the Jews keep voting Democrat because they have an "us vs them" attitude toward the "Goyem" who are always out to get them.

In reality, it's the Left that's really out to do them in.

The right has a problem with its attitude toward groups in that we ignore their "groupness" and treat them as individuals that must all live up to the same standards of behavior in society. This non-pandering doesn't win them to our side.

[VadeRetro]

HOW CAN SO MANY AMERICAN JEWS STILL SUPPORT THE DEMOCRATS?

You still see some of that in the South. Zell Miller is still a Democrat, although he doesn't support them on much of anything anymore. "My Granddaddy was a Democrat. My Daddy was a Democrat. So I'm a Democrat."

[rightwingcrazy]

It took the South about a century for it to loosen its embrace of the Democrat party. These things take time.

[Robert A Cook PE]

What is amazing is that ANY supporter of Israel could support Kerry:

He has demanded that all international controls be passed to the UN, notorious for its anti-Isreali demands and resolutions!

He has conceded that he WILL NOT defend US interests overseas ANYWHERE without UN approval,

He has conceded that he considers the UN the ONLY authority for overseas action ....

So, when Israel is next attacked by the Muslim extremists, or by Arabic armies (as in 47, 63, 67, 73, and the mid-80's!) ....

What will he do when the UN demands that Israel surrender?

Would Kerry allow the US to support the outnumbered, out-of-ammunitions and missiles Israel defense forces when the UN can simply say "No foreign aid."?

[graf008]

Well..remember that Sharon faces a possible crisis vis-a-vis other Israeli Parties ragrding this plan - so its not universally supported by Israelis.

Also, some American Jews are not focused on Israel. I know I really could care less to what happens in Germany, though I am German Lutheran.

[Liberty Valance]

HOW CAN SO MANY AMERICAN JEWS STILL SUPPORT THE DEMOCRATS?,

As Tevia might say....

Tradition!

[kinsman redeemer]

...by the way - President Bush's support among Jews should approach a high water mark for Republicans - but it is likely that it won't. It seems that social liberalism is more of a determinant for Jews than what goes on in Israel.

Jews have usually voted overwhelmingly for Democrats since before the 30's. FDR got 90-percent of the Jewish vote in 1940. JFK got about 80-percent in 1960.

As Stephen Isaacs described it in his 1974 book Jews and American Politics: "despite problems with affirmative action plans-cum-quotas, the 'urban fever zone,` scatter site housing, community control of schools, an inept Democratic presidential campaign - despite all these things and more -the Jewish bloc vote did hold up" for McGovern, who won the votes of 65 percent of American Jews - this while Nixon was crushing McGovern among the general electorate with a landslide of historic proportions." Front Page Magazine 10/03

However, Presidents Eisenhower and Reagan (in 1980- Carter had make anti-semitic remarks) got around 40-percent support among Jewish voters. The Great One's support dropped 9 points 4 years later.

In '92, GHW Bush got just 15-percent of the Jewish vote while the bent one got 78 (!) percent. Clinton matched that number 4 years later - even with his dismal efforts to force Israel into making countless concessions to their enemies.

"But Clinton would have defeated Bush and Dole even if each (of the republican candidates) had sworn to immediately move the White House to Jerusalem, for the simple reason that Israel has never been the determining factor in how most Jews vote. If it were the determining factor, Nixon in 1972 and Reagan in 1980 and 1984 would have received a far greater share of the Jewish vote than they did, and Clinton`s approval numbers among Jews at the end of his second term would have been appreciably lower than they were." ibid.

In 2000, President Bush got 19% (even with Lieberman on the Dem ticket) - the Orthodox Jews continued to support the conservative candidate.

In its editorial endorsing the Bush-Cheney ticket, The Jewish Press said of Lieberman, "Soon after he was selected as Mr. Gore`s running mate, [he] suddenly changed his stand on a whole host of matters...doubtless to bring them into line with those of the head of the ticket. Thus he became an advocate of affirmative action, gay rights and outreach to Louis Farrakhan. He no longer opposed late-term abortions and became more tolerant of Hollywood`s vulgar standards. And he became a staunch opponent of tuition vouchers."ibid.

Finally,the article cited concludes:
The fact is, in the year 2003 -- seven decades after the New Deal and thirty years after the McGovernization of the Democratic party -- the American Jewish community, the most affluent subgroup in the country, still votes as if it's one step ahead of the bread lines and the evict notices."

[thoughtomator]

I think a lot of people here are going to be surprised how strong the Jewish vote for Bush will be this year.

[dj_animal_2000]

This Serbian Jew here from Tennessee supports G.W. Bush and the Republicans...!!!!

...and so do others http://www.njchq.org/

Remember the Balkans...???

Let me quote from an interview with James Harff, director of "Rudder-Finn Global Public Affairs" what appeared in the Jewish monthly, "Midstream", in its April 1994 issue:

Q. "'What achievements are you most proud of?'"

Harff. "'To have put Jewish opinion on our side. The Croatian and Bosnian past are marked by cruel anti-Semitism. Tens of thousands of Jews perished. ... Our challenge was to reverse this attitude and we have succeeded masterfully. ... That was a tremendous coup. When the Jewish organizations entered the game on the side of the Bosnian Muslims [who, with their Croat partners, sided with Nazi Germany during WW II, and were responsible for the deaths of over 300,000 Jews. ed.] we could promptly equate the Serbs [who had fought heroically against the Nazis, and had saved thousands of their Jewish countrymen. ed.] with the Nazis in the public mind. ... Almost immediately, there was a change of language in the press, with the use of words with high emotional content such as "ethnic cleansing," and "concentration camps," that evoked images of Nazi Germany and the gas chambers of Auschwitz. The emotional charge was so powerful nobody could go against it.'"

Q. "'But when you did all of this, you had no proof that what you said was true.'"

Harff. "'Our work is not to verify information, our work is to accelerate the circulation of information favorable to us.'"

Q "'Are you aware that you took on a grave responsibility?'"

Harff. "'We are professionals. We had a job to do and we did it. We are not paid to be moral....'"

[Truthsayer20]

There's no real difference between the Republican and Demoocratic parties in policy towards Israel; Kerry was quick point out that he agrees with the new Bush policy on Israeli settlements. American Jews are overwhelmingly social liberals and thus typically vote for the Democrats. Ronald Reagan was the last Republican president to gather substancial Jewish support. I believe he got ~40% of the Jewish vote in 1980.

[Pharmboy]

The demorat tradition is SOOO ingrained in those Jews over the age of 35 that they cannot FATHOM voting the pubbie line ('cept for Reagan).

HOWEVER, for Jews under 30, Bush gets the nod...

[Indie]

Been asking myself that for years. The party of abortionists [genocide] and gun control [WWII]. I guess they either have no brain, or very short memories.