These days, it seems US Christians care more about Israel than American Jews do

Jewish World Review ^ | Dec. 4, 2001 | Jonathan Rosenblum

[lara]

I've often wondered why Jews vote for liberals, when it's always the Republicans who are the strongest supporters of Israel. Clinton was ready to give Israel away to arafat, yet the Jews love him and his wife.

[monkeyshine]

This is not news to freepers. We've known this for years.

:-)

[College Repub]

You wanna know why? It's because the fundamentalist Christians are aligned with the republicans. Plus, most Jews don't surf freerepublic.com, lucianne.com etc, and believe it or not, aren't aware that Israel's largest backers are acutaly these same people. A little PR to that end might help.

[College Repub]

I'd also add that Most catholics vote Democrat despite Republicans being the PROLIFE party... Strange, eh?

[seeker41]

When I was in Israel, my tour guide driver was so po'ed at the 3 NY Jews on the tour he apologized to me and said he was embarrassed about how American Jews act.

Israeli born Jews are quite different from their American counterparts.

[lara]

You're right. PR seems to be the main problem of Republicans. And as to your second point, as a Catholic, I have to lay some of the blame with the parish priests. It's sad to see so many Catholics voting for anti-life candidates.

[Optimist]

Liberalism is so prevalent in most Jewish circles, that if the Jewish lobby had the opportunity to affect Israeli policy, they would require confiscation of all guns in Israel and removal of armed soldiers from the streets ... after all we dont want to antagonize the situation.

But seriously many of my fellow Jews distrust the Palestinians as vehemently as anyone, its just that the DemocRAT mindset has been ingrained into them for over 50 years ... I cant explain it, and they dont even realize the contradiction they live with.

As much as stereotypes are abhorred, many still think of conservatives and Republicans in the old trite images that we constantly have to correct.

[185JHP]

IMO some of the people in Israeli politics (leftists) believe that the lobbying/campaign contributions power of Jews in the U.S. force the U.S. government to back up/protect Israel, when in fact and in truth the best thing Israel has going for it, other than the love of HaShem, is the Christians in the U.S. who know the truth about who the Jews are.

[College Repub]

Optimist is on the mark. While there are many Jews who are progrssives (in fact many progressive movements are led by Jews), as a whole, I think most Jews are moderates. Why then 80% democrat support? Well, the fact that the C.C is aligned with the Republican Party is a huge factor. And most Jews are not aware that Chrsitians support the state of Israel (or the CC types)...it's simply not something known to them, I don't know how else I can put it...

[truth_seeker]

But while Jewish votes assure that New York's senators will always be demonstrably pro-Israel...

Or, insofar as Hillary kissed the terrorist's wife, and her husband pushed for Israel's suicide, I would reasonably conclude New York Jews pay little attention to FACTS, pertaining to the survival of Israel.

They are as poorly informed about reality, as your typical liberal voter, in spite of the generally accepted high intelligence of Jews, as a grouping.

In other words, the religion of liberalism trumps the welfare of their overseas co-religionists.

[Cacique]

You might all be interested in the following post.

Jewish World Review On the Verge of Folding

[Optimist]

As bizarre as it seems to me, most Jews I know trust GOVERNMENT (as long as their guy is running it, but suggest the idea of Pat Buchanan being in charge and they freak-for example gun control, civil liberties, etc)

On the other hand, they DO NOT trust the religious right, fearing religious control of the government first and foremost.
As a result, Christian support of Israel is suspect in that an ulterior motive is suspected, although unspoken. In other words, WHY are the evil right-wing Christians wanting to help us?

I, on the other hand, distrust the power of government based on history 50 years ago ,or so, and believe that regardless of Christian "motives" for support of Israel, just because we dont see eye to eye on everything, we have similar goals with regard to the support and strength of Israel and its shrines.

the enemy of my enemy is my friend

some of my best friends are born again 8-)

[lara]

You don't have to explain. I understand exactly what you mean. My family, Iowa farmer going way back, always voted for the dems. But some of us realized the party changed and no longer represented our values. We found a new home with the Republican party. But there were some in my family, who shall remain nameless, who stuck with the dems, because that's just what they were and always had been. Good reason. I'm proud of my parents, though. After being life long dems, they were the first to switch.

[rebelsoldier]

Unfortunately, in my experience, most American Jews are left-wingers, neo-communists, and at the very center of developing and promulgating politically correct, anti-cultural, anti-American, and anti-social dogma that is designed to denounce, defame, and heap criticism on the very society in which they live. In this way they are not unlike American blacks in that their target of hostility and resentment isn't the land, places, and peoples that originally sold them down the river and abused them horribly, but the host nation they now live in. This apparent ingratitude and animus has generated extreme resentment towards all Jews thanks to these individuals, and this has rebounded on Israelis, who paradoxically, most American Jews detest and regard as religious extremists and a foreign oddity, and thus expendible. This is how a filthy, lying, crooked, bitch like Hillary Clinton who loves Palestinians can be supported and voted in by American Jews. It's because they are Jews in name only, and not much else.

[monkeyshine]

Jews have no reason to trust "government". Sure, America has been the best country for the Jews in all time. God Bless America. But other countries in the past have not been so good, and some have been downright evil towards them. Overall, Jewish people IMHO should have a natural distrust of government, and a natural love of freedom.

I think the liberal bent of the Jews is pretty 'old school' thought. They older Jews tend to be liberal because of things in the past. The younger Jews, and the open minded Jews, I think are starting to realize that the Democrats aren't what their parents told them they were. And men like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton being Democrat big wigs doesn't help. In 15 years I predict that the Jewish vote will be more balanced between Democrats and Republicans. Jews voted 40% for Ike and 35% for Reagan's second term -- and elected 2 Republican Mayors to NYC (a minor miracle). And that new book "BIAS" about the bias in the media I think is written by a Jew. So all is not lost, in fact I think there is reason to believe things are getting better.

As for 'distrust' of the "religious right", I think that is also old school. And some of it may have to do with the fact that Jews and Christians have different ideas in mind when it comes to the fate of Israel, and some have vastly different ideas.

[College Repub]

There was an article recently (I Forget the source...) about how the MAJORITY of Jews under 30 voted Republican in the last Presidential race...or identified themselves...I can't remember the exact details, but the bottom line was that the tides were changing

[monkeyshine]

It wouldn't suprise me. Generation X has many reason to dislike the me generation.