William Safire "Arab and Jewish Votes"

NY Times ^ | October 25, 2004 | William Safire

[icecold]

Arab and Jewish Votes By WILLIAM SAFIRE

Published: October 25, 2004

Washington — You have to give credit to Arab-Americans, and to the overlapping category of American Muslims, for knowing what side they are on in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - and for voting for those they believe would address their concerns.

Four years ago, they voted almost two to one for George W. Bush, thinking he would act like his father. Today, according to the Zogby poll, American Muslim voters are going 10 to 1 in the opposite political direction - for John Kerry over Bush. Not only do they see Bush's Patriot Act as discriminatory, most of these Americans dislike the president's unwavering support of Israel - including his backing of Ariel Sharon's security fence and the diplomatic isolation of Yasir Arafat.

[icecold]

Arab and Jewish Votes By WILLIAM SAFIRE

Published: October 25, 2004

Washington — You have to give credit to Arab-Americans, and to the overlapping category of American Muslims, for knowing what side they are on in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - and for voting for those they believe would address their concerns.

Four years ago, they voted almost two to one for George W. Bush, thinking he would act like his father. Today, according to the Zogby poll, American Muslim voters are going 10 to 1 in the opposite political direction - for John Kerry over Bush. Not only do they see Bush's Patriot Act as discriminatory, most of these Americans dislike the president's unwavering support of Israel - including his backing of Ariel Sharon's security fence and the diplomatic isolation of Yasir Arafat.

This stunning reversal of opinion within a growing voting bloc is having an impact. For example, about a half million Arab-Americans live in Michigan, according to the Arab American Institute; most have turned strongly anti-Bush. That's why pollsters are counting Michigan, with its 17 electoral votes, as "leaning toward Kerry."

What about the other voting group that has a special interest in ending the war launched against Israelis after Yasir Arafat turned down the offer brokered by President Clinton?

Jewish American voters who differ with their Arab and Muslim compatriots, one might logically conclude, would seriously consider supporting the candidate who many Israelis believe has been their best friend in the White House.

But such logic is misleading. Four years ago, candidate Bush received 20 percent of the "Jewish vote," about halfway between the low point for a Republican candidate (5 percent for Goldwater) and the high point (39 percent for Reagan). Today, it appears that Bush is getting only slightly more than the 20 percent of last time.

Despite the fact that this president has firmly backed Israel's vigorous self-defense - and time and again vetoed or denounced lopsided U.N. votes to ostracize Israel - 8 out of 10 Jewish American voters will still vote as a bloc to oust him.

Why? To hold the bloc's usual support, Kerry has me-tooed every policy decision Bush has made affecting Israel - finding old armistice lines "unrealistic," keeping Jerusalem undivided, favoring Arafat's isolation. Though at first he told an Arab-American audience that Israel's security fence was "a barrier to peace," Kerry changed his mind to comport with Bush's support of Ariel Sharon's plan.

Kerry can legitimately point to dozens of pro-Israel votes. But the essence of his foreign policy - to rely on alliances with France, Germany, Russia and the U.N. to combat terror and enforce the peace - requires accommodation with the central demand of these Arab-influenced entities to lean heavily on Israel to make the very concessions Kerry now says he's against. No Kerry heat on Israel, no grand new global alliance.

One answer to the "why?'' posed above is that most Jewish Americans quite properly base their vote on issues like social justice, civil liberty, economic fairness and not primarily on what may be good for Israel. That's been especially true when democratic Israel, like the U.S., has had a close hawk-dove split.

But now, the great majority of Israelis and Americans are behind Sharon's decision to pull 7,000 settlers out of Gaza. Because a zealous Jewish minority opposes giving up an inch of revered land, Israel is under great internal strain. Some rabbis are urging soldiers to disobey orders, tearing at the fabric of a Jewish state. Israel needs an ally, not a broker.

Kerry has lately echoed Bush's support of Sharon's daring plan of unilateral disengagement. But it is Bush who has the four-year record of standing up for Israel's right of self-defense. He has earned the trust of Israelis at a time when they most need a stalwart ally to make this plan succeed - and to help turn Palestine into a peaceful neighboring state.

Most Arab-Americans and U.S. Muslims, as is their right, disparage Sharon's plan. But in getting out of Gaza, the national interests of the U.S. and Israel are in accord.

As one who has all his life been a political minority within an ethnic minority, I hope that other longtime supporters of Israel will - at this moment of its political trial - allow themselves to give a little added weight in their voting decisions to candidates most likely to help gain a secure peace in the Middle East.

[Piranha]

But now, the great majority of Israelis and Americans are behind Sharon's decision to pull 7,000 settlers out of Gaza.

That is highly questionable. If it were so, then Sharon would agree to the referendum on his unilateral withdrawal plan that all sides are requesting. The fact that he is willing to tear apart the Likud to avoid it speaks volumes.

[icecold]

"Bush who has the four-year record of standing up for Israel's right of self-defense. He has earned the trust of Israelis at a time when they most need a stalwart ally to make this plan succeed - and to help turn Palestine into a peaceful neighboring state."

[Future Useless Eater]

I dont get why arab americans wouldn't vote for one of their own - Nader.

He's of Lebanese ethnicity, and speaks fluent arabic

[10mm]

Four years ago, they voted almost two to one for George W. Bush, thinking he would act like his father.

Lies. They voted for Bush in 2000 because Gore had a JEW on the ticket (Lieberman).

Filthy savages.

[John Will]

Heh, I can see why Iranians get furious when you call them "arab".

[Atchafalaya]

They are Persian. It is so unfortunate that Iranians are held under such an oppressive regeime. Those that I know here are good people; maybe Nov 3 will bring them a fresh wind.

[MoodyBlu]

Tell me if I am wrong; the majority of Jews in the US are Jews in name only. They are secular Jews with Jewish names who really don't care about Israel.

Anyone believe the Spielbergs, Redstones, or Eisners really care about Israel? I've always sensed a tremendous difference between the majority of Jews in the US and the Jews who put their lives on the line in Israel to fulfill their destiny. Any comments?

MoodyBlu

[MoodyBlu]

Tell me if I am wrong; the majority of Jews in the US are Jews in name only. They are secular Jews with Jewish names who really don't care about Israel.

Anyone believe the Spielbergs, Redstones, or Eisners really care about Israel? I've always sensed a tremendous difference between the majority of Jews in the US and the Jews who put their lives on the line in Israel to fulfill their destiny. Any comments?

MoodyBlu

[Capriole]

Tell me if I am wrong; the majority of Jews in the US are Jews in name only. They are secular Jews with Jewish names who really don't care about Israel.

Some of them may be religious Jews, but they are not orthodox; they're reform or conservative, at most. These are politically pretty liberal forms of Judaism. They may well care about Israel, in the sense that they like the concept of Israel, like going there, like sending their kids there to work and study and maybe learn a little Hebrew. But they feel about Israel the way they feel about the US: they hate its values and policies and are ashamed of the decisions of the politicians who are struggling to protect the land and its people. These rich American Jews are naive. Like most liberals, they suppose that Arabs can be bargained with, reasoned with, negotiated with, and that if Sharon and Bush would just give the Palestinians enough land and money, the warfare would stop. This is, of course, absurd, but it explains their disaffection with both Bush and Israel. They just don't understand real life, since they lead such a rarefied existence here.

[bpjam]

Being Jewish actually requires work, and faith. Just having the name or a Jewish mother may technically make you a Jew but it doesn't make you Jewish. They can rotely recite a kaddish but they don't live by the Torah. They play on the Sabbath, they teach 'tolerance' in their own households for violations of G-d's laws and they fail to, as the Torah requires, put the words of G-d on their doors and gates and teach them to their children. For far too many "jews", eating at a deli is the extent of the effort they put into keeping the oldest religion in this hemisphere alive. Sad.

The oldest political philosophy on this planet is anti-semitism. It has been around for over 2000 years. There have been numerous attempts to commit genocide against the Jews and yet there are still those whose parents escaped those attempts who side with evildoers who would be the next to commit genocide. Hard to believe, but sadly still true.

[MaryJaneNC]

I agree. You would think that Jews would vote for a man who has stood by Israel. However, being secular humanists makes them no different from other liberals....
Kerry has 76% of the Muslim vote. You would think, that Bush would have 76% of the Jewish vote. It isn't so....
Since Kerry is a UN cheerleader, he would go along with the Solana plan...and like the EU, consider Israel a rogue state.

[WOSG]

The most Jewish candidate for President before Lieberman was Goldwater (ancestry - Goldwasser - dept store owners)... yet he got only 5% of the Jewish vote.

The Jewish vote truly is self-hating.

[WOSG]

you are mostly right ... but Dershowitz, the dyed-in-the-wool liberal democrat secularist, cares about Israel.

[river rat]

I have long believed, that America received the bulk of the "stupid tribe" of Jews...

For years, I have been attempting to negotiate a trade with Israel - to swap some of ours for some of theirs...

Semper Fi

[10mm]

The Jewish vote truly is self-hating.

They are oblivious to the lessons of the Holocaust. As a Jew myself, I am truly disgusted with their lemming-like behavior. I refer to them as "oven-Jews".

[Naomi4]

<> I take it you believe that Jews should vote for other Jews solely because they are Jewish? Jews are often accused of mindlessly voting for Democrats, but Jews should mindlessly vote for a candidate who does not represent their worldview just because he is Jewish? That makes no sense either. The Republican Party needs to make more of an effort to welcome Jewish voters. Far too often the effort is just window dressing, is insincere, and pandering. George W. Bush is changing the face of the Republican Party because he is a deeply decent man who does not pander. He treats all with genuine respect and friendship. It is why he is making inroads in traditional Democratic groups such as Jewish, black and Hispanic voters. It will be a significant trickle in this election but it promises to become a flood in future elections if the rank and file Republican member will treat the newly arrived with decency and good manners.

[Mia T]

I am also a Jew, but I'm not as generous as you are: I'm disgusted with them (not merely their behavior-see Julia Goren, below.).

Rather than being oblivious to the Holocaust, these Jews are confounded by it.
As they reflexively reject anything leaning right, they unwittingly embrace false friends... and even foes.
They are fools.

Jews, like blacks, have been their own worst enemy.

But I am hopeful.
What 9/11 hasn't changed (FLORIDA'S VOTING BUT WHERE'S ED KOCH?), attrition will.



I am reposting the following to mark the reemergence in Philly today of such a false friend, notwithstanding his new plumbery.
This closet racist/anti-Semite has been sent to Philly precisely to lead blacks (and Jews) to the slaughter.

clintonism and the theology of contempt

by Mia T, November 2000 (sometime before the-first-Tuesday-after-the-first-Monday)

 

"I view Hillary Clinton as a great danger to Jews if she is elected."

former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir
Jewish Press, July 2000

I... underestimated the propensity of my people for narrow-mindedness and self-destruction (the Jewish vote for Mrs. Clinton was about 70%)....

Some anti-Semitism is irrational, founded in ignorance, as in Hillary's case....

But other forms of anti-Semitism can be earned, giving folks legitimate grievances against a people because they do crazy things like EXTEND HILLARY CLINTON'S POLITICAL LIFE!

This is not to cast the entire blame on Jewish New Yorkers; they alone couldn't have elected her. In my initial optimism, I equally underestimated the urban pseudo-intellectual's high-mindedness, as well as the Everyman's yearning for celebrity in his midst.

Julia Gorin, Getting used to Hillary
Jewish World Review
Nov. 27, 2000 / 29 Mar-Cheshvan, 5761

 

Let us hope that the rabbi's question was merely rhetorical. . . Let us hope that Rabbi Potasnik, and by extension, New York Jews, are not as credulous and obsequious and passive as they appear. . .

The simple answer to the rabbi's question is that the corrupt, self-serving, anti-Semitic, power-hungry harpy cannot be trusted.

Weren't we to never forget?

The Holocaust must remain, for Jew and Gentile alike, a constant reminder that mass credulity and obsequiousness and passivity are necessary for the demagogue to prevail.

To remember that six million Jews died in the Holocaust is to understand that centuries of anti-Semitic attitudes made this horror possible. We must ask ourselves what role our society played through the centuries that in any way contributed to the atmosphere that made such a genocide even thinkable.

Which brings me to the clintons and clintonism. . .

Senator Patrick Moynihan proffered one of the more incisive operant definitions of clintonism -- "defining deviancy down."

Defining deviancy down, indeed.

clintonism has made personal and public perversions, personal and public predations, not merely thinkable, not merely acceptable, but de rigueur. Watch us spin.

clintonism is the theology of contempt. Not only toward "f***ing Jew-bastards," or "dumb n***ers" or "extra-chromosome right-wingers" but toward any of us whose ideas are different from those of the clintons, Gore, and their acolytes.

So the real question to be answered is this:

"What fair-minded, clear-thinking person would want to continue

with its theology of contempt?

What fair-minded, clear-thinking person would vote for hillary clinton or Al Gore?" 

EPILOGUE: November 2003

One has to wonder how much longer
the Democrats
--both the leaders of the party and the rank and file--
will tolerate the clintons,
their corruption,
their ineptitude,
their utter failure to protect America from terrorism,
their hatespin
(the ugly parroting of which is on democrat display today),
their party-decimating, country-decimating self-serving agenda,
their suffocating sense of entitlement,
their rube arrogance rooted in stupidity.

The dysfunctional twofer
has plainly destroyed the Democrat Party;
it has arrogated the Democrat Party as its own
and is now remaking it in its ugly image.
How can there not be multiple coups in the works?

 

 
a senator to Henry Hyde

 

 It is natural for man to indulge in the illusions of hope.
We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth,
and listen to the song of that siren
till she transforms us into beasts.
Is this the part of wise men,
engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty?
Are we disposed to be the number of those
who, having eyes, see not,
and having ears, hear not,
the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation?
For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost,
I am willing to know the whole truth;
to know the worst, and to provide for it.
Patrick Henry

 

In a dark time, the eye begins to see.
Theodore Roethke

 

But even as Clinton fails to grasp the scandal's metabolism
he understands all too well its most significant byproduct.
You can see it in his eyes.

 Once reflecting a Machiavellian confidence,
they now dart back and forth reflexively,
searching futilely for approval,
attempting desperately to dispel his own certain knowledge
that his moral authority is gone. . .
forever.
Mia T
  

 

 

 

tesselations of the planet...

 

hillary talks:
ON GANDHI & GAS STATIONS
(Why it DOES matter...)

(viewing movie requires Flash Player 6, available HERE)



hillary talks: On Ethnic Slurs

(viewing movie requires Flash Player 6, available HERE)

missus clinton's REAL virtual office update
http://hillarytalks.blogspot.com
http://virtualclintonlibrary.blogspot.com
http://demmemogate.blogspot.com
http://www.hillarytalks.us
http://www.hillarytalks.org
fiendsofhillary.blogspot.com
fiendsofhillary.us
fiendsofhillary.org
fraudsofhillary.com

The Curious Candidacy of Carol Moseley Braun:
an Extension of clinton drag and drop and legacy of lynching

 

by Mia T, 2.20.03

If a white person was walking down the sidewalk, a black person had to get off the sidewalk so the white person could walk by. There were laws which prohibited Blacks to look at white people in the eye, and a black person could be sent to jail for "assault (reckless eyeballing)."

... Blacks who dared to challenge the rules were lynched by the thousands. Men and women were lynched. Lynchings were public events and white men, women and children went to watch Blacks being tortured and burned or hanged... Whites literally got away with murder for killing "uppity" Blacks.

Historical Backdrop to FREEDOM SONG

 

"When 'Queen Hillary' walks down the hall, you're not supposed to look at her. You're actually supposed to go into an office if there is one nearby. She doesn't want staff 'seeing' her. And I know she sure as hell doesn't want to meet you or any other staffer!" "You have to be kidding me!" John replied. "No, we got the word at a staff meeting. It's true. Look around. Do you see anyone else in the hall?" John looked around and sure enough people were starting to emerge, like prarie dogs peeking out of their burrows after a hawk had flown past.

Gary Aldrich, "Unlimited Access"

 

"I'm doing my chores for Hillary Clinton."

RON BROWN (ON HIS COMMERCE-DEPT CRIMES) TO NOLANDA HILL

 

"I will not go down alone."

RON BROWN (DAYS BEFORE HIS DEATH, ON HIS PLEA AGREEMENT WITH THE DOJ) TO BILL CLINTON

 

"It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important." 

Ironically, the logic of this pronouncement by Martin Luther King would, in short order, be refuted by the fact of his own lynching. King's hope was misplaced and his reasoning was circular. The resultant rule of law relied on by King presumed an adherence to the rule of law in the first instance.

Adherence to the rule of law is not something normally associated with the clintons. Moreover, racial and ethnic disrespect, intimidation, exploitation and hate have always been a fundamental clinton tactic and the reflexive use the "N"-word and other racial and ethnic slurs, an essential element in the clinton lexicon. When the "first black president" and his wife ran Arkansas, the NAACP sued them for intimidating black voters at the polls.

But it is the clintons' refinement of the DNC drag and drop that is, arguably, the most insidious and repugnant application of their special brand of race-hate politics.

Drag and drop is a vote fraud technique by which unwitting, unwilling and/or illegal voters -- typically inner-city blacks and other minorities -- are literally dragged into the voting booth and told where to mark the "x" -- often multiple times per election. Drag and drop does not merely undermine and corrupt our system of government. Drag and drop is not merely illegal and exploitive.

Drag and drop is racist and dehumanizing.

Calculating a black man's worth to be 5/3 of a vote is no less racist, and arguably more so, than calculating his worth to be 3/5 of a white man; the latter is demeaning, but the former is dehumanizing.

In the senate race against Rick Lazio, it is widely understood that the drag and drop, (followed by the OLD ANGLE / NEW SQUARE / OVAL OFFICE SCHEME ) was clinton's vote fraud technique of choice used to overcome her low poll numbers, high personal negatives and consistent public failures.

 

"UPPITY" BLACKS AND THE CLINTONS

The Ron Brown death and the clinton legacy of lynching represent the pernicious endpoint, but the history of clinton race-hate politics is replete with a reflexive 'disposal' of 'uppity' blacks from to Marian Wright Edelman to Lani Guanier to Jocelyn Elders to Carl McCall...

To former Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson. The clintons' anointment of their man, Terry McAuliffe, to the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee didn't merely force Maynard Jackson to the back of the bus. It pushed him off.

 

Two Degrees of Segregation: Al Sharpton, Donna Brazile, Carol Moseley Braun and the clintons

The announcement that intellectual and ethical lightweight, Carol Moseley Braun intends to run for president raises the same fundamental question that hillary clinton's looming presence does: "What the hell is this moribund loser doing in the political arena, anyway?"

In order to better understand the easy entry of Moseley Braun into democrat field, clinton-clinton precedent (president!) and the field's increasingly circus-like quality notwithstanding, one must consider the precipitating acts of Al Sharpton and Donna Brazile.

The Al Sharpton candidacy, by definition, disturbed both the clinton calculus and literati sensibilities, inspiring an immediate if ineffectual Tawana-Brawley deathblow attempt by leftist media. Sharpton's response was swift and sure. He warned that the next time the media asked him about Tawana Brawley, he would invoke the clinton scandals and the media's apparent lack of interest in same when questioning hillary clinton. (Surely the clintons' rapes and other predations would trump this quaint little hoax...)

Sharpton's Harlem office effectively burned to the ground the next day--an accident they say--but he was not deterred. The media, however, apparently were; they quickly buried Tawana Brawley beside Juanita Broaddrick, somewhere in that dark recess of expediency called access journalism.

If the clintons wanted Sharpton out because of the sheer embarrassment of him before his salvo, they now would be satisfied with no less than Sharpton's head. Donna Brazile was to neutralize (decolorize?) Sharpton by creating black favorite son candidates in every state of the union. It seems that Brazile ultimately thought the better of it, warning that dem dissing was demonstrably dumb, that Sharpton could, a la Jesse Jackson, lure crucial black voters back into the democrat fold.

So how then to siphon off the black votes that will go to Sharpton? Enter clinton lackey, Carol Moseley Braun, nothing more than a cynical extension of clinton drag and drop and legacy of lynching.

Upstaged, clinton Recycles Tired Canard, Tries New Revisionist Tack

by Mia T, 11-03-03

Biography lends to death a new terror.--Oscar Wilde

 

 

Hypocrisy abounds in this Age of Clinton, a Postmodern Oz rife with constitutional deconstruction and semantic subversion, a virtual surreality polymarked by presidential alleles peccantly misplaced or, in the case of Jefferson posthumously misappropriated...

Mia T, THE OTHER NIXON

 

  

Yesterday, Daniel Patrick Moynihan died. Today, the clintons are arrogating his soul. Hardly surprising. In 1999, the clintons were not at all shy about seizing his still-warm senate seat.

One has merely to recall the Jefferson double-helix hoax to understand that posthumous misappropriation is, for the obvious reason, the clintons' preferred method of legacy inflation….

Standard-Issue clintonism

If misappropriation of Jefferson's alleles hinged on a broken line of descent, misappropriation of Moynihan's endorsement depends on a broken line of dissent. Like Sally Hemmings' progeny, Moynihan's later acquiescence is of dubious lineage

Mia T, Moynihan Myths

hat is surprising about the clinton-Dole C-SPAN pas de deux is not that clinton demagoguery had gotten so old. What is surprising is that the tautological, snake-oil specious, gasbag sort of banality that had always been the hallmark of clintonspeak was ever considered interesting or credible in the first place.

The 60-minute C-SPAN reprise of the 60-second 60 Minutes clinton-Dole flop confirmed what the 60 Minutes separate-stages format had plainly suggested: bill clinton would be wise never to share the stage with Bob Dole.

Bob Dole displayed an easy wit; clinton served up faux-folksy bromides laced with underlying rage with stale canard-cum-corollary for good measure.

The canard: If a crook doesn't make a profit, then it's not a crime.

The corollary: The government should pursue a crook if, and only if, the crook's take exceeds the government's cost to nail him.

hillary talks: ON CLINTON "FINANCES"

(viewing movie requires Flash Player 6, available HERE)

Casuistry in the service of clinton revisionism....

Posthumous misappropriation is, for the obvious reason, the clintons' preferred method of legacy inflation. While downward revision ("defining deviancy down") is the classic clinton m.o., (see Jefferson double-helix hoax), clinton, exposed, is now arguing the obverse; the double negative offers the illusion of a higher ground.

If the purpose of the canard and corollary is to nullify Whitewater, the purpose of the claim that Ulysses S. Grant was unfairly maligned is to point the clinton hagiographers in the direction of the nonjudgmental... and the non sequitur.

That is, if Grant was unfairly maligned as a drunk, then, according to clinton deconstructionist logic, it follows that clinton was unfairly maligned as a rapist, traitor, perjurer, suborner of perjury, cheat, obstructor of justice, abuser of power, psychopath, corruptor of children, murderer, incompetent, utter failure, proximate cause of 911, and so forth.

deconstructing clinton… "just because I could"

(viewing movie requires Flash Player 7, available HERE)

johnkerryisdangerousforamerica.blogspot.com
missus clinton's REAL virtual office update
http://hillarytalks.blogspot.com
http://virtualhillary.blogspot.com
http://virtualclintonlibrary.blogspot.com
http://www.hillarytalks.us
http://www.hillarytalks.org
fiendsofhillary.blogspot.com
fiendsofhillary.us
fiendsofhillary.org
fraudsofhillary.com

COPYRIGHT MIA T 2004

[Mamzelle]

re: It will be a significant trickle in this election but it promises to become a flood in future elections if the rank and file Republican member will treat the newly arrived with decency and good manners.)))

This is a remark as condescending and patronizing as all heck. Like the Dems are some sort of arbiter of manners? Sharpton, Hillary, etc? I resent this. I find it rude.

I'd prefer -- "Jews would only join the republicans if those icky-poo evangelicals would just go back to their trailer parks and spend their time on something useful--like better dentistry." At least it'd be honest.

We'll see how many US Jews vote the pro-Israel candidate. I've been doing a lot of donor searches around synagogues' zipcodes and the money is going to Kerry.

US Jews to Israel...Drop dead.

[Mia T]

REPLUMBED IN PHILLY
(HE'S BA-A-A-CK!)