…that American Jews don’t?
Barack Hussein Obama received nearly eighty percent of the Jewish vote and still garners strong approval among America’s Jews. In contrast, only six percent of Jewish Israelis support Obama.
Even before the election, Israeli Jews, unlike their sycophantic American brethren, saw through Obama. Israelis were the least supportive population anywhere in the Western world of the inexperienced politician turned presidential candidate.
To support Obama, liberal Jews had to engage in a set of incredible mental gymnastics. They had to ignore his twenty-year relationship with the anti-Semitic minister Reverend Jeremiah Wright. They had to ignore his strong personal relationship with the virulent anti-Zionist Rashid Khalidi. They had to ignore his statement to the Iowa caucuses that no one has suffered more than the Palestinian people. They had to ignore his support of his Kenyan cousin and genocidal strongman Raila Odinga, an advocate of Sharia. They had to ignore Obama’s own Muslim heritage. They had to ignore that anti-Israel policy experts such as Samantha Power (who now has her own special seat on the National Security Council), Susan Rice, and General James Jones had the real inside track on advising Obama on the Middle East.
Part of the problem, of course, is that they aren’t liberal. They’re leftist. And they value their leftism above their heritage, and ignore the history of how the left ultimately treats Jews, from Hitler to Stalin. And as noted in comments, the more recent Jewish emigres from Russia know better — it’s the European Ashkenazim who have been here for generations, and remain steeped in their socialist past, that are the problem. Ever since Likud won in Israel, and it was no longer viewed as properly socialist, they (like Barack Obama) seem willing to throw the nation under the bus.
Nonsense. The problem here is that Americans tend to view this question of “pro-Israel” in terms of whether Israel will survive, while the Israelis who were polled were addressing the role of the US in a comparatively minor dispute with the Palestinians over the status of Ma’ale Adumim. The US can be “pro-Palestinian” in a dispute over the status of a particular settlement while still being quite “pro-Israel” on the question of whether Israel should continue to survive and flourish. In any case, Palestinians don’t present a short-term threat to Israeli survival — their main threat is that they’ll wear away at Israeli morale and contribute to a brain drain, which makes a pragmatic peace necessary. The US can help with such a peace possible by sometimes siding with the Palestinians on minor territorial questions when fairness or pragmatism merits it, and it can do so without in any way being anti-Israel on the most important questions.
Also: The argument from you and Pajamas Media author Miller would work better if it addressed what is actually being discussed in Israel. But failing that, it should at least acknowledge the large number of pro-Israel American working at the top levels of the Obama administration. Is Dennis Ross such a leftist that he is going to throw Israel under the bus? Will Rahm Emanuel throw Israel under the bus? Will deputy Sec of State James Steinberg throw Israel under the bus? (Since that name may not be familiar, here’s a biography: “www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/James_Steinberg.html”)
Finally: Leftism? Leftism has nothing to do with any of this. Partisan politics in both America and Israel are unfortunately driving some of the arguments, but these are proxy battles — the left-right ideological debate doesn’t actually play a role in figuring out the best way to make peace in the middle east. You could reverse the parties’ tactical positions on peacemaking (such that Labor and the Democrats would be for continued building in the settlements, while Likud and the Republicans would be for ceasing such building) and the middle east would make just as much or just as little sense as ever.
My God man, are you completely clueless? Arabs LIVE in Israel. The so-called Palestinians will have none of that Jewness in THEIR country. This isn’t about this village or that crossing, for Israelis, it’s about surviving. Do you think the countries bordering Israel wouldn’t like to finish what they started? American leftist jews have always shown more support for leftist Israeli governments than the right ones. Any support for “Palestinians” from the US President is magnified in the ME whether we think it’s a big deal or not.The foreign policy team Obama put together sees nothing wrong with a ONE state solution and it doesn’t matter what anyone other than Obama thinks. To him, all things are negotiable. They and he will take that if it means declaring victory for Obama. Of course the jews won’t fair so well, kind of like the Christians in Jerusalem.
False prophets: they deserve to die.
At least, what’s what religious people sometimes think. And Leftism is certainly a religion, however odd.
Nice post but the truth isn’t exactly the lingua franca with the Left, especially Jews, who appear to wear a unique set of blinders. How they rationalize Obama’s policies in the name of “hope and change” is a wonder to behold. No amount of hobnobbing with various Arab extremists will alter their views.
I imagine it was the same jews who rationalized that the Germans were a civilized people even though Hitler made no secret of his plans for the jews. The faith of the Left in the inerrancy of the annointed one is touching. I wonder how many will admit voting for him in 2012.
Bill: The same non-Jews will live in Israel and the Occupied Territories, and they will present the same threat or lack of threat whether or not Israel continues building homes in Gush Etzion and Ma’ale Adumim. This isn’t a question of life or death — this is a question of town houses.
The homes will influence where the border will be drawn for a two state solution, but again: security will not be endangered if the final border zigs to include a few hundred homes or zags to exclude a few hundred less homes.
Thomas: I’m not sure what you’re trying to say, but it sounds anti-semitic to me.
Sounded more anti-stupedic to me.
Thomas: I’m not sure what you’re trying to say, but it sounds anti-semitic to me.
Well, that’s an easy slur. It doesn’t even require you to actually analyze what he’s saying.
The reason for this is quite simple. Most of the sensible jews have gone to Israel.
Thomas:”I’m not sure what you’re trying to say, but it sounds anti-semitic to me.”
Piss-poor reading comprehension on your part does not constitute a racial slur on Tom’s part.
American Jews who voted for Obama are fools. Some of them have substituted leftist politics (“social justice”) for Judaism. Others cling to a fantasy reality in which religious Christians are out to get them and only the Party of Roosevelt can save them (never mind that Roosevelt didn’t save the Jews back when the Jews really needed to be saved, or that the modern Democratic Party allies itself with anti-Semites).
The Israeli Jews are the ones who get killed when the Left’s accommodationist fantasies are put into practice. It takes a lot of chutzpah for sheltered leftist American Jews to claim any authority to tell Israelis to risk their lives. I doubt that Netanyahu has the balls to tell Obama to take a hike, but that’s what he should do.
American Jews are Americans, Israeli Jews are Israelis. While this might seem obvious, it seems to have escaped more than a few people here and elsewhere….
Israel faces an exstintential threat from its neighbors, and thus is unlikely in the extreme to accept the same ‘margin of error’ when dealing with them that would be entirely acceptable to an American administration, even one less callow than Obama’s. The American Jewish community (insomuch as it is a community) simply doesn’t face the same level of urgency that Israelis do, and thus are likely to view the acceptability (or lack thereof) of this administration quite differently.
I don’t care for Obama, but to suggest that the Israelis know something that we don’t is somewhat disingenuous. They have (for the most part) a different set of criteria for evaluation..
Israelis seem to have a gut feeling about our President that has escaped a lot of Americans. If you ignore 20 years of pro-Arab pronouncements and personal relationships with various anti-semites, then you have nothing to worry about. But Obama is not about to change his colors. Over the next 3 years we will see a shift in relationships with our Israeli allies. Already Israel is expected to stop construction of all settlements. But where are the obligations of the Arabs towards peace? Will the shift in policy translate into Arab acceptance of Israel? Diplomatic relations? Commerce? I sincerely doubt it.
I don’t care for Obama, but to suggest that the Israelis know something that we don’t is somewhat disingenuous. They have (for the most part) a different set of criteria for evaluation.
While it’s true that the evaluation criteria are different, it is also clear that many, and perhaps most American Jews are in denial about the nature of Barack Obama.
“While it’s true that the evaluation criteria are different, it is also clear that many, and perhaps most American Jews are in denial about the nature of Barack Obama.”
Israeli jews wonder why Obama is threatening them about stopping “natural growth” in settlements and not threatening “Palestinians” about launching rockets indiscriminately at civilians in Sederdot. Of course, he knows Israel will at least listen as opposed the middle finger he’ll get from Hamas. Mention this to his jewish supporters here and their eyes roll around trying to spin it.