47% of American Jews Would OPPOSE Saving Israel!!!!
THE TRAGIC PREDICTABILITY OF THE JEWISH VOTE
GrassTopsUSA Exclusive Commentary
By Don Feder, November 17, 2008
A tip of the chapeau to Janet Levy Ross for sending us this shocker.
Back in the 1980s, during the euphoria of the Reagan-era, Neo-cons like Norman Podhoretz and Irving Kristol predicted a seismic shift in Jewish voting patterns.
Once American Jews discovered that voting Republican was crucial for the survival of the Jewish state, they’d naturally align themselves with the party that actually believes in national security, we were assured.
It never happened.
After this year’s election – in which Barack Hussein Obama got 77% of the Jewish vote – we can confidently say it never will. Once again, in 2008, most American Jews voted their religion – liberalism.
Some minorities have a clearer perception of where their interests lie. According to the American Muslim Task Force for Civil Rights and Elections, nearly 90% of Muslims voted for Obama, only 2% for McCain – smart Muslims, dumb Jews.
If there was ever a year in which Jews should have been forced to reconsider their robotic loyalty to the Democratic Party, 2008 was it.
The Democratic presidential candidate should have set off alarm bells in the head of the average Jewish voter – from his whack-job pastor’s anti-Israel ravings, to his multiple ties to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, to his Middle East donors, to his terrorist cheering section, to his refusal to condemn Jimmy Carter’s meeting with Hamas – Jews should have broken out in a cold sweat at the thought of this ideologue directing U.S. military and foreign policy. (Continue Reading this Article)
This article has it 100% right. Depressing.
Comment by Ted Belman — November 18, 2008 @ 10:06 am
They are indeed mega-meshugenehs.
Comment by Laura — November 18, 2008 @ 5:02 pm
If it weren’t for the above figures, one would walk away from the article thinking that Jews are inherently stupid. They’re not inherently stupid: They’re inherently divided; and the divide is not between Torah-observers and disbelievers in Torah — it’s between a small minority of Jews (the Orthodox) and the rest: a small minority, who seem to pride themselves with being totally out of touch with their fellow Jew.
The author said there’s “nothing Jewish” about Jewish voters. This is nonesense: Jewish voting patterns are unique among white voters. They vote as an ethnic group; they are bloc voters; they thoroughly identify with one another — except for the Orthodox, who form a bloc of their own. In fact, if you would separate the Orthodox minority from the Jewish vote, you would see that they vote even more as a bloc than the Blacks do — nearly as much as the Moslems do. The Orthodox are only slightly less likely to vote as a bloc than the Blacks; but even then, if you would separate groups like the Neturei Karta, who think they are the entire world, the Orthodox vote would probably resemble the Black vote. The Jewish vote is THOROUGHLY Jewish: If the sages of Talmud were to cast ballots on any issue, I am certain that the vote would break down exactly as it does in the Jewish community today.
Rabbi Shammai says, “Vote for McCain”.
Rabbi Hillel says, “for Obama”.
Can you get more Jewish than that?
Comment by BlandOatmeal — November 18, 2008 @ 8:47 pm
Maybe if Holocaust education were more focused on the survival and strength of Israel as the antidote to future Holocausts, then people would realize that Israel’s survival is in their best interests and that their support for Israel does matter.
It seems that most Jews think that other issues were of more import than Israel in this and past elections, as if all the danger cited in this fine article are of no significance to THEIR lives - a totally selfish and self-centered view of the world.
The eye-opener for me was when a local Rabbi in our (Canadian) town showed more concern for opening his doors to a lecture by noted self-haters and Israel-bashers than he had for students being bullied and pushed around by the organizers of “Israel Apartheid Week” on campus. He was looking for solutions through appeasement.
This show of solidarity with those who want to destroy us and aversion towards those who want to save us is a weird form of self-abuse, self-denial and self-destruction.
Comment by Gary — November 19, 2008 @ 7:09 am
By defintion, the Orthodox are the only Torah observers. The rest are either pseudo observers or dowhatyawanners.
Both Shamai and Hillel were great sages. As such they were clever enough to have both voted for McCain, though out of lack of alternative. And I doubt their wives would have donned Palin sheitels.
Comment by Shy Guy — November 19, 2008 @ 8:40 am
The land of Israel was given to us for the purpose of carrying out G-d’s commandments and a Jewish way of life on its soil, as directed to us through the Torah and its Mitzvot.
The Torah is explicite in warning us multiple times of the cause and effect of how not living up to our position in history will subsequently gurantee our punishment, culminating in destruction and exile.
Israel viewed mainly as a safehaven is the falsehood which Herzl’s Zionism is dependent upon. You can run but you can’t hide.
Homework on this subject: for a great d’var Torah, read Bamidbar Rabah 23:1 and see of you can figure out the main message being transmitted there.
Comment by Shy Guy — November 19, 2008 @ 8:52 am
Sorry, Shy Guy, when you start talking about biblical mandates and covenants, I tune out - and that is because it leads to the arguments which put us on a hierarchical scale from believers to non-believers and a concomitant value (or lack of value) placed on human life stemming from the depth of feeling and orthodoxy they have towards the religion.
I hate this kind of orthodoxy in Islamic religion and I find it troubling that Jews would also gauge the value of a man by how ardently he/she embraces religion.
My point is that Israel, whether you are religious or not, is a refuge from a world that has persecuted and killed Jews for being Jews (and the Nazis and the Russian/Europeans or the modern day Islamists did/do not make a distinction between observant and non-observant when the urge to kill Jews strikes).
Comment by Gary — November 19, 2008 @ 9:12 am
This is true of any religion. It is not an invention of Islam.
I don’t know of many religions where the divine message is “do as I say but nothing really matters”.
My message is that the Torah explicitly warns us that Israel as a refuge doesn’t work when we Jews don’t do what we’re supposed to do. Time tested and proven over and over again, with tremendous predictability.
If there’s no “biblical mandate”, then why are we here? What a massive waste of time!
Comment by Shy Guy — November 19, 2008 @ 9:32 am
The measures taken by Bet Shammai to severely restrict contact with non-Jews may well indicate Shammai’s own alertness to the dangers facing the Jewish people in his time. Three of his sayings are quoted in the Mishnah (Avot 1:15): “Make your Torah study a regular practice,” “Say little and do much,” and “Greet everyone with a cheerful face.” Like some of the halakhic decisions transmitted in his name. I think especially in light of the Holocaust and what has become of todays western Jewry, Shammai it seems has been shown correct, and Hillel if not absolutely wrong, certainly less relevant if preserving Jewry from extinction in America.
Comment by yamit82 — November 19, 2008 @ 9:38 am
Yes, and that is why I avoid religion altogether. One has to be immersed in it and approach it in an intelligent and scholarly way from youth. I never did and I do not have the discipline or the interest to begin.
Religion is a human construct, written and manufactured by humans. It is also a political power grab by those who have gained ascendancy and control over the dogma. It is mostly exclusionary and it often becomes a divisive force that splinters and divides people.
The word of G-d is often camouflaged as the word of powerful people who refuse to be gainsaid.
The Jewish religion, unlike others, is open to discussion and arguments, and that is what I like about it. Islam is written in stone and has some very violent and aggressive hatred for others and I do not understand why anyone would want to take part.
Comment by Gary — November 19, 2008 @ 9:49 am
Not really, unless you’re referring to whether using a teabag in a Kli Shlishi on Shabbat is permissable or is it a violation of the Melacha of Borer or Bishul? D’orita? D’Rababan? Indeed, much to argue!
More tea?
Seriously, you imaginary opinion of Judaism being as stretchable as Silly Putty is no different than the millions of Christians and Muslims who shape and mold their religions into their heart’s desires.
Comment by Shy Guy — November 19, 2008 @ 9:58 am
Excerpts from Principles for a Hebrew Liberation Movement Dr. Israel Eldad.
For the Gentiles to ask about the purpose of their existence is understandable. They were stuck in paganism’s world of lies. Christianity was supposed to rescue them from this crisis; they wanted to merge Christianity’s abstract ideas with the physical world of the Greeks and ended up painting the Madonna, and so on, creating a Golden Calf of sorts: i.e., Western culture. So such crises are understandable for them. But ours is different.
We entered ours the moment we began to absorb Gentile values. We, the Jews, find ourselves in a crisis that does not belong to us.
Our twofold crisis is actually one: As long as Judaism had not left the ghetto, it underwent no fundamental ideological crisis. So the crisis is not twofold, it is one. It began when we went forth to the Gentile world.
How do we resolve this crisis? Ninety-nine percent of our thinkers say: Because our crisis is that of the entire world, we must solve the world’s crisis, and then ours will be resolved; socialism, democracy, the danger of world war - the resolution of our crisis will come with the resolution of the world crisis. This seems a logical solution. But the solution proposed by a movement of national liberation is different: Resolve the two crises by separating completely from the foreign world, and returning to our own. Thus we can be rid of both crises.
We must do in our philosophy what Descartes did in modern philosophy. He initiated individualistic European philosophical terms for European thought. “I think therefore I am.” We must find our “I,” the root of our self- consciousness, on which we can build our ideas - in and with our own terms. Not “I think,” which is typically European. Thought is not our ground. Our ground is: “In the beginning God created.”
Maimonides, who tried to build a bridge between Torah and Aristotle, set as the principle of his system the words: “I am the Lord your God,” based on which he expounded the meaning of God and all it obligates. Rabbi Judah Halevy uses the same Biblical verse in his book The Kuzari, but he quotes the full verse: “I am the Lord your God who took you out of Egypt.” This is the fundamental concept of our Divinity. Maimonides cut the verse in half and built his philosophical system on it. Judah Halevy said: History is our philosophy. This is our Archimedean point: God, and national activity in history. This is our starting point.
Comment by yamit82 — November 19, 2008 @ 10:02 am
Shy Guy, I concede defeat in any discussion about Judaism. You and others in this forum have way more knowledge.
If Judaism has no room for discussion and argumentation, then it is as solidified as the other religions in their basic forms. As you point out, many, including Judaism, have changed for the better and (in your opinion) the worse.
I sure hope that Islam comes up with a way to reform its books, that would help all of us. If one is a purist he would have to observe the Islam of bin Laden and that does not bode well for anyone.
Comment by Gary — November 19, 2008 @ 10:11 am
Our sages based many of their thoughts on the concept of revelation at Sinai and the giving of the Torah. The “three days of separation” which preceded the giving of the Torah at Sinai is also a basic concept in Judaism. Judaism means setting limits, boundaries, separations. Limits to human knowledge, to God, to the country, to the nation. Another of the symptoms of our crisis is the lack of limits, of borders. We are vague. The mind knows no limits; emotion moves and limits. Judah Halevy says there are no two philosophers who reached the same conclusions, and this shows the mind cannot be relied upon. It is the mind’s fault that the Jew has ceased to see borders, while the giving of the Torah was set-off, bounded, by the three days of separation. The concept of God is limited: He is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - that is the limit. More than that is metaphysics, philosophy. Our nation has a God who is limited, racially and historically. This anti-metaphysical base is central to Judaism.
Judaism gave the world Bereshit, Genesis, the “beginning,” with which the Torah opens. This is the first concept of limits in space and time. Thought is by nature circular, without beginning. The Torah opens with the letter bet, not with a definition of God. We know God only from His creation. The land was chaos, and God set limits: oceans, order, instead of infinity. There is an order and an intention in history. If the world had been created by accident, it would have no meaning. But if it has a beginning, a creation, it is no accident, rather an intention, with purpose. This direction is another basic concept, in addition to limits. No history of any other nation is as clear and defined as ours. Everything that happens to us already appears in regard to our three Patriarchs. Abraham stands under the banner: Lech lecha, “Get thee from thy country…” and under the banner of chesed, charity. Isaac is the passive, tragic image among our Fathers. The Bible refers to the Pachad Itzhak, the “fear of Isaac.” That is also part of our history. Again and again we are bound, and again and again saved. http://www.saveisrael.com/eldad/eldadhebrew.htm
Comment by yamit82 — November 19, 2008 @ 10:18 am
Gary in all of your polemic you do not address the main question; WHY BE JEWISH? If you cannot answer this basic question then all the rest can not be supported nor sustained over time.
If you want an answer, do not seek an easy one. If you want to be a Jew - be the one that always existed. Seize the mainstream of Judaism, no matter how difficult it may be. Let me suggest to you a few points of departure:
1. That life is short and meaningless if its purpose becomes the mere pursuit of pleasure. That unless we are to go mad, there must be something more to this brief candle.
2. The knowledge that the Jew is different and exclusive; that he has a role to play which will determine his and the world’s destiny; that the Torah turns him, his people, and in the end all humanity into a holy and meaningful entity.
3. That Torah cannot endure with simple practice, but is based upon deep and never-ending study, and that without scholarship, Judaism degenerates into the joke of the Long Island, or Toronto temple.
4. That only if we believe that the Torah is Divine will we submit to its will, for if it is just a product of “clever” rabbis, surely you will be convinced that you are as clever as they.
5. That the Jewish people is bound together by common destiny, and that this imposes upon each one an obligation to love and rush to the aid of each and every other Jew; that the Jew has no permanent allies except his own people; that for the Jew, Jewish problems come first; that we measure our responses by the yardstick: Is it good and right for the Jew?
These are the principles; now go and study them.
Comment by yamit82 — November 19, 2008 @ 10:51 am
Interesting math. Guess 130% of secular American Jews voted their liberalism in order to get to a 77% total Jewish vote for Obama?
IBD Daily Tracking Poll for Day 20 had Jewish voters at 77% on poll published Nov 1, down to 71% on Nov 3, with 6% undecided. The IBD poll for Day 11 posted Oct 23 had Jewish voters for Obama at 57%, McCain at 17%, with 27% undecided. I have personally been curious at what happened between Oct 23 and Nov. 3. Although sampling error can not be ruled out, the IBD poll numbers for Jewish voters as of Oct 23 was very close to the Siena Poll for New York published on Sept 15, which included 12% of likely voters as Jewish.
Did a lot of Jewish voters stay home this year, or did not vote for president, or decided to join in the mass rationalization that Obama meant every word he said in his AIPAC speech of June 4???? always questions that cannot be answered…..
Do not forget that Joe Lieberman is #4 in seniority (after Byrd and Kennedy who may both be reassigned out of Armed Services due to health issues) next to chair Carl Levin on Senate Armed Services with McCain as ranking member. Seems like a good team for blocking any attempts to cut Israel off from military purchases. The Senate is so good at slowing things down. Lieberman was allowed to keep his chairmanship of the Armed Services Airland sub-committee in addition to his chair of full Homeland Security Committee.
Yes, the RJC should spend their money on education. Maybe American Jews need to study more history. Worked for me.
Comment by Birdalone — November 19, 2008 @ 2:17 pm