Posted by
J-GOP on Monday, May 19, 2008 1:32:55 AM
Jews make up less than 2 percent of the U.S. population, but they are well-organized, politically active and concentrated in a handful of key states, including classic swing states such as New Jersey and Florida. In some ways, Obama would seem a natural fit for the Jewish community, which is disproportionately Democratic, liberal and pro-civil rights. And many Jews have indeed been quick to embrace Obama.
But others have raised questions. "Since we don't have a lifetime of experience with him, we need to know who he is, this man who has suddenly come on the scene, who is very exciting, a good speaker and handles himself beautifully," said New York Assemblyman Dov Hikind. "We don't want to be fooled by these things that at the end of the day don't matter that much."
Among the concerns for some is Obama's professed willingness to talk with dictators, presumably including enemies of Israel like Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Some have complained that Obama is getting foreign policy advice from experts such as Robert Malley and Zbigniew Brzezinski, who are seen as less friendly to Israel, though Obama's campaign says the two are merely among hundreds of people who have offered counsel. Earlier this month, Malley severed his ties to the Obama campaign.
More broadly, some Jews, fairly or not, are doubtless uneasy with Obama's connections to the Muslim world. Some of his family members were Muslim, he lived in Indonesia as a child, and he has befriended such controversial figures as Palestinian activist Rashid Khalidi.
"He speaks with extraordinarily empty platitudes about the Middle East," said Herbert London, president of the conservative Hudson Institute, who is Jewish. Of Obama's openness to talking with dictators, London is contemptuous: "That is almost child's play. It is adolescent talk you might hear from a 14-year-old."
There have long been tensions between the Jewish and African-American communities, and those were exacerbated by the emergence of Wright, Obama's pastor. "There's this relationship with a guy who not only said 'God damn America' but also said 'Zionism is racism'—that is anti-Semitism," said Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith.
Now national GOP leaders seem to be taking up the cause more openly. McCain recently highlighted a Hamas official's comment that he would welcome an Obama presidency. House Minority Leader Boehner accused Obama of calling Israel a "sore" on American's foreign policy, a somewhat brazen misrepresentation of Obama's comments in a May 12 interview.
Assuming Obama locks up the Democratic nomination, few believe he would lose the Jewish vote to McCain; Jews have not favored the Republican nominee over the Democrat since 1920, and that was because 38 percent of Jews went even further left and voted for Socialist Eugene Debs. In the 2004 election, Democrat John Kerry won 76 percent of the Jewish vote.
The question, rather, is whether McCain—because of his own independent streak, as well as doubts about Obama—can make significant inroads. "My sense is that in the end, [Jewish] liberalism will overcome even commitment to Israel," said London of the Hudson Institute. "I'm Jewish, quite obviously, and when I started to vote for Republicans many years ago my mother described it as a shandeh, a sin. That's the view in the Jewish community."
Then again, even some of the strictest traditions can change. After all, the thought that a woman could become an ordained rabbi was considered an unthinkable shandeh fifty years ago. If G-d can show his patience for the "stiff-necked" Jewish people in the Torah, then there's always hope that the Jewish voter will "see the light" and vote Republican this time around.
We shall see.