Jewish Vote

Is Bernie Sanders Suicidal, By Praising Education Under Fidel Castro, And Criticizing Israeli Jewish Pressure Group, AIPAC?

Ronald 10 Comments

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders seems to be suicidal politically, as he reminds us of the great promotion of education under Fidel Castro’s dictatorship in Cuba, insuring that he has no chance to win the state of Florida. He alienates the Cuban American community in South Florida, in a state that has the third largest number of electoral votes, and while it is true that most Cuban Americans vote Republican, Barack Obama did win Florida twice in 2008 and 2012.

Also, Sanders alienates much of the Jewish community in his criticism of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, which has support of a large percentage of American Jews.

The Jewish community usually votes at least 70 percent for Democrats, but now it is seen as possible that Sanders would gain a smaller percentage of Jewish support than any Democrat in many decades. His being Jewish does not help him, as many Jews see him as a traitor to Israel.

Sanders is making clear just how much of a rebel he is, and putting many Democratic members of Congress in an awkward position, as to whether they can support him.

Sanders comes across as someone who is not willing to compromise, and while that may be appealing to his supporters, heavily young idealists, it puts not only him, if he is the nominee, but the party from top to bottom, in a position where they could see a massive destruction electorally of the Democratic Party!

The Republican Jewish Coalition, Israel, And Barack Obama: A Total Failure To Change The Jewish Vote

Ronald Leave a comment

The Republican Jewish Coalition made every effort to defeat President Barack Obama, but failed miserably!

In 2008, 78 percent of American Jews voted for the Democratic nominee; in 2012, after spreading lies and mistruths about Obama and Israel, the end result was that Obama received 70 percent of the vote, a total smack to the deception practiced by the RJC!

Why did 7 out 10 Jews remain loyal to Obama and the Democrats? The answer is that they knew that Obama had given more aid to Israel than any other President, including the IRON DOME missile system; that the Democrats were the party of social justice, as shown through Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and ObamaCare, along with civil rights legislation, environmental legislation, and stood for women’s rights; and also that the Republican Party wished to cut back on all these accomplishments, including wiping out ObamaCare.

Additionally, many American Jews do not trust Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and it is now known that even people within his own government and military feel Netanyahu is too trigger happy, wanting to start a war with Iran before diplomacy has played its course, and that Netanyahu favored the Republicans and Mitt Romney from the beginning. So the question was: Should our President have to bow to every demand and detail that Netanyahu insists upon? Is he our President, instead of Barack Obama? And is it not true that Defense Minister Ehud Barak (former Prime Minister) and President Shimon Peres have raved about the support of Israel by our President?

Face the facts: The RJC was more concerned about preserving the wealth of Boca Raton Jewish residents and others elsewhere who are extremely wealthy, and do not wish to pay their fair share of taxes, as evidenced by the meeting in Florida of wealthy Jews where Mitt Romney said his famous “47 Percent” statement that harmed him greatly in the end result!

Also, Orthodox Jews as a group have a problem with socially tolerant views of abortion and gay rights, and are not seen as great advocates of civil rights for other minorities, other than themselves, sad to say!

And it is not just the RJC that was disgraceful!

It was also House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, the only Jewish Republican on Capitol Hill, who has made it his mission to destroy ObamaCare and privatize Medicare, and is very mean spirited in his relations with the President, and is also well known for his attempts to undermine House Speaker John Boehner, who he would love to replace!

And also, House Republican candidate Adam Hasner of Boca Raton, who lost to Lois Frankel, has the same agenda as Cantor. And Josh Mandel, the GOP nominee who lost to Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, ran a nasty, undignified campaign, and made clear that his goal was to promote the Tea Party radicalism of his party, rather than be part of the great majority who see their faith as connected to social justice!

Fortunately, both Hasner and Mandel lost handily, and it would be no loss to the nation if neither ever runs again, with their agenda to help the rich and powerful, and ignore the needs and wants of women, labor, minorities, gays, and senior citizens!

The Democratic Platform And Israel: An Unnecessary Blunder By Barack Obama! UPDATE: NOW RETURNED TO LANGUAGE OF 2008 PLATFORM, A GREAT MOVE!

Ronald 12 Comments

The decision of the Obama Administration and the Democratic Platform Committee at the Democratic National Convention, to eliminate language which was in the 2008 platform–referring to Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and language dealing with the terrorist group Hamas, and the issue of negotiation of the fate of displaced Palestinian refugees by Israel—is an unnecessary blunder that should have been avoided.

Everyone who is fair minded knows that Barack Obama’s Presidency has been one of full support of Israel on all matters that impact them, while occasionally disagreeing on tactics and approaches of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, and the Israeli President, Shimon Peres, have both praised Obama, and declared him as strong a supporter of Israel as any President, since the founding of the Jewish state in 1948.

But the Republican Jewish Coalition and the Mitt Romney Presidential campaign are now jumping on the removal of the platform language, and it puts Obama and the Democratic Party on the defensive, when keeping the language would have avoided this problem, and would have done no harm.

So it is not the issue of being angry with Obama, although some Jews, obviously, will be so, but rather, why, oh why, did the President decide to “shoot himself in the foot”, and create an issue which might impact the election in the swing states, particularly Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Nevada, in particular, and might also make the victories of the President in other states with substantial Jewish populations a bit closer, and might affect Congressional or Senate races.

The Jewish vote, if a large percentage abandon the President and the Democratic Party, could have long range implications that no one is thinking about now.

And it could make the Islamic world think that Obama might not support Israel to the extreme, in case of an Iranian crisis, even though one should have no doubt about the matter, in reality. But perceptions often matter more than reality, so this is something that Barack Obama and the Democrats will regret, as it gives unnecessary ammunition to the Republican Party!

It has just been learned that the 2008 Platform language on Jerusalem being Israel’s capital city has been returned to the document, a GREAT MOVE!

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

Ronald 3 Comments

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!

A Split In The Jewish Community Over Barack Obama

Ronald 1 Comment

The Jewish community in America is badly split over supporting Barack Obama for re-election.

The vast majority of Jews seem ready to endorse and back Obama for a second term in the White House, encouraged by his domestic reform initiatives in the tradition of the New Deal and Great Society, and his policies backing the traditional friendship with Israel and insuring its security. The public statements of the Israeli Ambassador to the United States and the Israeli Defense Minister praising Obama also help insure the support of much of the Jewish population, which traditionally votes Democratic since the time of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

But two groups break from that sense of positive support of Obama–the Orthodox Jewish community and many wealthy Jewish businessmen and their families who are part of the “one percent”!

These two groups are willing to endorse Newt Gingrich’s statement that the Palestinians are “an invented people”, to wish for an attack on Iran based on its potential threat to Israel and the West (another preemptive act as in Iraq in 2003), and to be opposed to much of the traditional reform programs of the New Deal and Great Society, in their fierce desire to avoid paying more equitable and fair levels of taxation!

The Republican Jewish Coalition gathering in New York City recently was disturbing in seeing that a minority of Jews have a totally different perspective based on their religiosity, and their desire to avoid paying taxes despite their financial success.

Obama received 78 percent of the Jewish vote last time, although John McCain received 80 percent of the Orthodox Jewish vote. This time, Obama will probably get a bit less, which could be decisive in several states in a close election scenario.

The Jews, Israel, Obama, And The Midterm Elections: Surprise! The Jews Still Are Democrats! :)

Ronald Leave a comment

There has been much speculation that American Jews were alienated from President Barack Obama because of his promotion of Middle East peace, including trying to pressure Israel’s leader, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to freeze Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and seriously negotiate with the Palestinians!

Despite that belief, it turns out that American Jews were the best part of the midterm elections for Democrats, other than young people and African Americans (both of whom in large part stayed home and did not vote)! One thing about Jews: they vote!

The attempt of conservatives and Republicans to convince Jews to abandon the Democratic Party failed miserably! These scare tactics worked very well on the conservative Christian community, which has been working to undermine the Obama Presidency from Day One, but it failed to break the 80 year long alliance of Jews with the Democrats, dating back to the time of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Great Depression!

As it turns out, Jews backed the Democrats in the midterm election by a 66-31 percent margin! And, for instance, in Pennsylvania, Jews backed loser Joe Sestak by a 71-23 percent margin, even though this Democratic nominee for the Senate lost to Republican Pat Toomey!

It turns out that American Jews have a very low opinion of the Republican Party and the Tea Party Movement! At the same time, many of the so called “professional” Jewish organizations tend to be antagonistic to Obama, the Democrats, and the approach of our government to the problems of the Middle East!

What is it about the Jewish population that they fail to share the beliefs and political approach of the “professional” Jewish organizations? Is this not a commentary on the ineffectiveness of these groups to express the will of the Jewish people of America? Is it not time for these groups to stop “flirting” with the Republican Party, which is just trying to exploit the issue, rather than real concern with the future of American Jews and the state of Israel?