Israel Matzav

In suburban Chicago, it's AIPAC v. J Street

I've discussed the Congressional race in Illinois' 9th district several times already. This is a good summary of it - so good that I asked Mrs. Carl to print it out for her parents, who live here, but who still vote absentee in Illinois 9.

The most palpable test of whether Jews are willing to move into the Republican camp can be found in the Illinois’ Ninth Congressional District.

Running up from Chicago into the very trendy suburbs of Evanston and Wilmette, the Ninth then heads west through Skokie all the way to Des Plaines. This is a very affluent district with a substantial Jewish, progressive population.

Jan Schakowsky, the incumbent, is a sycophantic Obama Democrat and proud progressive. Her strangely shaped district is so Democratic that the only Republicans one is likely to encounter are tourists. She always wins big.

Her positions on Israel are right out of the J Street playbook and Evanston’s ultra-progressive Beth Emet Synagogue, which has become J Street’s citadel on the North Shore. Schakowsky is a member. Schakowsky and much of the Beth Emet crowd can best be described as “anti-Zionist Zionists.” The difference between the thinking at Beth Emet and that of the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement is that the ISM knows its policies will result in Israel’s destruction. The Beth Emet crowd engages in the delusion that they support Israel.

Beth Emet is so tied to the Democratic Party that it was the site of Evanston’s Democratic Party annual meeting, complete with appearances by major Illinois Democratic candidates.

Schakowsky is a politician right out of the Cook County Democratic Organization (the “machine,” as we like to call it) and is well regarded within the organization. Governor Rod Blagojevich even considered Schakowsky for the Obama-vacated Senate seat that the governor is under indictment for trying to sell. Weeks before her public fall from grace, Helen Thomas was the honored guest at a Schakowsky-hosted fund raiser. It was cynicism with a vengeance, as everyone in Washington knew Thomas’ long-standing, contemptible views on Jews and Israel.

Schakowsky’s opponent is thirty-three-year-old Joel Pollak: a Republican; a supporter of free markets, individual liberty, and responsibility; an orthodox Jew; and a strong supporter of Israel. Pollak is unabashedly for the Second Amendment, a difficult sell among gun-control fanatics in Chicago suburbs.

Pollak stepped into the limelight when at Harvard Law School he asked Rep. Barney Frank about his role in the nation’s financial meltdown. The televised exchange made Pollak a minor sensation, especially when his continued appearances provided an opportunity for people to see a Harvard student who could wax eloquently on any of a number of subjects without a teleprompter.

Read the whole thing. There's a great story at the end about Schakowsky's rabbi.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:09 PM