Israel Matzav

Obama's Israel policy a big midterm elections issue

The Hill has a rundown of some of the Congressional races where President Obama's Israel policies are likely to have an influence (Hat Tip: Memeorandum). They list the Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois and Florida Senate races, and two House races in Illinois - the Pollak-Schakowsky race I've discussed several times and the race for Marc Kirk's seat (Kirk is the Republican nominee for the Senate). There are probably other races where it will become an issue as well - the California Senate race comes to mind (although there is a lot less to criticize about the Democratic incumbent - Barbara Boxer - than there is about any of the Democrats in any of the other races).

I found this comment by J Street director Jeremy Ben Ami to be most interesting.

But J Street also argues that Israel policy is not a top priority for most Jewish voters. The group’s president, Jeremy Ben-Ami, said a recent poll it commissioned found that less than 10 percent of American Jews cited Israel as one of their top two voting issues.

“It’s really a small percentage for whom this is a top-tier issue,” Ben-Ami said.

Leaving aside the oddity of a 'pro-Israel lobby' minimizing the importance of Israel to American Jews, Ben Ami is unfortunately correct that for too many American Jews Israel is not a top priority. It's not as low a priority as J Street claims (never believe a J Street poll), but it's still too low a priority for too many people.

But Ben Ami is conveniently ignoring two things. First, that Obama's Israel policy is likely important to voters in districts that are not heavily Jewish - for example in the strongly Christian areas in the South. And second, although Israel is not such an important issue for a lot of Jewish voters, it is an important issue for the more activist Jews who donate money to the Democratic party, and in the long run that could hurt even more than the lost votes.

There's a lot more at stake in the 2010 midterm elections than four Senate seats and two House races. President Obama may well be rendered a lame duck by the 2010 midterm elections. That makes it all the more important that Representatives and Senators be elected who won't just go along with whatever Obama wants to do.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:16 PM