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There’s plenty of votes & funding in the more realistic camp of independents & centrist Jewish democrats to court, I hope that they look at Obama & register the concerns here in Israel. Our cabinet already alluded to today the fact that future US administrations may not be ’so friendly’ to Israel as Bush may have been. The warmth & support of that relationship is critical to Israel’s existence, now on top of that the next 2-3 years will be so critical and frankly dangerous here in the middle east, US foreign policy is crucial we can’t afford ‘experiments of change’.

We really need the Jewish voters support on this issue, it’s not to the far left secular liberal Jews that Israel looks to for support these days in any case, most of their shining lights are outright hostile now and do as much damage to Israel intellectually as the Jihadis do physically.

There was also a left wing professor who had to leave the Obama campaign because she mocked Hillary Clinton publicly. She was another antiIsrael activist.
Larraby on June 11, 2008 at 2:10 PM

Samantha Power is whom you are referring to.

If a majority of jewish americans became Republicans, how would the “ron paul” wing take it?

jp on June 11, 2008 at 10:46 AM

They’s simply offer it up as more proof that the Republicans are out of line with “real” Americans like them.

Again, this symbolizes my view that Obama thought he would be running against Mitt Romney. Jews would never vote for a Mormon. Obama’s religion would not have been an issue in a campaign against Romney. John McCain not only is not a Mormon, but he was arguably the least identifiably Christian candidate running for the Republican nomination. Democrats not only hve the worst possible candidate of their own to market to Jewish voters, they have the worst possible Republican opponent.

rockmom on June 11, 2008 at 12:10 PM

yep. It’s another reason why Huckabee would be a disastrous choice.

My contacts in the Air Force state that Gen, Merrill “Tony” McPeak is the most disliked service chief – ever.

NaCly dog on June 11, 2008 at 10:46 AM

Your contacts are 100% correct.

From what I’ve read, the best that any Republican candidate has gotten from Jewish Americans in an election is about 12-14% of their vote. I really hope this changes and that a far larger percentage of Jewish Americans realize who their friends are and who their enemies are.

DavePa on June 11, 2008 at 1:09 PM

Your figures are way off base. Reagan got 40% of the Jewish vote in 1980.

Things are changing, glacially, but when push comes to shove, the mostly secular Jews, and even most of the reform Jews, are going to stick with Obama no matter who he retains as his foreign policy advisers or what they may say or might have said in the past. Because they’ve rationalized to themselves that Rev. John Hagee is a far greater threat to Israel than Mahmoud Ahmadinejad could ever be.

Jews would never vote for a Mormon.

rockmom on June 11, 2008 at 12:10 PM

I couldn’t disagree with you more. If anything, Jews don’t have the slightest idea about the different kinds of Christianity, and most certainly don’t get involved in whether Mormonism is Christianity. MA has a large Jewish pop. and I never heard they didn’t support Romney.

To the average secular American Jew, the rest of the people are Christians, except perhaps recognizing that Italians are Catholics. I doubt very many Jews know that not all Christians follow the Pope.

Romney was “safe”, imo. The only way I could agree with your statement is to suggest that secular Jews don’t like to vote for overtly religious candidates. I don’t see Romney that way.

ihasurnominashun on June 11, 2008 at 12:36 PM

I think that the tide may be turning. I have seen a big shift in my Temple, and I am Reform. I am hearing that the 5000+ conservative temple in my town is becoming decidedly more cozy to McCain.

JiangxiDad on June 11, 2008 at 10:53 AM

I am an American and a Jew and I agree with you! YAY…I wish more Jews would see how anti-Jew the left really is! It’s being fronted by George Soros, a man who denied his Jewish birthright to conspire with Nazis for Pete’s sake. Wake up!!

They do feel threatened by various strains of Christianity, on both the left and right. They tend to be liberals because they think conservative rule means their kids are forced to say Christian prayers in school and don’t get excused absences for Rosh Hashana. The “Christian Nation” talk on the right scares them, and that has dominated the political discussion since the 1980s. They hate George Bush because they see him as a Christianist who wants to make more of American life and culture overtly Christian.
rockmom on June 11, 2008 at 12:10 PM

For an allegedly smart people Jews can be awfully dumb (if they believe what you wrote). The vaunted Jewish “genius” obviously is limited to the research laboratory b/c American Jews are too dumb to not even recognize who their friends are and who their friends are not. A friend of mine wrote that he thinks the collective IQ of Jews throughout the world (witness the Israelis who allow Ehud Olmert to continue to misrule) drops 1 point every year. They cannot even recognize an existential threat that wants to kill them – ISLAM. Yes George Bush and not Ismail Haniyeh and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the real threat to Jews! /sarcasm

But they are also scared by the “gutter religion” stuff from Louis Farrakhan and the Jewish-conspiracy crap coming out of Revs. Wright and Pfleger. Farrakhan is at least as frightening a figure to Jews as Pat Robertson or Pat Buchanan. And Barack Obama has yet to truly disassociate himself from this strain of black Christianity. He had a chance in his AIPAC speech to do so, but he conspicuously failed to address it.

Again, this symbolizes my view that Obama thought he would be running against Mitt Romney. Jews would never vote for a Mormon. Obama’s religion would not have been an issue in a campaign against Romney. John McCain not only is not a Mormon, but he was arguably the least identifiably Christian candidate running for the Republican nomination. Democrats not only hve the worst possible candidate of their own to market to Jewish voters, they have the worst possible Republican opponent.

The foreign-born Jews are another matter. They seem to know better.

JiangxiDad: “Silicon Valley denizens who think Obama is either Sabbatai Zevi” — perhaps not as deluded as that, but close.

Cicero43 on June 11, 2008 at 11:29 AM

With all due respect, the issue is why it’s taking so long, and whether enough Jews are getting the message. Anecdotally, I’d say they are, but there are a hard-core of “progressives,”–Jewish academics and media members and the like, or Silicon Valley denizens who think Obama is either Sabbatai Zevi, or are so divorced from Judaism and disconnected from the dire situation facing Israel from Iran, that they can/will never wake up until it’s too late.

rockmom on June 11, 2008 at 11:09 AM

Which also emphasizes the negative impact of having the Huckster anywhere close to the VP spot.

The Bible predicts that Israel will stand alone in the end times. I never understood how they could stand alone as long as America existed. Now I am starting to understand. America no longer exists. Not the America that once was.

Dr.Cwac.Cwac on June 11, 2008 at 10:49 AM

Bingo! We have Bingo!

Cicero43 on June 11, 2008 at 11:29 AM

Oh! Now you did it!!!! Obama supporters are going to suggest you are a racist for even bringing that stuff up instead of simply smiling and muttering how wonderful it is that Obama was nominated. ;-0

Gee, nothing there to concern a supporter of Israel that I can see!