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Hey! Progressives. . .Leave Us Jews Alone!!!!!!

by bslev 11/7/2012 - 10:08 am

 

This irrepressible liberal is focused in real life this morning on making nice with some of my oldest and dearest friends, many of whom are more right wing and radical than I ever knew or could have imagined.  At dag, I'm more interested in poking those of you who, once again, may have presumed that Jews would abandon the more progressive candidate in this year's election.  

Heck, I was down in Florida over the weekend and it wasn't just my fellow lefties who may have shared that presumption; Republican appeals to the Jews were loud and clear and really obsessive.  But it was pathetic and futile--exit polls showed that seventy percent of Jewish Americans pulled the lever for President Obama and rejected the more conservative alternative.  That's a higher percentage by far than any other "white" constituency in this country.  And, while it may be difficult for some of you to understand and appreciate this simple truth, that makes this life-long lefty proud as all friggin' hell.  So sue me! devil

Now some of you might rightfully focus on the fact that, in the end, there was little daylight between Obama and Romney concerning the Middle East peace process and Iran, and you will get no argument here.  But, in fact, rightly or wrongly, many Jews who voted for Obama perceive a much wider gulf than you and I might perceive on such issues.  And, again, those same folks still voted for President Obama--and here's the key point I implore each of you to take with you if you're still reading this:  

American Jews voted for President Obama for the same reasons that other Americans voted for President Obama.  We were just far more likely to do it than other white folks.

In short, American Jews did not vote for President Obama because of his positions on Israel.  And that's because Jewish Americans are as American as our non-Jewish brothers and sisters.  It forever pains me that, from where I sit, some of my most progressive brothers and sisters--even those born Jewish--appear to refuse to accept that given.  And, unfortunately (and forgive me because I don't pull punches in this area), I fear it's not just those of you who choose to post the most vile and ugly speculative nonsense about, for example, how the zionists deliberately prompted the riots that led to the recent deaths of Americans in Libya.  

So forward, yes, believe me I'm with you.  But why, in the year 2012, do some of my progressive brothers and sisters continue to question my loyalty to country--simply because I choose not to hide my Jewish essence behind my progressive essence?  

With pain and respect,

Bruce S. Levine

New York, New York

 

 
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Hmmm, who's calling you an unloyal American, and since when did we lose the traditional Jewish progressive linkage? (not that there aren't conservative American Jews as well, but you saw the numbers)

Relax, election's over.

by PeraclesPlease 11/7/2012 - 10:57 am

At the moment, and for the most part PP, nobody calls me or members of the tribe anything.  I'm just calling things as I perceive them, and I think I've had enough experience in this area to submit that I am not extrapolating into the irrational.

On the relaxation thing, funny you should say that.  I just walked into my office and  my secretary looks at me and says: "So are you relaxed yet!?" smiley   I kid you not.  And so I will tell  you the same thing I said to him, and that is that I ain't been relaxed since before I was born!  Relax?  Don't know the meaning of the word!

Cheers!

by bslev 11/7/2012 - 11:20 am (re: PeraclesPlease)

'kay, so get creatively and enjoyably uptight.

Cheers backatcha. As I said on another thread, Grayson/Franken 2016 - the tribe's revenge. With humor.

by PeraclesPlease 11/7/2012 - 4:15 pm (re: bslev)

The whole Israeli firster argument is so lame, Bruce; it's sad that you even have to feel the need to make a post like this. It's Americans in general that strongly support Israel, and in order to maintain deluded denial of that fact, some go anti-Semite.

(And for those who go the route of "I'm anti-Israeli, not anti-Semite," it's sometimes fun to further jiggle their cognitive dissonance and drag out polls that show the Israeli public maybe supporting the US getting tougher on "Israel" wink ) Sometimes I wish Israel could disappear from the planet for a year just to give proof that most of what goes on in the Mideast is not really all about Israel at all.

by artappraiser 11/7/2012 - 1:01 pm

I'd say Romney's disastrous trip (to a) diss the Olympics, b) fund-raise from Barclay's as it was explaining its CEO's resignation for criminal manipulation of LIBOR, and c) on to Israel to kiss Netanyahu's ass) was the beginning of the end for Romney. Up to that point he could have slid through as a marginally competent Republican moderate. After that, his foreign policy chops were shredded, and his penchant of a rudderless suckup was confirmed.

by PeraclesPlease 11/7/2012 - 4:19 pm (re: artappraiser)

AA and PP,

After I wrote this I did get one really, really nasty voicemail from my buddy who is an Israeli national telling me that he wasn't going to stay on as a facebook friend of mine because f my support for Obama.  He was livid and he told me that I was betraying the Jews, etc.  But he'll be OK in a couple of days.  I just tell him he has IPD, a very serious disease short for Israeli Personality Disorder.  That usually gets a chuckle and then all is good.  Quite a race we've had here.  Lots of angry folk.

 

by bslev 11/7/2012 - 4:28 pm (re: artappraiser)

Disorder? and there I thought it was a defining trait. Should have told him to relax - that Jews are always betraying someone, that's what makes them so useful when someone has to be blamed. Sheesh - you'd think he hadn't heard of Dolchstoß. If he were only a Bolshevik, it'd be 2-for-1.

by PeraclesPlease 11/7/2012 - 4:42 pm (re: bslev)

He's actually a Yekka, which is what they call the Jews from Germany over there.  But whatever he is, he's nuts!  

 

by bslev 11/7/2012 - 4:51 pm (re: PeraclesPlease)

Well, I'm sure this morning's news settled him down. Yekkas-gone-wild.

Olmert states the obvious:

"The prime minister has a right to prefer one candidate over another," Olmert said, adding, however, that it was "better, obviously, if he kept it to himself. What took place this time was a breaking of all the rules, when our prime minister intervened in the U.S. elections in the name of an American billionaire with a clear interest in the vote."

by PeraclesPlease 11/7/2012 - 5:01 pm (re: bslev)

I am told by an associate of mine who has close family in Israel, that more and more Israelis are finally starting to get pissed at Bibi for the same reasons that Olmert cites.  Unfortunately, Bibi has no real opposition and is almost assured another win in the upcoming elections.  Labor is decimated, and I understand that it actually tried to get Peres, who is 88, to lead the Labor slate.  Peres seems to like being president, and declined.   Not a good situation.

by bslev 11/7/2012 - 5:21 pm (re: PeraclesPlease)

Postscript. . .Got a call from my buddy last night.  First thing I said was, hey are you gonna start screaming at me again.  He said, nope, and that he was stuck in the city because of the storm and needed a place to stay!   So all is good and, as it turns out, his wife ignored him too and voted for Obama.  That made my night. :)

 

by bslev 11/8/2012 - 9:55 am (re: PeraclesPlease)

PPS - still, you were worried of a freaked-out Yekka attack in the middle of night (visuals: Cato vs. Insspector Clouseau), so didn't sleep a wink. Ah well, an afternoon nappy and all will be well.

[Yekkattak if you want to coin a new phrase for a rising phenomenon]

by PeraclesPlease 11/8/2012 - 10:22 am (re: bslev)

   I don't think Obama has been especially hard on Israel. I mean, the most "anti-Israel" thing he has done is oppose the settlements, and since the mid-1970s every president except George W. Bush has done that.

by Aaron Carine 11/8/2012 - 8:22 pm (re: bslev)

I agree Aaron, I would just argue that he hasn't been hard on Israel at all.  So glad you're posting here.

by bslev 11/8/2012 - 10:40 pm (re: Aaron Carine)

Here's what J Street says:

J Street commissioned an election night poll of American Jewish voters that returned some important findings:

President Obama’s 70% share of Jewish voters lines up exactly with the historic trend of support that Democratic Presidential candidates have received in the last 10 elections.

Tens of millions of dollars spent by Sheldon Adelson, the RJC, and others attacking President Obama on Israel backfired – 27% of Florida Jews said the ads made them more likely to vote for the President, and 63% said the attacks made no difference whatsoever.

73% of American Jews support President Obama’s handling of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

81% support an active US role in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 90% of American Jews list only domestic issues as their top voting priorities, raising serious questions as to why conservatives spent so much money trying to sway Jews on Israel.

Arab-Americans reportedly voted for Obama, but a bit less enthusiastically: 67 per cent.

by acanuck 11/9/2012 - 2:20 pm (re: bslev)

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