Jewish Democrats need some serious self-reflection
Jonathan Tobin suggests that President Obama's call on Israelis for 'serious self-reflection' is misplaced and that the same call ought to be made on Jewish Democrats. IN RESPONSE to writers like myself who have called for Democrats to speak truth to power and hold Obama accountable for his policies, some of those who vouched for Obama during last year's campaign have said that the president's offenses are not yet egregious enough to warrant a rebuke. Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz, a man whose long and honorable record of support for Israel is beyond question, attempted to defend Obama's positions in a recent op-ed in The Wall Street Journal and then later in responses to critiques of it. He continues to believe that having a popular liberal Democratic president who claims to be a supporter of Israel is good for the Jews even if some of his policies are open to question. But Dershowitz's half-hearted apologias betray a worry that perhaps he was fooled by the president's campaign promises.I'm afraid that we already know the answer. Many Jewish Democrats have adopted a false god called Liberalism. Liberalism demands that they jump up and down with joy over America's first black President, even if that President maintains an unprecedented hostility to Jews and Israel. And since Liberalism is their religion, they won't change it even on pain of death... of the Jewish state.
Jewish Democrats don't have to jump to the Republicans. If, as Dershowitz avows, pro-Israel Democrats have influence on the administration, then let them use it before things get even worse. It is worth recalling that in 2002, when statements by secretary of state Colin Powell made it appear as if a Republican administration was taking a similarly "evenhanded" approach to Israel's attempts to defend itself against a Palestinian campaign of suicide attacks, conservative evangelicals were not slow to act. This group, as integral to George W. Bush's coalition as Jews are to Obama's, deluged the White House with calls for strong support for Israel and got results.
Had a Republican done and said the same things that Obama has in the last six months who can doubt that he and other Democrats would be demanding that Jewish Republicans repudiate their party's leader? The question remains what will be the tipping point for Jewish Democrats at which it will be impossible for them to go on pretending that they did not elect the most hostile president to Israel since the first George Bush? If the current trend continues without a strong negative reaction from Jewish Democrats who raised money for Obama and voted for him, then we are entitled to ask why they are either silent or rationalizing a policy that they know is wrong.
Read the whole thing.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:06 PM
6 Comments:
Obama promised gay Americans he would be their "fierce defender." A lie, also.
Did he make promises to Jews about supporting Israel and gay Americans about advancing their civil rights knowing he was not a supporter of Israel or interested in helping gay Americans? Or were these promises just made for the votes, as throw-away lines?
You know, Obama is a scary dude. He is remaking the American economy on the model of the Chavez economy,and furthermore, his policies conform to the policies of Saudi Arabia, the oic, and the Arab Leagues. In an interview with G. Stepahapolis, he allegedly mistakenly referred to his religion as Islam, and had to be corrected. When is the last time you saw a Christian make a Freudian Slip calling himself a Muslim.
The recent assault on five cops in Jersey City, New Jersey, were carried out by a Muslim. The Police have a term for it, "Spontaneous Jihad." A down and out Muslim decides he wants to visit Paradise, so he randomly assaults the infidel.
Will America survive Obama?
It is really quite mind boggling to see how much Obama has changed America in a short 6 months. If he manages to continue change at the same pace for the next 3.5 years, one can only guess what this once-proud country will look like. With the likes of Pelosi, Reed, Boxer, Frank, Franken, and other useful idiots in power, I think it is clear that the Democrats see this time in history as the one opportunity to completely and permanently change America with no opposition to speak of. They know it and this is why they are craming the agenda as much as they are.
When one looks at the number of Jewish members of congress, senators and leading Jewish organizations actively involved and supporting Obama and his policies, I think it is fair to say that US Jews can no longer be considered as supportive of Israel and therefore must be treated as a major obstacle to Israel's long term well being. Sadly, it seems that Israel's best friends in the US are evangelical Christians, not Liberal Jews.
American Jewry doesn't identify with Israel as it once used to and that's a situation which is not going to be turned around any time soon.
carl,
thank you so much for telling me how i really think. i appreciate it.
and all these years, i thought that i was a dem and a lib because i found republican policies bad for the country and the world at large.
and i must have missed the bush policy over the past 8 years that made israel more secure and closer to peace
and i must have been wrong about bush 1 who had that jew hater, james baker, in charge of the state dept.
btw, no man or party can affect the future of israel...only hashem can...
oh and andre, not sure what you are seeing from canada, but as one who resides in america, let me tell you...this is the same country it has always been...and you are free never to visit...thank you very much
Bacci40,
Have you noticed that the Obama crew is making all previous US government initiatives against Israel look halfhearted and puny?
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