When Will They Ever Learn… Why do so many American Jews hate the president who stands by Israel?

The Weekly Standard ^ | July 31, 2006 | David Gelernter

[quidnunc]

For years I have watched the Palestinians do absurdly self-destructive things, and have never understood them until now. But watching the Bush administration stoutly defend Israel this week against the background of an American Jewish population that vocally (often sneeringly) dislikes him and his administration, and consistently votes by massive majorities for his Democratic opponents, I start to understand the Palestinians just a little.

American Jews are not Palestinians and have not sunk to the level of supporting terrorist murderers. But their behavior is a lesson in self-destructive nihilism that could teach even the Palestinians a thing or two. U.S. Jews remain fervent supporters of an American left that is increasingly unable or unwilling to say why Israel must exist. Of course American Jews, like all Americans, define their interests in terms of many issues and not just one. But there is a reason why so many used to put Israel's safety near the top of their lists: Israel has been caught in a life-or-death struggle since birth; American support is critical to her survival.

True: Jewish support for President Bush moved upward in the 2004 election relative to the 2000 figures. It moved all the way up to 25 percent. During the five presidential elections of the 1970s and '80s, American Jews averaged 35 percent support for the Republican candidate, so 25 percent for Bush in '04 was not exactly a landslide move to the GOP. But even this pint-sized move seems to have petered out earlier this year. Jack Abramoff does not make an attractive spokesman for Jewish Republicans. The fall of Tom DeLay silenced one of the best friends Israel ever had in American politics, and one of the most effective symbols of Republican support for Israel. So the pattern of the '90s is likely to continue: American Jews move left as the left moves away from Israel.

-snip-

[Mamzelle]

This article is spot-on. Look at how David Horowitz is a voice in the Willderness!

How in the world are we (the US) going to continue to support Israel when American Jews seek to thwart us ? We need Jews to be on the side of Jews for a change. Just how far can US evangelicals and a handful of conservative Jews take us?

[JudgemAll]

The intellectual and pseudo intellectual (about the same thing except one has a bigger a$$ than the other) fears war and having to fight because his greatness occured as a result of being at peace. He cannot think under stress. He is very judgmental against those who cannot read or write and live rough lives (so called red necks), but in fact at the bottom lust for the very abilities of the "red neck" to still function when under stress... thus their judgmentalism and vilification of Bush as some kind of crazy cowboy who can't think yet makes much better decisions under a time of exceptional stress for America.

Kudos to Bush, I respect the man.

As for the Jews who love their post WWII intellectualization, they are only going back in the tracks of those scholars who dared not speak up against Hitler or Stalin or what not... simply because they would lose their functions, they would lose their prestige or their abilities to call the shots, or their pride made them fear to look pathetic and needy... and so they prayed and talked and pretty much never intended to do anything in the first place.

Bush, even in his most timid supports of Israel, puts them to unbelievable shame and they revile him for that.

[TASMANIANRED]

A huge number of Jews in America, especially in NYC are Communist Russian Jews that came over prior to the Revolution or just after wards.

These are their off spring..They are liberal because they were raised in Socialist/Communist homes.

[phillyfanatic]

Excellent. Dennis Prager has written on this brilliantly. Ingrates are Liberals Huck. That has been their agenda for sixty years. Whine and carp against America, no matter which ethnic group, Jewish, or race, black and now unfortunately Hispanic, just on and on complaining while they live in the greatest nation on earth. Mind blowing is it not?

[Candor7]

Agreed Quid.......also who is forgetting the massive exodus of Florida Jews away from the Democrat party to support Dubyah and put him over the top in his contest with Gore in Florida? Thousands followed former Mayor Ed Koch in voting for Presdent Bush. Abe Foxman is attempting a revision of history as if all that did not happen. The gloss doesn't work boyo!

The Jews left the Dem party in droves , all except for the hard core socialists, when Hillary Clinton brokered her Palestinian initiatives along with her hyraulically challenged hubby.

How can Abe Foxman forget that, with former Jewish Democrat Mayor of New York City,Ed Koch, who said in August of 2004:

*********************************

ELECTION 2004 Ed Koch: I'm voting for Bush New York Democrat: Kerry doesn't have stomach to go after terrorists

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By Aaron Klein © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com

Ed Koch

Former New York City Mayor Edward Koch, a Democrat, will for the first time in his life vote for a Republican presidential candidate this year because he feels Kerry "doesn't have the stomach" to fight terrorism, Koch told WorldNetDaily.

"While I don't agree with Bush on a single domestic issue, they are all trumped by the issue of terrorism, where he has enunciated the Bush Doctrine and proven his ability to fight this war," said Koch. "The Democratic Party just doesn't have the stomach to go after terrorists."

Koch, now a partner in a Manhattan law firm, was mayor of New York from 1978-89, and served for nine years as a U.S. congressman until 1977. He's known for his liberal views on various issues, including his staunch support of same-sex marriage and leftist ideas for the economy and environment.

While he has in the past deviated from conventional liberal thinking, strongly supporting the death penalty and taking a hard line on "quality of life" issues, Koch has always supported Democratic presidential candidates.

But the former mayor says he was sickened by what he witnessed at the Democratic National Convention last month and now feels the Democratic Party is moving in the wrong direction.

"I saw Kerry surrounded by radical politicians like [former President Jimmy] Carter and [Sen. Ted] Kennedy. ... I know Kerry will succumb to their pressure if elected. They are with Kerry not because they like him, but because their true candidate Howard Dean couldn't get elected, and they wanted someone who they can have elected and dominate," charged Koch.

"As long as Kennedy and Robert Byrd are considered major leaders of the Democratic Party, and while we're seeing radical candidates like Howard Dean, whose radical-left supporters have been described by the press as 'Deaniacs,' the Democratic Party will be limited in its ability to serve the country well in times of crisis and war like we face now."

Koch thinks Kerry is putting on a facade by campaigning as tough on terrorism, and worries the Democratic nominee plans to pull American troops from Iraq prematurely, signaling to al-Qaida and terror-supporting Mideast dictators that the U.S. doesn't have the will to fight terrorism.

"Kerry says now that he'd stay in Iraq, but the people who support him would get out tomorrow. If he's president, they would pressure him to do that," Koch said. "They don't care what Kerry says now. They believe he is saying things simply to ingratiate himself with mainstream Democrats and some Republicans."

Koch has been impressed with Bush's response to the Sept. 11 attacks, and says terrorism must rank as the most important issue for voters in the November elections.

He says he supports Bush because "I think the Bush Doctrine of pre-emption is crucial. Bush says 'We will go after the terrorists and the countries that harbor them.' And he has demonstrated that he means it by invading Afghanistan and Iraq, both threats to their regions and to the U.S."

The security of Israel is another major issue for Koch, who is proud of his Jewish heritage and says he is frightened by the "prospects of disaster" in the Middle East if Kerry is elected president. Koch says he "cannot understand why Jews who care about Israel would vote Democrat this year."

"Look at what Kerry said before the Council on Foreign Relations, where he made his foreign-affairs positions known. He said if he were president, he'd select James Baker and Jimmy Carter as emissaries to Israel. They are two of the most hostile politicians toward Israel! These are the last people you'd send if you cared about the Jewish state and the Middle East.

"And when Kerry was accosted by Jewish leaders for saying that, he claimed he hadn't seen that part in his speech, that it was inserted at the last minute by staff people. Now as a politician, I know you read this kind of speech dozens of times. He knew it was in there. So Kerry doesn't tell the truth, either."

Many Jews feel Carter and Baker have taken a consistently pro-Palestinian line, and some were worried by Carter's comments at the convention, where he linked the Bush administration's policy toward Israel to anti-American sentiment.

"Violence has gripped the Holy Land, with the region increasingly swept by anti-American passions," Carter told the convention in a prime-time speech many Democrats said marked his revival as a central figure in the party.

Koch says he found it "both interesting and disturbing" that Kerry omitted any reference to Israel during his acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention.

"But I am convinced that President Bush will never trade Israel's special relationship with the U.S. for political support, be it domestic or international. Bush is probably the most supportive of Israel of any U.S. president in history. I doubt John Kerry and the Deaniacs who now embrace him would have the same resolve."

Koch points to Bush's isolation of Arafat, and his viewing of Israel as a strategic partner in the war on terror as positive foreign-policy elements.

Koch says he plans to campaign for Bush among the Jews of New York and South Florida in the coming two months. He says he will write a flurry of op-eds in Jewish newspapers, and has already started hitting the airwaves, talking to several Jewish radio shows, including Israel's Tovia Singer Radio Show, which many American Jews follow online.

"You see, I was elected mayor because New Yorkers trusted my insights and common sense," explains Koch. "And I believe they still do. They and the rest of America must realize Islamic terrorists want to destroy us, and there are hundreds of millions of them. I want a president who is willing to go after them before they have the chance to kill us."

************************************* http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=40088 *************************************

[PajamaTruthMafia]

If Ahmadinejad's recent letter to German Chancellor Merkel doesn't wake American Jews up, nothing will.

See this:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1669459/posts

[Hartmann]

They hate the hard line positions of Israel and of the pro-Israeli right in America. They are leftist, liberal weenies. Jews aren't immune to it. Why is this so baffling? People seem to think leftist American Jews should somehow overcome their lefty ways because they should feel allegiance to Israel. But hello! American lefties don't even feel allegiance to AMERICA--their own country! Why would they be any better vis a vis Israel. It doesn't make sense to be baffled by this.

Thank you for this explanation. It helps. Could you tell me this - why do some liberal Jews like to voice anti-Semitic canards that have come down the centuries; or why do some Jewish teachers like to pick on those students who are Jewish? This is something I find difficult to understand.

[bubman]

I would posit that this self-flagellating behaviour from Amercan Jews (although quite reprehensible) is a direct result from a Liberal education pure and simple, as are all bleeding hearts in the west.

[DCPatriot]

Jews are notoriously self-hating. There are also no bigger anti-semites than the Jews themselves.

Bullsh*t.

[isaac32]

Ingrained in the Jewish psyche is the centuries of persecution by so called 'christians'. I grew up in a New York liberal Jewish home and as a child was regaled with horrifying stories of life in the European Diaspora passed down from one Jewish generation to another. American Jews equate this underlying 'christian' bias against Jews with the Republican party and the Democrats as the protectors of the little guy and the standard bearers for social justice as flawed as these caricatures are. This is at least in part why American Jews blindly support the Dems and oppose the GOP.

The story ended happily for me though. After many trips to Israel as a young adult I became very interested in finding the God of Israel. I was given a Bible by an authentic Christian with the challenge to read it both Old and New Testaments. I did. Was I ever surprised! The Messiah prophesized about over 300 times in the O.T. clearly was the Annointed One in the N.T. namely, Yeshua, Jesus! I claimed Him as my own some 24 yrs ago at age 37. I got real conservative after that as I read and reread Scripture and concluded that the very God I worship was, is and will be the original Conservative.

Shabbat Shalom and thump 'em Israel!

[yankeedame]

Most Jewish men I know seem to be hen pecked. Most of them are not religious...only culturally Jewish....

This is not the first time I've read this. It seems that of all the major religions, Judaism is the least practiced among those who claim to be part of it. Something to the tune of 54% IIRC, as opposed to Christianity which is in the upper 80% range.
Also, it's been said that among Jews, esp. American Jews, that Judaism is no longer so much a religion as it is merely a designation -- like being from Nebraska.

[mjolnir]

Thus those who are left here tend to be, umm, Left here.

LOL! I have to disagree, though-- as Michael Medved was pointing out the other day, an American Jew's first loyalty is rightly to America, just as it is with any other American.

Besides, Israel is not a right wing nation that principally attracts right-wingers to it by any means; on the contrary, it is a nation dominated by socialism and left wing judicial supremacists that only recently has begun to move away from socialism. It's much more like Western Europe in those sorts of respects than like the USA.

That there is still some distrust among Jewish Americans of Christian Americans shouldn't be a surprise imo; and this naturally extends to the conservative movement in America since it's dominated by Christians.

On top of that, Jews are tend to be highly educated, and the educational system in this country, especially with respect to advanced degrees, promotes leftism; I would guess that's something of a factor as well.

[Huck]

hine and carp against America, no matter which ethnic group, Jewish, or race, black and now unfortunately Hispanic,

Exactly. Liberalism trumps everything else.

[Inyokern]

Bump for later

[Huck]

I agree that the tendency is handed down.

[Huck]

I think lefties are pretty reactionary. I don't even think they know what they want. Hell, the day they got what they wanted, they'd be against that.

[Mia T]

Why Bush Must Be Re-elected

Edward I. Koch
Thursday, July 22, 2004

I support the re-election of President George W. Bush. Why? Because I believe one issue overwhelms all others: the president's strong commitment to fight the forces of international terrorism regardless of the cost or how long it takes to achieve victory.

I do not agree with President Bush on a single major domestic issue, but in my view those issues pale in comparison with the threat of international terrorism. Osama bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the evil poster boys of mass murder, are revered and supported by millions of Muslims throughout the world. The stated goal of al-Qaida and its supporters is to kill or convert every infidel, and that means Jews, Christians, Buddhists and everyone else who will not accept Islam's supremacy.

These terrorists are convinced that non-Islamic nations do not have the will and courage to persevere in this ongoing struggle, which could last decades. They believe the democracies are weak-willed and will ultimately yield to whatever demands are made upon them.

By withdrawing their troops from Iraq in response to terrorist attacks, Spain and the Philippines have already shown that, tragically, terror tactics, including suicide attacks, car bombings and the beheading of innocent civilians, do work.

The terrorists also intend to destroy moderate Muslim governments that want to live in peace with countries that are not Islamic.

Shortly after 9/11, President Bush announced his commitment to the struggle against Islamic fanatics, who believe they can destroy the values of Western civilization and democratic governments everywhere. On entering this war against terrorism after 9/11, President Bush said, "We shall go after the terrorists and the countries that harbor them.

This Bush Doctrine rivals in importance the Monroe Doctrine, which limited the colonization efforts of foreign powers in the Western Hemisphere, and the Truman Doctrine, which contained the spread of Communism. President Bush has proven that he is prepared to keep to his commitment to fight terrorism.

If John Kerry were to win this presidential election, would he stand up to terrorism to the same extent as George Bush has? I don't think so. Regrettably, my party, the Democratic Party, now has a strong radical left wing whose members often dominate the party primaries. Those same left-wing radicals have an anti-Israel philosophy, reviling that democratic state which shares the values held by a majority of Americans.

Kerry is a patriotic American who performed heroically in the Vietnam War. Regrettably, he surrendered his philosophical independence to the left wing in the recent primaries in order to prevail over the original darling of the radicals, Howard Dean. Kerry owes his nomination in large part to the supporters of Dean and the support of Senator Ted Kennedy.

Kennedy sadly demonstrated his loss of any sense of decency with his crude attacks on President Bush using unacceptable, abusive language. The hatred deliberately stirred by Kennedy directed at President Bush is contemptible and dangerous. It encourages our terrorist enemies with whom we are at war, and it incites the crazies in our own country.

On July 9, a Kerry-Edwards fund-raising concert was held at Radio City Music Hall. During that concert Hollywood comedienne Whoopi Goldberg engaged in unprintable, despicable, sexual references to the president and the vice president. She combined the president's family name with allusions to the female anatomy, and she made a sexual reference to Vice President Dick Cheney's first name by referring to the male anatomy.

Even worse was Kerry's thank-you from the stage to all of the performers saying that they conveyed "the heart and soul of our country." Shameful.

Now a comment about the war in Iraq. Most Americans understand that few, if any, wars go smoothly. Just cast your mind back to the American Revolutionary War, during which New York City was occupied by enemy forces for seven years, or the American Civil War, in which Confederate armies won victory after victory on the battlefield, or even World War II, in which the Nazi menace was defeated at an enormous cost in human lives. Should we have gone to war with Iraq? I believe the answer is yes.

During a daily briefing after 9/11, then CIA Director George Tenet told the president that Iraq had the ability to wage chemical and biological war on the U.S. He referred to Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction as a "slam dunk." Had the president not engaged in the pre-emptive war against Saddam, and if this madman had subsequently released in the U.S. biological agents or poison gas, which he had already used against the Kurds and Iran, does anyone doubt that the president would have been impeached?

The security agencies of nearly every democratic nation provided to their president or prime minister the same description of Iraq's weapons-of-mass-destruction capability. The U.S. Congress had the same information and concurred with the president's decision. The U.N. Security Council unanimously concurred, passing Resolution 1441.

But it was President Bush who had the courage to take up arms in defense of the U.S. and our allies. That is what leadership is all about.

A poll released by the Washington Post on July 14, 2004, showed that "55 percent of Americans approve of the way Bush is handling the campaign against terrorism" and "51 percent also said they trust Bush more than Kerry to deal with terrorism, while 42 percent prefer the Democrat."

We also should not forget that President Bush, in my opinion, has been the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House. At the U.N. Security Council and in the U.N. General Assembly, allies of the U.S. and others who are indifferent or hostile to our country have conveyed the view that if we end our alliance with Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, they would welcome back the U.S. into their circle. President Bush has refused to abandon our ally Israel.

In my opinion, the U.S. presidents who have been Israel's greatest friends are, in order, the current President Bush, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. This November, we Americans in the Jewish community should remember our friends. We should thank President Bush for his courage in the war against terrorism and for his strong and consistent support for Israel and democracy.

Edward I. Koch is the former mayor of New York City. His commentary for Bloomberg radio is republished here. You can hear his weekly radio show by going to www.bloomberg.com/radio.

 

 

[Huck]

why do some liberal Jews like to voice anti-Semitic canards that have come down the centuries;

Some think it's self-loathing, and I suppose sometimes it is. I think liberals say the things they say because they think it makes them appear enlightened. It's hip to be self-loathing. Pride is for extremists, or something like that. That's why they can't deal with patriotism. It's so uncool to be patriotic; they've long since lost the ability. Therefore, they hate it. Same thing. To them, it's much deeper and more spiritual and enlightened to hate yourself. It shows you can think beyond your own interests, man. In other words, they're fools. It's a liberal trait, not a Jewish trait.

or why do some Jewish teachers like to pick on those students who are Jewish? This is something I find difficult to understand.

Don't know. Haven't observed that one. But public school teachers aren't exactly the best the gene pool has to offer. They probably need to feel better about themselves by knocking someone else because deep down (or not even that deep down) they know they themselves are losers.

[Huck]

direct result from a Liberal education pure and simple, as are all bleeding hearts in the west.

I agree. It's their liberalism that makes them this way, not their Jewishness, as conservative Jews amply demostrate. It's not Jewishness that makes you a fool; it's liberalism.

[sanjacjake]

It's all Chuck Schumer's fault...Jake