Deep Thoughts of the Day

New website I recently found, and can't believe I didn't find sooner: www.rjchq.org a.k.a. the homepage of the Republican Jewish Coalition. While JTA statistics cite 25% of the Jewish vote nation-wide going for Bush (the largest % of Jewish vote for a Republican EVER) RJC insiders quote up to 35% of the Jewish vote going to Bush in key Florida and Ohio districts. In other words, the Jewish vote contributed to putting Bush over the top in key battleground states. Could we say, then, that Bush is the Chosen President?

I think the best analysis on the issue comes from the Jerusalem Post (article link: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1099973628243) in an article titled "The Jewish Vote Ain't What it Used to Be". Some quotes:

According to Democrat strategist Steve Rabinowitz:

"The Jews are not a big constituency, they always basically vote
Democratic and they always vote."

Rabinowitz says the Bush campaign probably never expected to win large number
of Jewish voters in Florida. Rather, by campaigning in synagogues and Jewish
community centers, they forced Democrats to shore up their traditional
Democratic base.

"I've always believed they never sought Jewish votes for Jewish votes' sake,
that their Israel rhetoric was aimed at Christian conservatives and throwing the
Democrats off base, and forcing the Democrats to concentrate on a core
constituency that really wasn't at risk," he said.

According to Washington Compost columnist Richard Cohen:

"It is paradoxical that the Democratic Party, which is so beholden to Jews for
energy, funds and ideas, has not looked into a mirror and noticed something
odd. No matter how rich the Jewish community got, no matter how powerful,
too, it continued to vote overwhelmingly Democratic. In other words, it voted
against its economic self-interest, which would be lower taxes or, in the
fantasies of Republicans, almost no taxes at all. This is the power of
culture..."

In a separate Times analysis on the future of the US-Israel alliance, Richard Cohen referred to Bush's political landscape, "complete with Israel-loving Christians and Jews who voted for him in Florida," suggesting that these groups would limit the president's ability to push for a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.

Okay. There's the opinions of two Jewish Americans regarding the character makeup of American Jews at large. According to Rabinowitz and Cohen, Jewish Americans:

• Are a small minority who make political decisions based on tradition, not education.
  
• Don't care about Israel.
  
• Are rich and powerful, but selfless nonetheless.
  
• Function as a group based on cultural traditions.
  
• Hate Israel, or at the very least, don't really care about it at all and just want the whole bloody conflict with the Palestinians to be overwith, even if it means Oslo-esque "Peace" Accords.
  

Okay. As an American Jew, I feel the need to point something out for those of you who may not feel very comfortable with stating the obvious. Why, all of a sudden, are WE THE ONES SPOUTING ANTI-SEMITIC RHETORIC ABOUT OURSELVES?! We're POWERFUL and RICH LEMMINGS? We don't care about our FELLOW JEWS? WE DON'T CARE ABOUT ISRAEL?! What the hell kind of traditions do we operate on if they involve NOT CARING ABOUT ISRAEL?!

And since when are Evangelical Christians the only ones who are allowed to be Zionists? These Libs can moan all they want about Jewish persecution and Never Forgetting the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Pogroms, or the Holocaust, and justify portraying themselves as HATERS OF ISRAEL?! You know, the country without which the Jewish people worldwide would have no power base or source of protection whatsoever?!

This is unfathomable. I ended my graduate thesis by stating that if the American Jews did not recognize and incorporate Israel into their culture, they would have nothing left to stand on except their assimilated, almost non-Jewish, American identity. In effect, they would be living the life of their ancestors who fled from persecution at the turn of the century, only to hide every Jewish aspect in order to feel loved and wanted. These modern-day anti-Semitic Jews like Richard Cohen and Steve Rabinowitz are denying the existence of Jewish identity and culture. I wonder what century they think they're living in ...certainly NOT mine.