Posted on 01/01/2007 5:56:33 AM PST by gallaxyglue
Jews, Muslims, and the Democrats Gabriel Schoenfeld January 2007 The 2006 midterm elections confirmed once again a truism of American politics: American Jews remain overwhelmingly devoted to the Democratic party. According to exit polling, the tilt this year was, if anything, even more pronounced than it has been in the past. Some 88 percent of Jewish votes went to Democratic candidates, while a mere 12 percent went to the GOP.
Along with this lopsided outcome, a historical extreme, comes the news that the number of Jewish representatives in Congress has itself reached an all-time high. Although Jews represent a marginal sliver—a mere 2 percent—of the U.S. population, they now hold 13 seats in the U.S. Senate, all but two of them—Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Norm Coleman of Minnesota—Democratic. (Bernard Sanders of Vermont, elected as an independent, has pledged to vote with the Democratic caucus.) In the House of Representatives, Jews, all but one of them Democrats, now occupy 30 seats.
Party affiliation aside, this surely denotes a high-water mark of Jewish political representation, just as Joseph Lieberman’s presence on Al Gore’s presidential ticket set a previous mark in 2000. But party affiliation cannot be placed to one side. For the paradoxical and disturbing fact is that even as Jewish voters remain unwaveringly loyal to the Democrats, and even as Jewish representation in national office, almost entirely Democratic in color, has risen to an all-time high, the Democratic party itself is becoming demonstrably less hospitable to Jewish interests. Indeed, on at least one matter of central concern—the safety and security of the state of Israel—the party and the American Jewish community may be heading toward a slow-motion collision.
This development is not exactly of recent vintage—its historical roots can be traced as far back as the late 1960’s—but it has taken on an increasingly stark aspect as the party has progressively succumbed to the influence of its own left wing and to blind hatred of George W. Bush. And recently a new element has entered as well, symbolized by the election this past November of Keith Ellison, the first-ever Muslim member of the House of Representatives, on Minnesota’s Democratic Farmer-Labor (DFL) ticket. Ellison’s story is unique, but also a symptom of larger trends.
“Louis Farrakhan’s First Congressman” is how the Weekly Standard titled an election-eve profile of Ellison. In the late 1980’s, while still a law student, Ellison had indeed been an activist in the Nation of Islam, Farrakhan’s black-Muslim cult. Writing under the pseudonyms of Keith Hakim, Keith X. Ellison, and Keith Ellison Muhammad, he called for the establishment of an independent black republic in the American South and defended the unadorned anti-Semitic pronouncements of Farrakhan and his organization. Long after completing law school, moreover, Ellison continued to work with the Nation of Islam, joining with more prominent black leaders, including the Reverend Jesse Jackson and the Reverend Al Sharpton, to help organize the 1995 Million Man March.
Ellison was carrying other baggage as well. Critics, particularly his Republican opponent, were quick to raise questions about his ties to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an organization that has been linked to radical Islamists and anti-Semites of various stripes.
But attempts to derail his candidacy on these grounds failed. Under fire during the campaign for his associations with the Nation of Islam, Ellison wrote a letter to the Minnesota Jewish community-relations council in which he admitted that as a young man he “did not adequately scrutinize the positions and statements” of the Nation of Islam, acknowledged that they “were and are anti-Semitic,” and declared that “I should have come to that conclusion earlier than I did.” On the strength of this and similar statements he proceeded to win endorsements from the American Jewish World, a “progressive” local paper, and the even more “progressive” Minneapolis Star Tribune, the latter of which dismissed criticism of his links to CAIR as “a smear campaign.1”
Both the ease with which Ellison was able to glide through this controversy and the remarkable lack of discomfort his candidacy appeared to cause among his fellow Democrats point to the larger significance of his election. For the simple fact is that in certain respects he is not alone: the past decade or so has seen the formation of a group of 40 to 50 Democratic Congressmen who, in varying degrees of intensity, have felt free to express an uninhibited hostility toward the Jewish state.
A coarse index of this group’s membership was on display last May when Hamas, the Islamic fundamentalist terror organization pledged to Israel’s destruction, won elections in Gaza and the West Bank and assumed control of the Palestinian Authority. In response, Congress took up the Palestinian Anti-Terror Act of 2006—legislation aimed at denying U.S. financial aid to the Palestinian Authority unless and until the President could certify that terror groups were not among its recipients, that the new Palestinian regime recognized Israel’s right to exist, and that it remained committed to agreements with Israel signed by its predecessors. The bill passed the Senate unanimously. In the House, a similar but slightly tougher version also passed handily—but not without drawing 37 nay votes and 9 votes of “present” only. Of the 46 representatives either actively opposing the bill or unwilling to vote for it, 41 were Democrats.
To be fair, not every Congressman who failed to support the legislation could automatically be counted as unsympathetic to Israel; the State Department had expressed its own reservations about the House version on the grounds that it unduly limited American flexibility. Still, the number of Democrats ready to oppose so straightforward an anti-terror measure was striking, and all the more so in light of the Democrats’ long record as the party friendlier to Israel than the Republicans.
What explains this turnabout? A full answer would take us on a sojourn through the twists and turns not only of party politics but of the ideological, cultural, and racial disputes of the past decades as they have affected both domestic and foreign policy. But of particular relevance in the present context is the demographic ingredient exemplified by Keith Ellison.
The Muslim population of the United States has been steadily growing. Although the numbers are hotly disputed—the U.S. census does not gather information about religious affiliation—a middle-range estimate tells us there are four to six million Muslims in the country. Not in dispute is that they are one of the fastest growing segments of the U.S. population, and that with increasing size has come increasing potency within American political life.
Where populations are sufficiently concentrated in America, so too, usually, is political clout. As a rule America’s Muslims have settled in major cities—Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and New York—where they are still too sparsely present to exercise significant weight as a bloc. Smaller localities, however, tell a different story. Thus, in Minneapolis-St. Paul, where many émigrés from strife-torn Somalia happen to have gathered, Muslims formed an important building block of Keith Ellison’s electoral victory. In places like Dearborn and Detroit, Michigan, where many immigrants from the Arab world have settled, Muslims enjoy a far larger degree of political influence.
Anyone know offhand what percentage of American Jews are Orthodox?
Its almost like America's Jews are working with the Muslims. De facto they are.
The way most American Jews act in these times offers me an explanation for how the German Jews acted in the 1930s (and no, I am NOT saying that the times are analogous), that is, against their own interests.
I wish the writers of "Commentary", who are mostly highly intelligent American Jews, could exert more influence over their brethren. Must be that they are the exception as far as intelligence goes.
The largest enclave of Jewish voters in Minnesota's 5th Congressional district is in the first ring suburb of St. Louis Park. Here's a link the the MN Secretary of State website: http://electionresults.sos.state.mn.us/20061107/PrecRptByCounty.asp?rq=27HENNEPIN&M=CTY&CtyCd=27&CtyNm=HENNEPIN
Scroll down on this page to the St. Louis Park precincts. That will give you the clearest view of SLP voting patterns and will show you that they (ethnic Jews) were voting in droves for ethnic suicide. There is a large community of Orthodox Jews living here, but I'm not sure which precinct they're in. They might have voted different from the more secular and liberal faith Jews - at least I hope so.
The democrats are really made up of a lot of groups that are at odds against each other.
Blacks and Latinos generally don't care for each other.
Blacks generally don't like Jews.
We know haw muslims feel about Jews.
Blue dog dems hate the immoral folks in the party.
Some day this fragmentation will come to a head.
It should also be noted that the RATs had a spoiler candidate in the person of Tammy Fine. She was a RAT (social liberal - fiscal (cough) conservative) that left the RAT party under a cloud of condemnation for criticizing DFL (RAT) policy. She ran independent and garnered a respectable portion of otherwise RAT votes - no 'R' or conservative could have mistaken her for a moderate so her base would've been disenfranchised RAT voters with no place left to go. It would be interesting to see her numbers in relation to religious or ethnic voters.
I vote Republican, partly because of their support of Israel because my in-laws are Jewish, and partly for favorable tax rates because my bros-in-law have saved TENS of THOUSANDS of DOLLARS in their business, BUT THEY ALL VOTED DEMOCRAT!!! WHY am I voting for strongly for THEIR self interests, when they are NOT??? I have about given up.
Just curious...are your relatives Orthodox?
The mistake is to talk about "America's Jews". There are Orthodox and Conservative Jews, and then there are (mostly Leftist) Reform Jews, who while ethnicly Jewish, really worship Socialism more than they respect Torah
The Leftist Jews-in-name-only will support the Democrat Party as long as it advances socialism. Too late will they discover that, once Muslims gain important influence, that the Saudis' money will buy control of the party away from them
Heaven's NO! They were Reformed and now they are somewhat conservative.......but mu m-i-l thinks that God could be a FEMALE!!
I look at all this and wonder (sometimes) "Why bother?". They seem bent on their own destruction and if anyone gets in their way or speaks truth to them, he is an "anti-Semite". Why should I care and try to help them if they won't even help themselves?
When DemocRATS start referring to them as "Cosmopolitans" and expelling them from the party, it may finally cause an awakening.
Socialism IS Slavery by Giverment.. Amazing facts...
Well, that's part of the problem. Most Jews are not Jews other than in an ethnic sense. Even then, many seek to avoid identification or belief with the core religious ideas that define Judaism. To be sure, most like to ape their traditions like Scandanavians have lefse at Christmas, but beyond a familial tradition, they ain't what they think they are. To me, most Jews are the same as most other comparable segments of society - that is, secular, educated and tragically stupid about most of reality.
bump
"Writing under the pseudonyms of Keith Hakim, Keith X. Ellison, and Keith Ellison Muhammad, he called for the establishment of an independent black republic in the American South"
Try it, Beeotch.
The Golden Calf.
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