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To: kabar

Let me see if I understand your points.

1) Jews vote Democratic ("Jews represent the Dems second most loyal constituency).

2) AIPAC represents the Jewish vote ("And yes, there is a Jewish vote, just ask AIPAC").

3) AIPAC is a very powerful Jewish pro-Israel lobbying organization. ("AIPAC is probably the most effective lobbying group in America...I serioiusly doubt that only ten percent of the Jews in America know who they are and what they do.")

There is something fundamentally wrong with your logic unless you are saying that the Democrats are better for Israel.

My logic works. AIPAC in fact only represents a small portion of Jewish supporters who are Hawkish.

....................

"The fact is that most American Jews, and many other American supporters of Israel, do not see eye-to-eye on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with the most hawkish, knee-jerk Israel supporters in the U.S. government -- even if their presumed leadership, represented by AIPAC, often appears to do so."


http://www.vegsource.com/talk/pub/messages/8817.html

"In this critique he alludes to a column he wrote in November in Haaretz that spoke to the new Soros Initiative to create a progressive American Jewish lobbying alternative to AIPAC. "

and

"How about this distortion: "we represent the consensus view in the American pro-Israel community." Not true. AIPAC's views of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are in direct contradiction of the views of the majority of American Jews as proven by public opinion surveys. "

http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2007/01/24/aipac-blows-smokeagain/


267 posted on 02/16/2007 2:04:58 PM PST by dervish (Rachel weeps for her children, she refuses to be consoled. Shalit, Goldwasser, Regev)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 263 | View Replies ]


To: dervish
There is something fundamentally wrong with your logic unless you are saying that the Democrats are better for Israel.

No. My point is that support of Israel is really a non-issue or at the very most, an unimportant one for Jewish voters because both parties overwhelming support Israel. Hence, the Jewish vote is influenced more by social issues, culture, history, etc., which is why they support the Dems predominantly.

My logic works. AIPAC in fact only represents a small portion of Jewish supporters who are Hawkish.

AIPAC represents its membership's views, hawkish or otherwise. I don't view them as some "small" narrow interest group nor do the politicians. For example, almost every major candidate for the Presidency feels compelled to address the group at their annual meeting as well as many prominent elected officials like the VP.

Here is AIPAC's press release on the 2006 elections. Like any good, effective lobbying group they don't take sides politically unless they feel like their interests are at stake, e.g., McKinney.

"How about this distortion: "we represent the consensus view in the American pro-Israel community." Not true. AIPAC's views of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are in direct contradiction of the views of the majority of American Jews as proven by public opinion surveys. "

Whether that is a fact or not is a matter of debate. The fact is that AIPAC has been very successful in achieving its objectives and the politicians who support them have not suffered any political consequences for their votes.

268 posted on 02/16/2007 2:32:14 PM PST by kabar
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