The Hill: McCain drawing Jewish Democrat donors

With Hillary Clinton falling out of the race, some have speculated that John McCain may attract at least some Democratic women to his standard. That may not be the only demographic that McCain can split away from Barack Obama. According to The Hill, McCain has started to gain donors in the Jewish community — donors that traditionally have supported Democrats:

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is attracting elite Jewish Democratic donors who backed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and are concerned about Sen. Barack Obamas (D-Ill.) stance toward Israel, say McCain backers who are organizing the effort to court Democrats.

McCain has already had several fundraising events with Jewish Democrats in Washington and Florida, say his supporters.

He also has the backing of Democrat-turned-Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.), who made history as the first Jewish vice presidential candidate and has recently raised questions about Obamas foreign policy vision for the Middle East.

Stephen Muss, the Florida developer, is the biggest Democratic donor and fundraiser to pledge his support for McCain and the Republican National Committee, said a GOP official. Muss has given tens of thousands of dollars to help Democratic candidates in recent years, including $80,000 to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in 2000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics and CQ MoneyLine.

The shift comes less from the sense of loss from Hillar’s defeat than discomfort over Obama’s position on Israel. Despite his AIPAC appearance, the donors who were prepared to oppose McCain on behalf of Hillary now seem open to supporting McCain to keep Obama from winning the presidency. Alexander Bolton explains that the shift may come from Obama’s assertion in Iowa last year that “no one has suffered more than the Palestinians”. The more recent retreat from Obama’s AIPAC statement supporting an undivided Israeli Jerusalem after Palestinians criticized him may also contribute to a sense that Obama cannot be trusted on Israel.

Another major issue is Obama’s military adviser, Merrill “Tony” McPeak. In a 2003 interview in the Oregonian, McPeak blamed the Israel-Palestinian conflict on the Jewish community in the US, as well as the war in Iraq. He claimed that Jews and Christian Zionists wanted bases in Iraq to protect Israel, not American interests, which is tantamount to an accusation of disloyalty.

That certainly doesn’t help Obama in overcoming the distrust of this key demographic. In Miami and New York, which McPeak specified as the epicenters of the cabal that drove the war, they may want to find a candidate that doesn’t have top advisers who think them disloyal and conspiratorial. In this election, that leads them directly to John McCain.