Posted on 05/26/2011 7:14:22 AM PDT by Qbert
A freshman House Republican on Wednesday singled out "most" liberal American Jews for not being sufficiently pro-Israel.
Rep. Joe Walsh (Ill.) questioned why U.S. Jews have not expressed more outrage over President Obama's demand that the Israeli-Palestinian peace process be based around the 1967 borders, with mutually agreeable land swaps.
"The short answer is that most American Jews are liberal, and most American liberals side with the Palestinians and vague notions of 'peace' instead of with Israel’s well-being and security," Walsh wrote in an op-ed for the conservative Daily Caller.
Walsh, who is Catholic, added that the American Jewish community should be more pro-Israel.
"Like the president, the U.N., and most of Europe, too many American Jews aren’t as pro-Israel as they should be and too many share his belief that the Palestinians are victims of Israeli occupation," he wrote. "Nothing could be further from the truth."
While members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have broken with Obama over his statements about the Israeli-Palestinian border, few if any have publicly questioned the response from the Jewish community.
Several major Jewish groups have defended the president's position. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said that Obama understands the "nuances" involved in the conflict.
"This administration has come a long way in two years in terms of understanding of the nuances involved in bringing about Israeli-Palestinian peace and a better understanding of the realities and challenges confronting Israel," the group said in a statement last week following Obama's White House speech on the Middle East, in which he layed out his vision for Israeli-Palestinian peace.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) released a statement after Obama's speech at its annual conference, noting that the president's position is not that Israel should withdraw to the 1967 border — a border Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called "indefensible."
But Walsh accused the president of sympathizing with the Palestinians and putting their interests ahead of Israel's, citing Obama's 2007 remark that "nobody is suffering more than the Palestinian people."
"Most U.S. presidents have followed the old paradigm and tried to be an honest broker between the two sides," he wrote. "President Obama seems only to pay lip service to even that role, and clearly his sympathies lie with the Palestinians. He is not capable of achieving peace in the Middle East because he is not pro-Israel."
Congressman Joe Walsh: YOU GO BOY!!! 78% of the American Jews voted for Obama. That is friggin’ despicable.
Many Jews are lost. They’re called, “The Lost Sheep of Israel.” They don’t know who they are or Whose they are. The don’t yet know who their Good Shepherd is. Soon they’ll know.
He will be accused of being an Anti-Semite for telling the sad truth about many liberal American Jews.
On FR as well.
Some will hint that Joe Walsh is an anti-Semite, just as I was for making similar suggestions.
Is it fair to assume that the majority of Americans who support Obama also (by extension) support Hamas?
I think that Rep. Joe Walsh is wrong.
American Jews should no more be pro-Israel than Muslims should be pro-Saudi (Mecca), or Followers of Buddha should be pro-India.
However, it does amaze me how people who
“religiously” vote Democrat do so without using their head and without examining all of the positions taken by the Democratic party and the damage that it does to the world and this country.
You're right. Many secular US Jews don't give a sh!t about Israel. The orthodox here do care, but they're poor and concentrated in very blue states.
Israel is on its own, but they'll be ok.
I would be more concerned about people living in America being more pro-American, especially our CONgressmen.
Ethnic Jews, but ideologically just another bunch of anti-Christian liberals.
I don’t using the anti-semeticism card but these claims (mostly by Christians) that American Jews are not real Jews because the do not worship blindly at the altar of Likud borders on anti-semeticism.
I don’t like using the anti-semeticism card but these claims (mostly by Christians) that American Jews are not real Jews because the do not worship blindly at the altar of Likud borders on anti-semeticism.
The Straw Man fallacy is committed when a person simply ignores a person’s actual position and substitutes a distorted, exaggerated or misrepresented version of that position.
“Israel” is Biblical Israel, including the physical land.
Distorting this to mean “The Likud” is a strawman.
Israel doesn’t mean the Likud, no more than the United States means the Democratic party. It is the Bibi worshipers who confuse the two, not me.
You’re still misrepresenting my argument.
How? Of course, the Bible describes the existence of a country called Israel. So what? What the heck is your point?
American Jews are LEFTISTS, FIRST AND ALWAYS. They only become Jews if it in some way benefits them.
Just like the rest of us used to be. Wait 'til God gets ahold of 'em.
>>Israel doesn’t mean the Likud, no more than the United States means the Democratic party. It is the Bibi worshipers who confuse the two, not me.<<
When I examine political posts here on FR, I see what I consider to be far too much adoration and blind love for the candidates. I have never understood people flipping out over movie stars or singers but the way FReepers get emotionally wound up over candidates is beyond my comprehension.
This American Jew is glad to see a righteous Catholic chastising American Jews for being lazy and stupidly not supporting Israel enough.
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