The Battle For The Jewish Vote In The Presidential Election Of 2012: The Role Of The Republican Jewish Coalition

The Jewish vote may be a small percentage of all votes cast in national elections, but it is well known that the Jewish community votes in higher percentages than any other group in American society, and the concentration of the Jewish population in certain states can have a great impact on the electoral college, as for example, Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio, all swing or battleground states.

So the battle for the Jewish vote is intense, with the Republican Jewish Coalition trying to increase the percentage of the Jewish population willing to vote Republican, which was unsuccessful in 2008, when 78 percent of the Jewish vote went to Barack Obama.

Latest indications are that 64 percent of the Jewish vote presently is in the Obama camp, down 14 points, but still two thirds of all Jews. So the Republican Jewish Coalition is hard at work trying to convince even more Jews of the following ideas:

1, Obama is not sufficiently pro Israel, and cannot be trusted to support Israel, due to the well known tension that exists at times between the Obama Administration and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

2. Obama refuses to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, because of concerns about the Middle East balance.

3. Obama has not visited Israel as President in his first term, although he did as a candidate in 2008.

The reality is that the Republican Jewish Coalition has distorted reality dramatically, so how can one answer these three accusations?

1. Obama has backed Israel in the United Nations, has supported lots of extra aid and military support to Israel, has spoken up in defense of Israel in every way possible. And Israeli Defense Minister and former Prime Minister Ehud Barak and President Shimon Peres have issued lavish praise on Obama as a great friend of Israel, as good as any other American President from Harry Truman through George W. Bush, and both Israeli leaders went out of their way to issue these statements of support.

2. It is true that no move has been made to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, but NO President from Lyndon B. Johnson through George W. Bush has been willing to do so, because of sensitivity about peace negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis, and this includes Republican Presidents Richard Nixon,. Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush, a total of FIVE Republican Presidents, as compared to FOUR Democratic Presidents, including Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Obama!

3. It is true that Obama has not visited Israel in his first term, but NO President, Democratic nor Republican, has done so in their first term, and of course, Ford, Carter, and Bush I only served one term or less as President.

So the accusations of the Republican Jewish coalition are distorted, untrue, purely propaganda, and it will not succeed in bringing larger than about a third of the Jewish vote to Mitt Romney!

3 comments on “The Battle For The Jewish Vote In The Presidential Election Of 2012: The Role Of The Republican Jewish Coalition

  1. Gustavo August 17, 2012 7:19 pm

    I believe this might interest you. It’s an article from Pilar Rahola a famous Catalan (Spanish) leftist journalist, writer, and former politician and MP, concerning the left in Spain (and the world) and the US/Israel. I think we could agree on the defense of Israel. http://portalofideas.blogspot.com/2009/01/pilar-rahola.html

  2. Ronald August 17, 2012 7:24 pm

    Yes, Gustavo, I am VERY troubled by elements on the LEFT who attack Israel and back Palestinian terrorism.

    I appreciate your support of Israel, and it is good we can agree.

    However, I do wish to say that backing Israel does not mean I necessarily agree with Benjamin Netanyahu or any other politician in Israel or in the US or anywhere on EVERYTHING they say or do!

  3. Gustavo August 17, 2012 9:44 pm

    Well there is actually only a couple of things that interest me, and that is the integrity of the only country governed by the rule of law in the middle east, Israel, controlling the expansion of Islamic & palestinian terrorism, the muslim brotherhood and preventing the nutjobs in Iran from going nuclear. All of them enemies of Israel and the US. Israel doesn’t have the luxury of making a miscalculation, if the are wrong once, that’s it, it’s end of that tiny country. Thus, the only option they have is to prevent a nuclear Iran. And whatever they do, I back them. That’s all I need to agree with them on.

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