If nothing else, Senator Joe Lieberman’s appearance before the 2008 Republican National Convention, in support of John McCain’s candidacy, reminded us all once more of the inexplicable fidelity of American Jews to the Democratic Party, and leftist politics in general.
It is unseemly, to say the least, for any Jewish-American to be taking the lead in opposing the war against Islamic fascism. Yet, Senator Frank Lautenberg-Torricelli (D-NJ), Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel (D-IL), all prominent American Jews, have been among the war’s harshest critics.
Generally speaking, the political allegiance of American Jews is all but incomprehensible. For example, in the wake of the on-camera beheading of Jewish-American businessman, Nick Berg in Iraq in May 2004, which must have been a real knee-slapper on Al-Jazeera, Berg’s father bitterly laid the blame for his son’s death directly at the doorstep of former President Bush and then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. This after Senate Democrats, in October 2002, killed a Republican-sponsored House Intelligence Committee program designed to remove Saddam Hussein from power without the necessity of putting “boots on the ground.”
All things considered, one would think that Berg’s anger would have been more properly directed at the terrorists who sawed off his son’s head… but that’s not the way liberals think.
But hold on a minute. What are we doing in Iraq and Afghanistan? Who’s “water” are we carrying there? Haven’t we been there, spilling American blood, in large part as surrogates for the Israelis? Yes, all non-Muslims are targeted for destruction precisely because they are non-Muslims, but aren’t we the primary target of radical Islam in large part because, among all the nations of the world, we have been Israel’s most steadfast supporter and defender?
As a nation, Israel controls no strategic land mass, no strategic sea lanes, no strategic air space, and no strategic minerals that are of importance to American military or economic security. In the strictest sense of the term, the United States has no underlying “national interest” involved in the defense of Israel. Yet, American taxpayers are called upon to give the Israelis billions in aid each and every year. Why? Because Israel is the only functioning democracy in a region of the world that is of strategic importance to the U.S. If we didn’t stand by Israel, who would?
The Israelis have no illusions about which side their “bread is buttered on.” They know that, without U.S. support, their little strip of land would be all but indefensible – surrounded as they are on all sides by Arab states… some friendly, some downright hostile, but none totally comfortable with the idea of a Jewish state in their midst. But what of American Jews? As matters now stand, American Jews ally themselves with unreliable, even anti-Semitic, liberals and Democrats in the political arena while expecting conservatives and Republicans to fall on their swords for Israel.
But all of that is beginning to change. An April 2010 poll by McLaughlin & Associates showed that, while Barack Obama captured 78 percent of the Jewish vote in 2008, only 42 percent would vote to reelect him if he is a candidate for reelection in 2012.
That changing sentiment appears to be confirmed by more recent polling. In a New York Times Op-Ed column (Oy Vey, Obama – August 20, 2010), columnist Charles M. Blow cited a Pew Research Center report titled, “Growing Number of Americans Say Obama Is a Muslim.” Among other bad news for Democrats in that report, the Pew research showed that the number of Jews who identify as Republicans, or as Republican-leaning independents, has increased by more than half since Obama was elected.
(Inasmuch as the Pew poll was taken before Obama announced his support for the Ground Zero Mosque, and before he hosted the first ever Ramadan celebration at the White House, it is safe to assume that the data have swung even more heavily away from Obama and the Democrats.)
This abandonment of Obama by American Jews is expected to accelerate as American Jews are made aware of the administration’s latest Middle East peace initiative. In a December 26 story by WorldNetDaily (WND), sources in Tel Aviv report that Obama’s Middle East envoy, Dennis Ross, is pressing Israel to enter into negotiations with Syria aimed at compelling an Israeli retreat from the Golan Heights… a strategically significant region that has been occupied off and on by Jews since the late 6th century B.C., and which the Israelis seized from Syrian control in 1967.
Between 1948, when the Jewish state was created, and the 1967 War, Syrian armies have repeatedly used the Golan Heights to launch rocket and artillery attacks on cities in northern Israel. Is it any wonder that, in the forty-three years that the Israelis have held that territory, they have steadfastly refused all demands to return the Heights to Syrian control?
Now the Obama administration, with its close ties to anti-Semites Louis Farrakhan and the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, is proposing to recreate that insecurity for the Israelis. And what are the Israelis expected to receive in return? According to the WND report, Ross has informed Syria that it needs to “scale back its relationship with Iran, and stop facilitating the rearmament of Hezbollah” in southern Lebanon.
This, of course, after the Syrians and the Iranians have armed Hezbollah with more than 10,000 missiles and rockets, some of which are capable of reaching Tel Aviv, and beyond. Being a city boy with an Ivy League education, Obama has apparently not heard of the admonition concerning the folly of closing the barn door after the horse is out.
As matters now stand, we have a ruling party in the United States, the Democratic Party, in which most American Jews are heavily invested. Yet, while the party itself is owned in large part by trial lawyers, a large percentage of whom are Jews, the Democrat who now occupies the Oval Office is owned by a turncoat Jew, George Soros, who betrayed Jewish lawyers on behalf of the Nazis during World War II. It defies all reason.
With Senator Lieberman’s defeat in the 2008 Connecticut Democratic primary, the ruling clique of the Democratic Party showed its true face, and it is not a pretty thing to see. It is a face that apparently opposes all wars – even just wars – which the American people should take to mean that they can never be trusted with the defense of our country.
And now, as the Jew-hating Islamic Republic of Iran, which professes a desire to wipe Israel off the map, moves closer and closer to becoming the world’s newest nuclear power, the moment of truth is at hand. When Iran threatens the very existence of Israel, who will command the allegiance of American Jews… Israel or the Democrat Party? And to what extent will the Israelis be able to count on support from Obama? Will he be their strong and resolute friend, or will he blithely toss them “under the bus?”
There are lessons to be learned here – not only for Americans, but especially for Israelis. The people of Israel need to understand that, while liberal Democrats in Congress can always be counted on to make a great public show of support for Israel, when it comes to American politics they can be expected to always put their allegiance to the Democratic Party ahead of their allegiance to the United States – ahead, even, of their allegiance to Israel.
Since its founding in 1947, Israel has had just one steadfast friend on the western side of the Atlantic. And in spite of the overwhelming level of support given by American Jews to leftist and partisan Democratic candidates and causes, American conservatives and Republicans have never wavered in their support of Israel. But political support is not a one-way street. It’s time that conservatives and Republicans began to treat American Jews like grownups, and for American Jews to treat conservatives and Republicans like the good friends they are.