Ed Koch was saying the same thing on Hannity today.
Posted on 10/26/2004 4:23:41 PM PDT by Cinnamon Girl
A senior Israeli rabbi with influence among almost 150,000 American Jews ruled Tuesday that they should vote for President George W. Bush in the upcoming US elections, his office said.
Rabbi Shalom Yosef Elyashiv, responding to queries from Americans residing in Israel, has decided that Bush is better for Israel than his competitor, John Kerry, said an assistant to the rabbi, Haim Cohen.
Elyashiv's opinions are respected by large ultra-Orthodox communities, especially in Israel and the US. Elyashiv has strong influence over about half of all haredi Jews of European origin.
"Apparently George Bush loves Israel and thus we need to vote for him," the rabbi said Tuesday, according to Cohen.
The rabbi does not usually rule on political matters, especially those that don't directly concern Israel. But Elyashiv decided that the US is a "kingdom of grace," or great friend to Israel, and thus the elections there can directly influence the Jewish state, Cohen said.
About 140,000 American Orthodox Jews will probably abide by Elyashiv's decision, said Sam Heilman, an expert on American Jews at Queens College in New York. But Elyashiv is just confirming the theories of many analysts who believe most haredi Jews in the US vote Republican, Heilman said in a telephone interview from his office.
"What's extraordinary is that the rabbi is addressing non-Israelis in a sense," Heilman said. "This confirms that the Orthodox community, by and large, is supporting Bush more than Kerry."
But those Orthodox Jews who are already dead set on Kerry will not necessarily change their minds, despite Elyashiv's ruling, Heilman said.
The rabbi's decision will influence the vote of at least 10,000 American Jews currently residing in Israel, at least 700 of whom are from the battleground state of Florida, he said.
Most American Jews typically vote Democrat and, in 2000, the community voted 4-to-1 for Al Gore. But Kerry faces a tougher battle among Jews this election since Bush has built a reputation as a strong backer of Israel.
It is way more than 150,000 Jews who will feel influenced by this.
Attention frum Yidden: please print this up and post it in your shul and local restaurants. Get the word out!
I'm printing up flyers with this info to give people when I bring more lawn signs around the neighborhood.
Great idea.
W is the best friend Israel has had since Cyrus.
Great, but won't the vast majority of those 140,000 be voting for the President anyway?
Don't most Orthodox Jews live in NY?
In othor words,wasted votes.
I sent in my absentee ballot today.
The ORthodox were already voting for Bush.
there are a LOT of self-loathing ,Israel hating Jews on both coasts who will be voting for John Kerry....
Is it too late?
Coulda stated this a few weeks ago, I think.
You beat me by a few minutes. I have quite a few links on my version.
Question is, how many will listen/heed?
Rav Elyashiv is the biggest rabbi who can answer questions regarding Jewish law in the eastern/western European non-Sephardic, non-chassidic world. Does that help? ;)
Wow.
Very very nice.
BTTT
translate please
what the MSM will NOT tell you (surprise!!) is that the centerpiece of sKerry's Foreign Policy is that he WILL SACRIFICE ISRAEL to the rest of the world.
Here's an idea: why don't you shut up.
Finally a rabbi shows some common sense. A vote for Kerry is a vote for the destruction of Israel.
From Me to Jews
Why, despite everything, Jewish-Americans keep voting for Democrats.
by Joel Engel
10/26/2004 12:00:00 AM
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/004/833ifcua.asp
FOR NEARLY SIXTY YEARS, since the birth of Israel, American Jews have faced accusations that they care more about the well-being of their ancient homeland than of their home. Well, barring some unforeseen circumstance, the canard of dual loyalty should be retired forever on November 2, 2004. On that Tuesday, Election Day, up to 80 percent of American Jews will pull the lever for John Kerry, thereby proving that they not only do not care about Israel's well-being, but that they don't mind making common cause with people who wish them ill. Or worse.
The evidence is overwhelming that acceptable anti-Semitism has moved from right to left on the political continuum, and that its philosophical home now resides in the Democratic party, which has become less the party of liberals than of leftists. Even before Al Sharpton stood as a presidential candidate last year, Democratic politicians genuflecting for black votes--Al Gore, Bill Bradley, and Hillary Clinton, for example--often trekked up to Harlem to kiss his ring. And yet, this was a man who in previous years had either led or instigated two anti-Jewish demonstrations, one in Crown Heights and one in Harlem, which together resulted in the deaths of eight people. Does that matter to Democrats and John Kerry? Apparently not. Sharpton was rewarded with a choice slot at the Democratic National Convention, something that is impossible to imagine being given to the likes of former Republican David Duke, whose incitements have frankly born far less blood than Sharpton's.
Put aside his disgraceful role in the Tawana Brawley hoax. The fact that Democratic candidate Sharpton never had to answer questions during primary season from either the press or the other contenders about his anti-Semitic statements (to wit: "diamond merchants" whose hands bear "the blood of innocent babies") should tell Jewish Democrats something important about their party. It should tell them that anti-Semites have found safety in numbers.
Partial proof of that was on display in a VIP box at the Democratic national convention, where two other prominent guests were seated shoulder to shoulder: Jimmy Carter and Michael Moore. Considering their on-the-record statements, it's not terribly difficult to imagine them leaning close during breaks to compare notes on Jewish conspiracies and the world's locus of evil, Israel.
Carter's antipathy toward the Jewish state is well-documented, as is his affection for Arab dictators, especially Yasser Arafat. This is a man who endorsed the results of the sham 1996 "election" that transformed Arafat from self-appointed "chairman" to "president" of the Palestinian Authority, while he continues to suggest that President Bush stole Florida and therefore the 2000 election. (Remember, too, that Carter recently ratified anti-American Hugo Chavez's election in Venezuela under dubious circumstances.) Last year's Nobel Peace laureate once confided to historian/biographer Douglas Brinkley how eager he'd been to meet Arafat (another laureate!) for the first time--and why he felt such an affinity for the terrorist leader. He believes that Arafat truly wants peace and that Ariel Sharon truly does not. He considers it self-evident that the whole of the West Bank and Gaza belong to the Palestinians, a bias evinced by his insertion of "the" before the word "territories" in his written discussion of United Nations Resolution 242, though "the" had been specifically and deliberately excluded from the resolution's wording in order to demonstrate that all permanent borders are to be negotiated in good faith. No wonder his Carter Center receives substantial funding from Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, at a speech in Liverpool early this year, Moore informed his adoring audience who the world's real villains are: "It's all part of the same ball of wax, right? The oil companies, Israel, Halliburton." That statement sheds light on why he tried to prevent Fahrenheit 9/11 from being shown in Israel, and is congruent with both his speech denouncing the Israeli "occupation" at a 1990 Washington, D.C. demonstration, and his refusal that same year to attend a screening of his film Roger and Me in Jerusalem unless and until Israel met his demand to withdraw from "Arab lands." Moore has also suggested that we could solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by giving the Palestinians $4 billion worth of advanced weapons. Most egregious, though, was his dedication in the book Dude, Where's My Country? to Rachel Corrie, the pro-Palestinian activist who was killed while impeding a bulldozer sent to find and destroy tunnels used by the Palestinians for weapons smuggling. (Corrie was once photographed burning an American flag at a West Bank demonstration.)
You might think that the Democratic party, which receives 70-80 percent of the Jewish vote and a ridiculous amount of political cash, would have meted out at least verbal spanks to Moore and Carter for their anti-Israel animus. But both men, like Sharpton, remain among the adored--unlike, by contrast, the late Pennsylvania Governor Bob Casey, a liberal who was banned from the 1992 and 1996 national conventions because of his stance against abortion. Which leads inexorably to the conclusion that Moore and Carter accurately reflect their party's mainstream.
GIVEN THAT, it's no mystery how the far left has been able to hijack college campuses that used to be seedbeds of civil rights activism--much of it famously led and organized by liberal Jews. Now, under the politically correct cover of Palestinian rights, Jews find themselves lumped in with religious Christians as acceptable objects of revulsion, leaving squishy-left Steinbergs and Goldbergs to wonder what's happening as antiwar, anti-Bush demonstrations rapidly morph into anti-Israel, anti-Jew hatefests. San Francisco State, Duke, Berkeley, and Columbia (whose growing anti-Semitism in the classroom is now the subject of a short film) are only a few of the many schools where Jews have glimpsed the mob mentality of Kristallnacht.
Even individually, college-age anti-Semites feel comfortable enough these days to note publicly, as Duke senior Philip Kurian did recently, that those pesky over-achieving Jews are something of a problem. Inspired by Duke's hosting of the radical Islamist, pro-terror group International Solidarity Movement (to which Rachel Corrie belonged), Kurian unashamedly referenced "the powerful Jewish establishment" and "exorbitant Jewish privilege in the United States" before reaching the crux of his letter to Duke's newspaper the Chronicle: "It is well known that Jews constitute the most privileged 'minority' group in this country. Among the top 10 universities, Jews enjoy shocking overrepresentation."
Note the ironic quotation marks around the word minority, though Jews add up to barely 2 percent of the country's population (one-fifth of 1 percent of the world's); and the word overrepresentation as opposed to "disproportionate representation," whose use would have at least acknowledged Jews' work ethic and devotion to achievement. And then there was "shocking."
But instead of widespread outrage, condemnation, newspaper confiscations, demonstrations about hurt feelings, suspension, expulsion, and even prosecution, which are generally what follow when similar bile is directed at protected "minorities" on campus, Kurian's sentiments earned him nothing more than opprobrium from bloggers generally hailing from the right--Gentile bloggers, mostly. Liberal Jews themselves said little, much as the National Organization for Women fell silent during the Clinton era when the president was proved to be a serial groper; that "D" after his name inoculated him against charges that were similar to--if not more serious than--those that brought the wrath of feminists down on poor Senator Bob Packwood, who had the misfortune of playing serial tonsil hockey with an "R" after his name.
THEREIN LIES the explanation for why American Jews refuse obstinately to accept that the Democratic party's train, which they've ridden since FDR (whose reputation among Jews was less earned than awarded), is now carrying them toward some perilous destination. Sadly, by the time they realize that Harry Truman and Scoop Jackson have given up their conductor seats to Michael Moore and International Solidarity, it'll be too late to get off.
American Jews' allegiance to Democrats is nothing less than a religion. And conversion is considered a sacrilege.
If you ask even the most secular Jew, one who stays home to watch baseball on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, to convert to Christianity--say, in order to marry a shiksa--he'll likely recoil. It's a visceral thing, hatched in the belly eons ago.
So, too, is the notion of pulling the lever for dirty anti-Semite, racist Republicans. That's the catechism. No matter that Republicans booted out David Duke and Patrick Buchanan--or that both of them would find plenty of fellow travelers in today's Democratic party. Catechism states that only Democrats can be authentic liberals.
WHICH IS WHY, once upon a time, it would've given Jews (and all Democrats) pause to hear support for their candidate uttered by the likes of Arafat, Kim Jong Il, and Mahathir Mohamad, the former Malaysian prime minister who endeared himself to billions last year when he opined that "Jews run the world by proxy." Today, such observations are irrelevant to the more important goal of turning George W. Bush out of office. Typical is the email response of a Jewish friend to whom I'd forwarded a Charles Krauthammer column predicting that Kerry will sell out Israel: "Which leaves us . . . Ralph Nader? What folly!!!!" Same with a Jewish woman whose only reaction to every argument on the same subject is to quote chapter and verse from the New York Times editorial page--the bible of liberal Jews.
In their worldview, words are more important than outcomes, especially when those words are uttered by Democrats. Thus, Bill Clinton's can't-we-all-just-get-along peacemaking that relied on the exaltation of Arafat is far preferable to George W. Bush's support for the terror-reducing fence and insistence on new Palestinian leadership--though the former caused the deaths of a thousand innocent Israelis, and the latter has saved innocents on both sides and brought closer the possibility of Palestinians giving up terrorism entirely--which will, of course, bring peace. Instead, Jews circulate angry emails about the lack of Jews in the president's cabinet, as if Clinton's Jewish Agriculture secretary somehow canceled out the shame of Yasser Arafat's permanent White House parking space.
To borrow longshoreman-philosopher Eric Hoffer's phrase, Jewish Democrats are "true believers"--every bit as unquestioning of their faith as evangelicals are. (A year after the Six-Day War, Hoffer had a premonition: "As it goes with Israel," he said, "so will it go with all of us. Should Israel perish, the holocaust will be upon us.") And yet they fear evangelicals' unshakeable support for Israel on the grounds that it's biblically based, which is the equivalent of refusing to accept your dog back from the guy who found him after he admits doing it only for the reward. "I fear this presidency," claimed a Jewish man I know, "more than I fear any Arab, Muslim, or al Qaeda terrorist." (This was the same man who emailed me his outrage at there being no Jews in Bush's cabinet.)
Why won't Jews who plan to vote for John Kerry take the senator at his word, and consider the ramifications, when he says that he wants to refract his foreign policy through the prism of the United Nations and the European Union? Nearly one third of the United Nations is comprised of Islamic states, which helps to account for why Israel has been targeted by a relentless barrage of condemnatory resolutions--as well as the disgraceful ruling in the International Court of Justice against the anti-terror fence.
As for Europe, birthplace of anti-Semitism, the European Union publicly wrings its hands over dead Palestinian terrorists but not dead Jewish children and mothers, insisting that there will be peace when Israel withdraws from all so-called Palestinian lands; and if that pullback to the "Auschwitz borders" should someday result in Israeli Jews being driven into the sea, then good riddance. In the unvarnished words of Daniel Bernard, French ambassador to Great Britain, Israel is "a shitty little country" inhabited by "those people" who are putting the world "in danger of World War III."
"F*** the Jews," Republican James Baker snapped during Bush 41's reign more than a decade ago. "They didn't vote for us anyway."
Right he was. And if only 20 percent of them vote for Bush 43, American Jews won't need James Baker--they'll have done it to themselves.
For a supposedly smart people, we can be awfully stupid.
Joel Engel is an author and journalist in Southern California.
Bush will undoubtedly do better with Jews than in 2000, but getting a majority may be tough. Still, it might make a difference in a tight state race.
Bump
Every frum Jew will listen.
That's easy for you to say.
But every little bit helps when so many states are at the margins.
This is very good news.
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent ‘miscellaneous’ ping list.
Ed Koch was saying the same thing on Hannity today.
So THAT is who answers the phone when I dial 1-800-ASKAJEW ;^)
even if the votes don't change a state's electoral vote count, it still goes to run up the popular count and we want to win that number too this time. this can't hurt, as they say!
Well at least this is better than the pablem the Vatican issue the other day.
I just emailed this to all my Jewish buddies at work, just to tweak them off.
Many have insisted during our political arguments at the water cooler that President Bush fully intends to round up all Jews (and other non Christians) so he can force them to convert.
I know they say it with tongue in cheek, but deep down that's what they really like to believe.
Needless to say, they will not even consider that they are being delusional.
But I love em anyway and really love to tweak them with articles like this from the Jersulem Post.
Listen - don't judge so quickly. My ex-husband (100% Jewish) is from Long Beach, CA and voting for Bush, his brother is also a conservative Jew and successful dentist from Orange County, CA, voting for Bush. And don't forget David Zucker - director/producer from Hollywood and Jewish, life-long democrat, voting for Bush. He was on the Michael Medved radio show yesterday - said he feels funny for voting republican, but democratic party no longer represents him and he does NOT trust Kerry to protect USA nor ISRAEL!!!!! He just made a commercial that is going on air about Kerry's inability to make decisions. He produced/directed Airplane, Scary Movie 3 and others.
Plenty of Jews in NJ, PA and FL.
There are orthodox jewish families in every state. Pennsylvania included. Okalahoma and all states between NJ and California.
ping
I did some googling....
Posaik - Interpreter of the Law. http://jewishfamilyservice.net/bio.asp?bio=mtendler
Ashkenaz - German Jews. http://www.bartleby.com/65/as/Ashkenaz.html
misnagdish - "Rational, intellectual, cold/dry, anti-Hassidic" Jews http://www.salam-shalom.net/salam-shalom/arc092201.html
We are all God's children. Bush believes and takes on the charge.
There are no wasted votes because we want as much of thepopular vote as we can muster. If any of you have friends in Illinois or New York of Mass. implore them to vote even if they feel it is wasted. We need all the numbers we can get. Remember...in the event of a tied or nearly tied Electoral College the popular vote would bwecome important. Moreover, I am sick and tired of being beaten over the head with the Gore won the popular vote crap. EVERY SINGLE REPUBLICAN MUST VOTE ON NOV2.
“President Bush has been a tremendous friend to Israel. In fact, I don’t think we’ve had a better friend.”
~Benjamin Netanyahu~
Meet the Press
Sunday, April 28, 2002
“There is no substitute for moral and strategic clarity.”
~Benjamin Netanyahu~
Address to the United States Congress
September 20, 2001
National Public Radio
September 20, 2001
I just hope it's not too late.
'Airplane' Director David Zucker Lampoons Kerry's Waffling with New Ad; Noted Filmmaker Injects Humor into Issues Debate 10/21/2004 9:53:00 AM
To: National Desk, Political Reporter
Contact: Kevin McVicker of Shirley & Banister Public Affairs, 703-739-5920 or 800-536-5920, 703-727-9537 (cell)
WASHINGTON, Oct. 21 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Club for Growth.Net, one of the nation's leading political advocacy organizations, today unveiled a new national television ad, which ridicules John Kerry's indecisiveness on many policy issues.
"John Kerry's indecisiveness and flip-flopping are no laughing matter-that is until we teamed up with Hollywood hit maker David Zucker," said Club for Growth.Net president Stephen Moore. "David, whose credits include the blockbuster comedies "Airplane" and "The Naked Gun," has found a way to work his movie magic to create the funniest and most devastating ad this year. This ad cuts right to the chase and shows that there are consequences for not being able to make up one's mind."
"I was really a liberal Democrat until 9/11," said Zucker.
"There is no question in my mind that President Bush is doing a great job fighting the war on terror. We can't trust Kerry to do that. I wanted to do something, but since no one was asking me to make policy speeches I made this ad."
There's nothing wrong with making a decision and then changing your mind," the announcer says. "But if you never commit to what you believe in, who will ever commit to you? Onscreen a groom at his wedding bypasses his bride to romantically kiss the maid of honor.
John Kerry has changed his mind on all these important issues. Onscreen John Kerry's arms go up and down while the issues on which John Kerry has been indecisive appear including: Iraq, the Patriot Act, and $87 million for U.S. troops in Iraq.
"Now there's nothing wrong with a little indecision as long as your job doesn't involve any responsibility," the announcer continues. Onscreen a bomb squad member can't decide which wire to cut to defuse the bomb. He then runs away and other squad members follow him as the bomb explodes.
"John Kerry has changed his mind time and time again. If you thought you could trust John Kerry, you may want to change your mind."
The television ad, paid for by Club for Growth.Net, will begin running later in the week nationwide on cable news channels. The ad was written and directed by David Zucker. All of the actors in the ad donated their time.
Club for Growth.Net was established by members of the Club for Growth and is producing and airing over $1 million of issue advertisements this month.
For more information or to schedule an interview, please contact Kevin McVicker at 703-739-5920.
"This is big. Rav Elyashiv is the biggest posaik in the Ashkenaz misnagdish world alive today. This must be taken very seriously.
It is way more than 150,000 Jews who will feel influenced by this.
Attention frum Yidden: please print this up and post it in your shul and local restaurants. Get the word out!"
Cinnamon Girl: for us non-Jewish heavy-duty supporters of Israel (like me), could you give definitions of some of the words you used in your post. At least I am very curious as to what these words mean. Such as: posaik? Ashkenaz misnagdish? Yidden? and... shul? Inquiring minds want to know. Thanks.
"This is big. Rav Elyashiv is the biggest posaik in the Ashkenaz misnagdish world alive today. This must be taken very seriously.
It is way more than 150,000 Jews who will feel influenced by this.
Attention frum Yidden: please print this up and post it in your shul and local restaurants. Get the word out!"
Cinnamon Girl: for us non-Jewish heavy-duty supporters of Israel (like me), could you give definitions of some of the words you used in your post. At least I am very curious as to what these words mean. Such as: posaik? Ashkenaz misnagdish? Yidden? and... shul? Inquiring minds want to know. Thanks.
This is great news but I sense many Jews did not need the Rabbi to convince them who will protect Israel during these difficult times. My Dentist is an independent who usually votes for democrats but said 'this year will be different'. We have former NYC Mayor Ed Koch (D)campaigning in Florida for GWB. He said while he doesn't agree with his domestic issues, he is the only President able to fight the war on terror effectively. I have a Jewish Aunt and cousin who will finally break tradition and vote GOP for the first time ever!
Pinging Yehuda.
I think this is great. Someone in Florida needs to make copies of this and stick them up everywhere, in all the senior centers, parking lots, everywhere.
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