The vast gulf between American and Israeli Jews
Caroline Glick looks at the vast difference in the way that Jews in Israel and in the United States perceive President Obama. With Israeli distrust of Obama so apparent, and so easily explained, two questions arise: How has Obama managed to maintain American Jewish support despite his unprecedented unpopularity in Israel? And what is the likelihood that when push comes to shove, American Jews will stand with Israel against the president they so admire?Read the whole thing.
Obama's great success in maintaining support among American Jews owes much to the fact that most American Jews do not pick up the same messages from Obama's statements as do Israeli Jews. Whereas Israeli Jews recognize that it is morally obscene, strategically suicidal and historically inaccurate to suggest that Israel has no rights to Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and that Jews have no right to live there, American Jews do not intuitively understand this to be the case. Consequently, while Israeli Jews recognize Obama's calls for a total freeze in Jewish construction in these areas as inherently hostile, most American Jews do not.
Beyond this, for the past 15 years, Holocaust education - more so than Zionist education or Jewish religious education - has become the hallmark of American Jewish identity. As a consequence, American Jews may not see anything objectionable in Obama's inference that Israel owes its existence to the Holocaust.
If the divergence in U.S. Jewish and Israeli attitudes toward Obama is simply a consequence of a lack of American Jewish awareness of the significance of Obama's positions and policies for Israel, then the disparity in views can be easily remedied by a sustained issues awareness campaign by Israel and by American Jewish organizations. For many of Israel's core American Jewish supporters, such a campaign would no doubt go a long way in energizing them to challenge the administration on its positions vis-à-vis Israel.
But there are other factors at work. According to the American Jewish Committee's 2008 survey of American Jews, some 67 percent of American Jews feel close to Israel. These numbers, while high, are not significantly higher than similar support levels among the general U.S. population. (A survey of general American sentiment toward Israel conducted this month by the Israel Project shows that support for Israel has dropped by 20 percent in the past nine months - from 69 to 49 percent. Presumably, Jewish American support for Israel has also experienced a drop.)
More significantly, the AJC survey showed that in the lead-up to the 2008 presidential elections, only three percent of American Jews said a candidate's position on Israel was the most important issue for them. Indeed, according to survey after survey of American Jewish opinion over the past decade, U.S. Jewish support for Israel, while widespread, is not particularly deep. This sentiment lends to the conclusion that American Jews will not abandon or temper their support for Obama simply because he is perceived as being hostile to Israel.
The picture, then, is a mixed bag. Support for Israel against Obama will likely rise as a consequence of a sustained educational campaign among American Jews about the issues in dispute and their importance for Israel's security and national well-being. But even in that event, it is unclear how dramatic the shift would be. Given the shallowness of U.S. Jewish support for Israel, no doubt many American Jews will not care enough to reassess their positions on either Israel or Obama.
There's another factor at work here. The notion that Judaism is equivalent to Liberalism is entrenched in the United States much more so than in Israel. In Israel, most Jews feel that they have to have a religion - they've just made that religion Liberalism. In Israel, Jews don't need anything other than Judaism, even if Judaism is the religion that I don't keep. As a percentage, we have fewer and fewer liberals - many have been mugged and switched sides. And our liberals are pro-'Palestinian' out of a mistaken sense of 'justice' and do not justify it as a religious requirement. Tactics that work to influence Israelis - most of whom basically 'get it' - won't work with Americans.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:10 PM
7 Comments:
The difference is that in the US, liberalism has become a code for assimilation and the loss of Jewish identity. Not surprising in view of the fact most American Jews are Reform and Conservative. They will be extinct within a generation. Those Jews simply won't be around. In Israel, liberalism is endangered and most Jews do not want the state to stop remaining Jewish. Odds are good most Israeli Jews will be haredi and national religious within a generation. Thus, a stronger Jewish identity in Israel. In short, fewer American Jews and more observant Israeli Jews help to explain the vast gulf between the two societies.
Liberalism is, indeed, a religion for many American Jews. You see it when they are confronted with unassailable facts, and they dismiss it as not important WITHOUT EVEN GIVING THEM A SERIOUS EXAMINATION. That's the kind of blindness that many (not all, by any means) who are incredibly devout in many different religions have.
Oh, and Obama is the new Golden Calf.
I am a non-observant (to anyone frum) Conservative Jew...
I dont eat pork, I do not eat cheeseburgers but I do not keep kosher otherwise...
and yet......
Being a Zionist is job #1...
I do not understand MANY of my so called "observant Jew" friends that scold me for eatting a Wendys and yet support Obama as a messiah...
I dont understand...
I as a rationalist find it hard to wrap my hands around spiritual things and many of those that scold me are quite "spiritual" and yet I see evil and they do not and yet they see Hashem in everything and Ignore the EVIL that is so clear...
I am confused...
As a life long democrat it took me about 30 seconds to google BHO the 1st time I learned of him (at AIPAC) and to figure out he was bad for Israel... AYers, Wright, Bowtie Low, Hamas, Ed Said etc..
It was all there, took about 30 seconds to read and absorb...
NOTHING he has said or done since has changed my mind...
and yet my fellow Jews? love the creep....
To this day most American Jews regard FDR-yms- a hero. Now most of these Jews have goyim for children and grandchildren and while giving "lip service-I'm a strong supporter of Israel" never visit, never send their kids to study there.
They support ISM, give aid to lefty anti-Israel groups (and then deny that those groups are anti -Israel) ,write letters to the NYnaziTimes "even though I am a supporter of Israel, their latest actions in gaza make me outraged etc..
The majority of America's Jews are an embarrassment and are the equivalent of the Sephardim that stayed and became good catholics.
The minority that is strongly religious of zionist are top heavy in Holocaust survivors/refugees and are the equivalent of the Sephardim that left Spain (or the 20% that left Egypt
I agree entirely with the emphasis provided by Paul, which likewise is entirely consonant with other analyses of of secular or ideological religions, such as that of Raymond Aron.
This gets into incredibly problematic social/political and philosophical territory, hence much of the confusion is "understandable" from that vantage point. However, it becomes less understandable and even revealing given the fact that such a pseudo-liberal attitude presumes to arrogate the life of the mind to itself (i.e. unthinkingly, as Paul's comment serves to underscore).
I agree entirely with the emphasis provided by Paul, which likewise is entirely consonant with other analyses of of secular or ideological religions, such as that of Raymond Aron.
This gets into incredibly problematic social/political and philosophical territory, hence much of the confusion is "understandable" from that vantage point. However, it becomes less understandable and even revealing given the fact that such a pseudo-liberal attitude presumes to arrogate the life of the mind to itself (i.e. unthinkingly, as Paul's comment serves to underscore).
I am not sure how accurate the polls are. I would never admit to anyone but another Zionist how important support for Israel is in gaining my vote.
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