Eva, I’m not all that observant but even those Jews less observant than me are united in feeling exactly the opposite as yor freinds and family members. They are, if anything, impressed that an action of this magnitude against an enemy intentionally insinuated into civilian areas, has resulted in so few civilian deaths. They see the need to reduce the threat of Hezbollah attack sooner rather than later. They percieve that negotiation will only occur when disengagement is actualized and that means more than the Big Fence, it means that no one crosses the line to the other side of it. But those are other threads.
Anyway to the op: we Jews vote for individual candidates and no Democrat that I have supported is for abandoning Israel or for not allowing Israel to defend herself. Now, back in the Sharon days, some of us actually even felt that Israel would have been better served by some pressure from an American adminstration to make more concessions and to pull back on the settlement building. Despite our prominent Neocons, we tend to support “social justice” and personal liberty issues. As a group we seem to buck demographics: wealthier Jews tend to be more likely liberal than poorer Jews. They vote against their pocketbooks. Go figure. We see enough support for Israel from those we are voting for that we can vote on these other issues. And that usually means voting Democrat in my experience.
I think it would be nice if American Jews would start to shift rightward, but I can’t see it ever happening.
The Christian Right may have something to do with that, but not much. Jews were overwhelmingly liberal Democrats long before the Christian Right was a factor in American politics. Now, it may have made sense for Jews to be liberal Democrats decades ago, but it no longer does- not from a purely PRACTICAL standpoint, anyway. Jews are among the most affluent of Americans, so it would actually be logical for them to vote Republican!
That’s about as reasonable as the statements that poor people shouldn’t vote Republican, and I find it equally illogical (since when do people up and say “screw my values, I’m voting my wallet?”) Not that I find it implausible, but can I get a cite for the “most affluent” thing?
I have often wondered why New York Jews and other large US Jewish population areas have remained in the "liberal category vis a vis the more conservative pro Israel category.
I believe the Jewish bent toward liberalism is strongly engrained ever since the last decade of the last century with the Russian Progroms…
The suggestion that Fox News greater support for Israel exceeds that of CNN and BBC simply is not strong enough to persuade Jews to switch their political allegience.
As a young Jewish voter (the previous phrase was factual – the rest is anecdotal. Grain of salt.), what I see is an increasing disapproval of Israel amongst American Jews. Sure, Jews who were already on the right probably won’t change, but it seems to me that there has traditionally been a number of Jews who were on the left overall, but generally sided with the right on the issue of Israel. All my personal experience leads me to believe that Jews on the left, particularly those of my generation, are increasingly appalled by the Israeli government’s actions and many of those who are not simply disinterested in Israeli actions are actively opposed to them. Though there is still a large contingent of Israeli-supporting Jews, the issue is much more contentious within the Jewish community, IMO, then many would lead you to believe. Of the large number of Jews I know, I cannot think of too many who would display much pride in Israel beyond basic empathy. This, of course, may be colored by the fact that I live in an already further-left-than-average area and most of the Jews in my life are Reform, but YMMV.
I don’t want to cast any aspersions as to the factuality of my post-- it’s thoroughly based on my impressions, and given an individual’s propensity to narcissistically over-project his or her personal impressions on a greater population, I’d be careful. I did think twice about posting what may be a carelessly unfactual post.
Again, my personal take is that this latest episode has most of the Jewish spectrum agreeing with Israeli actions, in fact, the rise of Kadima and the fall of Likud as the controlling power in Israel has caused a lot of closing of the ranks. But. As Americans Jews have rarely fallen into the group of “my country right or wrong” or into the group that believes that patriotism brooks no dissent. And just so as Zionists (those who are) they rarely believe that support of Israel means that Israel can do no wrong and that Israeli actions never warrant criticism. American Jews are, by and large, a critical bunch. We tend not to hold back our dissatisfaction with the actions of our country, and we tend not to be shy about complaining about Israeli actions that we see as wrong either. We are most aware of the faults of those we love.
“Hey, Burl, I’m tired of voting for Dems. Let’s join the political group that thinks we’re guilty for the death of their savior and wants to bring about the Second Coming so we can all die in a nuclear hellfire armageddeon while they ascend to heaven and gloat over our twisted carcasses!”
Boy howdy, yup, can’t see why American Jews aren’t rushing to embrace that…
Whoo, score one for rjung! He’s so clever! Can’t put anything past him!
But just on the off chance that you might actually THINK for a minute, and not respond with standard sarcasm…
Jews were overwhelmingly liberal Democrats LONG before there was anything called the Christian Right. Fundamentalist Christians were an insignificant force in American politics until the late Seventies. So, it’s absurd to suggest that CHristian fundamentalists are the reason Jews shun the Republican party.
Southern fundamentalists were OVERWHELMINGLY Democrats until the Sixties, as were the Jews. So, apparently Jews weren’t always unwilling to belong to the same party as those loony Christian fundamentalists.
A few years ago, liberals universally loved THomas Frank’s book “What’s Wrong With Kansas,” which argued that white conservative Christians in the South and Midwest were fools to vote Republican. The book argued that economic self-interest is the only rational basis for voting, and since the Democrats always offer much more money to poor and middle-class Americans, the sane, rational thing for ordinary Americans to do is vote Democrat! But… white Southerners and Midwesterners continually ignore their economic self-interest, and reject the party that offers them cash in favor of the party that opposes abortion and affirmative action. Frank and most American liberals argued that working Americans should ignore social and cultural issues and concentrate solely on their economic self-interest.
Okay… let’s ask “What’s Wrong With the Jews?”
Jews are among the best educated and most affluent Americans. They’re more likely to own their own homes and to run their own businesses than most Americans. That’s been true for a long time. In short, Jews SHOULD be natural Republicans, if they were voting their pocketbooks.
They don’t, and never have. Despite being among the most prosperous Americans, Jews invariably vote like the poorest Americans.
Let’s turn rjung’s imaginary conversation around. “Hey Irv, ever stop and wonder why we vote Democratic? We’re both small businessmen, and the Pubs are more pro-business We could really use the tax cuts. Plus, the Pubs support Israel, where our cousins live. And not only that, the Pubs are much tougher on crime, which has really hurt our business over the years.” “Forget it, Moe! We’re staying right here in the party of Jesse (Hymietown) Jackson, the party of Franklin (Who Turned Away Our Ancestors When They Tried to Flee the Holocaust) Roosevelt.”
Canadian Jew here. I think many Jews in Canada at least (anecdotally) are in fact rejecting the “left”.
Jews are not slow to heap criticism on Israel or indeed themselves when it is deserved. The feeling is that the current heap dumped by the “left” and the usual suspects at the UN is not deserved.
Many Jews I know who usually vote NDP or Liberal are moving to support the Conservatives on this issue - something not natural for them, as most are what one would term socially liberal (support gay marriage, that sort or thing).
