L-rd have mercy on the Jews. We may be the only ethnic group in democratic history that is compelled to vote against its own self-interest, and even self-preservation. Whether it's finances, national security or the survival of the only Jewish state, the Republicans are good for it. But an estimated 75% of American Jews will nonetheless vote for John Kerry, a fact that caused my friend Steve — exasperated with his mother's political obstinacy — to conclude, "Please, if Hitler were running as a Democrat, she'd vote for him!"
So I ask anti-Semites of all political persuasions: Don't hate us because we're Jewish. Hate us because we're liberal.
After all, you sure as heck can't accuse us of dual loyalty: Kerry has the Jewish vote even in the face of George W.'s tried and true record on Israel, with his unequivocal, groundbreaking stance that dead Jews count as much as dead anybody else. No, most American Jews would rather hand the White House and the future of Israel back over to the party that showed us the way to Intifada 2, then declined to veto a UN resolution condemning Israel for provoking it.
Ah, but my people have mastered a mental trick to help get past inconvenient evidence and enable them to continue thinking inside the casket. Rather than associate the deteriorated situation in Israel with the Clinton years, they've taken to counting up the number of Jews killed since Bush's inauguration, and comparing the per-year numbers. Since Jewish deaths have indeed accelerated in recent years, it must be because of Bush policies (and not the Clinton-Albright jihad jump-start in the summer of 2000). Also to stay the course, my fellow tribesmen purposely don't see the forest for the bushes, trying to count up on one hand the instances of the administration's occasional half-hearted reprimands of targeted assassinations and incursions into terror camps. They sit on their haunches, ready to pounce on any Bush words that could justify their Democratic complacency and be construed to sell Israel down the river, forgetting that they sold it themselves in 1993.
Despite nearly four years of tangible, concrete and consistent action by George Bush affirming Jewish humanity — that quality that eight long years of Democratic leadership worked to strip us of — all that Jews needed to hear were the words "safe and secure Israel" at the Democratic Convention, and it was their green light to stay on track with a foregone conclusion. The fact that one day Kerry calls Israel's fence a security measure vital to the nation's self-defense, and the next day calls it a "barrier to peace" — depending on his audience — doesn't faze them. And if it does, they just block it out.
-snip-
(Julia Gorin in Jewish World Review, November 1, 2004)
To Read This Article Click Here
And sadly, American Jews idolize FDR, who refused to let millions of Jews emigrate to the U.S., leaving them to die in Nazi concentration camps, in spite of evidence that the Nazis were planning to kill them.
Israelies support Bush. American Jews who support Israel I think will vote for W this year - Kerry's "impediment to peace" comment about the Israeli wall should resonate.
I'm not sure I believe that Jews vote Dem by that high of a margin. I don't think a whole lot of jews voted for Clinton, especially the second time after he had Yassir "Death to Jews" Arafat over for tea and 'strumpets' in the Lincoln bedroom. Old Abe must have been doing 6000RPM in his casket.
you get who you vote for...
If they want to vote for the candidate who will allow Israel to collapse, then its their own fault.
Hey, I have some really good Jewish friends who are in Palm Beach and they're definitely supporting Dubya. Of course, they emigrated here from Israel so they know the score.
It is that whole Jesus Christ thing.
It really is amazing how steadfast the American Jewish community is when it comes to supporting Democrats.
Bush does everything within his power to protect Israel, reduces taxes on businesses and creates jobs, admonishes the Arab world for supporting terrorism, and the Jews in the United States consider him unfit to command. Unbelievable.
Ameican Jews repay Bush's good deeds, loyalty and unwavering support with a kick in the teeth at every turn. And you know what? After Bush is re-elected he will still do the right thing. That is what honorable, men of character do. My only request to Ameican Jews is: Why do you treat your friends so poorly?
I'd like to see breakdowns of the Jewish vote by congressional district. The Jewish population is heavily concentrated in a few states like New York, New Jersey, Connetticut, Massacusetts, Florida, and California. I know of quite a few Jews in my home town who support and give money to Republican candidates.
Why don't US Jews move on?
By TOM GROSS
Once upon a time most American Jews were underprivileged, and most of them voted Democrat. Then their circumstances changed, but their political allegiances remained unaltered. Around 30 or 40 years ago there was a joke which said that American Jews live like Episcopalians (i.e., relatively rich, privileged people) but vote like Puerto Ricans.
The remark was a bit racist, perhaps, but it was essentially true. Everyone knew what it meant. Only it is not true anymore. Puerto Ricans, like other Hispanics, have moved on. They now vote in a pluralistic way in accordance with their developing economic interests, ethnic concerns, and views of what is good for America as a whole. In 2000, the Hispanic vote for George W. Bush was more than 50 percent greater than the Jewish vote.
This year American Jews remain as intransigent as ever. Jews, more than almost any other group in the US, are set to vote against Bush by large margins.
Polls indicate that 69% of Jews will vote Kerry tomorrow, and only 24% for Bush. And 3% will vote for Ralph Nader, the strongly anti-Israel independent candidate of Arab descent who, according to polls, commands less than half that support among non-Jewish Americans.
Yet the situation is even more lopsided than it first appears: What the overall figure doesn't take into account is that the hundreds of thousands of American Jews from the former Soviet Union – who know a thing or two about oppression, terrorism, anti-Semitism, and the meaning of freedom – are overwhelmingly pro-Bush. Only 14% say they will back Kerry.
Naturally, many Jews will vote on issues completely unrelated to foreign policy or their own economic status – issues of social justice, abortion, gay rights, and so on. But much more than usual, this is a foreign policy election. Right now, the right not to get your head chopped off seems more important than that of, say, gay marriage.
According to the polls, other Americans recognize this and, given the rise in global anti-Semitism, foreign policy concerns should be of exceptional importance to Jews. If they have not read Bin Laden's key 1998 text Jihad against Jews and Crusaders, issued by The World Islamic Front, they should. Ignoring it is as foolish as it would have been to ignore Mein Kampf.
If American Jews think they are immune to this, they are mistaken. For many in the Muslim world are convinced that when al-Qaida chose the Twin Towers as their target, it was because in their anti-Semitic world view, Jews control American finance: They saw the Towers as a Jewish target and aimed to kill as many Jews as possible.
Support for Israel is "a very important factor" in their lives, say 74% of American Jews. Bush is generally regarded as not only the most pro-Israel president ever but probably the most pro-Jewish one as well, his recent signing of the Global Anti-Semitism Awareness Act being only the latest example.
Yet, even though Kerry has called Yasser Arafat "a statesman," has criticized Israel's security fence as a "barrier to peace," and has not noticeably protested any UN actions against Israel, according to polls more Jews may well vote Kerry than Palestinian-Americans will.
When Bush ran for president four years ago, there was little to indicate that he would grasp the necessity for reform in the Arab world as an American interest, an Israeli interest and, most importantly, as an Arab interest. It is clear that he does now.
It should be equally clear that many of the Clinton administration's policies were unwise not only in terms of American national interest but also from a humanitarian viewpoint; in particular, the extraordinary appeasement of Arafat and the red-carpet treatment given to him while he violated every single one of the Oslo accords, the failure to take al-Qaida seriously, and the failure to exert any kind of meaningful pressure on regimes in Riyadh, Damascus, and elsewhere.
Yet there is every indication that the foreign policy team Kerry would assemble, should he win, would comprise many of the same people who made such glaring mistakes in the 1990s.
This is why some major Jewish Democratic Party figures, such as former New York mayor Ed Koch, have endorsed Bush. Why Al Gore's running mate, Joe Lieberman, hinted last month that Bush might be better for Israel. And why the leading liberal journalist Martin Peretz wrote last week, "A President Kerry would be a disaster for Israel."
Whereas non-Jewish Americans I have spoken to in recent months are split roughly 50-50 in their voting preferences, almost all my Jewish American friends are backing Kerry.
Why? I asked an American Jewish friend who lives in London. "Because Kerry is for human rights," was the answer. Apparently he did not know until I told him that it was Bush who had made possible one of the biggest repatriations of refugees in history (more than three million Afghans have returned home thanks to his policies) or that the Taliban regime that Bush removed crushed homosexuals to death as a matter of policy. Nor was he aware of how many people had died under Saddam.
Given past voting habits, one would not, perhaps, expect Jews to vote overwhelmingly for Bush. But that in 2004 so few of them still seem to appreciate who their true allies now are is surprising.
The writer is a former Mideast foreign correspondent for The Sunday Telegraph.
Great article. Had a freshman student in a elective history course last week. Yarmulke, "Support the IDF" tee-shirt and biggest d***n Kerry button I ever saw. When I laughingly told him he was a walking contradiction, he went spastic and yelled "What has George Bush DONE FOR ISRAEL??!!" I tried to explain (my mistake) and he started spouting off about how Clinton had brought "peace". Guess my friends in the IDF are just confused.
This election has convinced me that Robert Heinlein was right about who should vote(the book, not the movie).
I guess this explains Lieberman being a Democrat, even though he's more Conservative than Arlen Specter.
Because they are the only entrenched "immigrant" group which refuses to stop voting like immigrants.
For example, when the Irish came to the USA to flee the Potato famine of the 1840's, the Irish voted democratic and for over 100 years, they voted democratic. Once they stopped pining for Ireland, the Irish started to assimilate into their new home country. That assimilation also helped made their voting patterns more diverse.
Even though in places like Boston, they talk alot about the "Irish Catholic" vote, in a country with over 40 million people of Irish descent, I don't that they consitute the monolithic voting block they once did, even as recently as 40 year ago.
However, American Jews have never taken off those "immigrant" clothes, even those who can trace their American ancestory almost to the Mayflower. They can go to Israel at any time, they have somewhere to go if America get's bad. Where do Americans, who don't have automatic Israeli citizenship go?
The US Jewish/Pro-Kerry voting block is very disappointing. I am starting to conclude that those pro-Kerry Jews don't care about either the country of their birth (USA) or the country of their people (Israel). They don't care about themselves. I think they might be suicidal lemmings taking the rest of us down with them.
In any event, the 12/2000 post is below:
Jews are not one-dimentional. Jews don't vote democratic, as one person said, because "daddy" told them so. Jews don't vote democratic because they are looking at FDR and thinking about the holocaust. Most jews vote democratic because those are the belief that they carry.
To be sure, and as I've said elsewhere, I'm one of the only jewish republicans I know (other than my mother and father). My wife and all my friends are democratic. Why? For lots of reasons.
Most jews are liberal, not inthe sense of democratic liberal, but in the sense of individual freedoms and entitlements. Most jews are pro-choice. Most jews have a deep care for tsdaka (ie, charity towards others) which the republican party doesn't get across. Many jews believe that "evangelical" christianity is an anathma (sp?), particularly in that many christians have always told jews that they will burn in hell for not believing in Christ. Many of these christians would be labeled conservative republicans. Many republicans believe that their should be prayer in school. Most jews realize that means *christian* prayer in school, and prior to Lieberman, shunned public displays of religion in public political or social life while preferring religion to be part of the home, not the school.
As for the argument that the republicans have been good for israel, there are two issues: 1) most jews consider themselves "jewish americans" as opposed to "american jews". Certainly, neither consider themselves "israelis". 2) IMHO, James Baker and GHWB did some very negative things for Israel, particularly in respect to forcing Shamir to come to "peace" terms that were detrimental to Israel, and some may consider to be the part of the problem we have today. Personally, my feeling is that most recent administrations have merely given lip service to Israel. Let's see is W *really* does move the embassy to Jerusalem.
There are many other reasons why jews sincerely belong to the democrats. Some from deep socialogical roots, others are a reaction to threats they see from many republicans. Personally, most of my beliefs follow closely with what the republicans stand for. However, I do think that many republicans, however inclusive the party tries to be, will continue to "lump" in jews with other minority groups that they are not a part of. There is NO simple reason why jews are democrats. For a group of people so against "spinning", its odd to me that that's exactly what some people are doing. Trying to give a 3 sentence explanation as to why jews are democrats is exactly the type of "spinning/sound bite" that we accuse others of doing.
Nobody should take this email as a flame or attack. I'm merely trying to convey a different point of view. Even this relatively long email is simplistic to some degree. That being said, it isn't appropriate to attempt to lump jews together as some homogeneous group all having the same reasons for doing what they are doing, or not having the brains to determine for themselves what they should believe in and just doing what their mommies and daddies told them.
145 Posted on 12/10/2000 08:50:11 PST by kazander
The author is almost assuming that "the poor" are better served by Democrats. A serious mistake in reasoning.
Most American Jews I know are self described atheists...so voting Kerry or Nader is a natural choice.
Go figure.
I have waited for many years and through many elections for Jews in America to take a patriotic stand, but, alas, they have not. I don't know what to make of that. It seems as if they have a need to betray the ones who have best supported them. I can remember when a persucuted journalist named Timmerman was given asylum in Israel. And it was only a year later that he was out campaigning against that government for its efforts to keep Israelis safe!
i do not have any information to answer this question, only information to further add fuel to the fire. in the late 1800s the weather was extremely harsh in the southwest. the winter (of 1879?) was so harsh as to wipe out many herds. that was followed by a drought in the summer causing crop failure. a large disgruntled set of farmers, with ties to the kkk, or kkk-like organization, formed the populist movement. this shortly evolved to the people's party, which was fairly successful on a regional basis. the people's party continued with its openly anti-semitism ways. eventually realizing that the people's party would never be a national party, it merged with the democratic party, which accepted the open anti-semitic ideology. much of this ideology resurfaced during the depression during the depression, but was later suppressed.
You're right on. We're seeing the 1930s again in Europe, most of the 3rd world joins the Arab nations in bashing Israel (the single Jew among nations)and many of the rest will sellout Israel in a second if economic interests favor doing so. In the end Jewish survival in a large part of the world just might hinge on the charater and integrity of one man. The fact that most Jews will vote against that one man in large numbers is sad. In order for John Kerry to even get to step one with the world community you can expect Israel's interests to be soldout piece by piece.
WOOO-HOOOO!!!! I just got a call from one of my co-workers (who happens to be Jewish). I made it my mission for the campaign to convert him and I'm proud to say after 3 whole months of work, he just informed me that he will vote for GWB tomorrow.
Count one more vote for W in Nevada!!!! :)
bump for later