I think it is the very last thing Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, Joe Biden or Paul Ryan intend. When they do their formulaic shout outs to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and to the State of Israel, I have no doubt that they believe both that it is good politics and that, if anything, they are flattering Jews.
After all, no other foreign country or foreign leader gets anything like this kind of attention during the American election season. Jewish voters must be pleased.And, no doubt, some of them are, especially the organizational leaders who promote the idea that American Jews care about Israel above all other issues. But, as the candidates surely know, Israel is far from the top of Jewish concerns.
According to the American Jewish Committee poll (the annual survey of Jewish attitudes that is respected as the most authoritative survey), just six percent of Jews choose Israel as their number one issue. Twenty-nine percent choose the economy. Twenty percent choose health care. Nine percent National Security. And eight percent choose Social Security. When asked for their top three issues — so that first, second and third choices are put together — 80 percent had the economy in their first three. Fifty-seven percent chose health care. Twenty-six percent choose national security. Twenty-six percent choose taxes and another twenty-six percent choose social security. Twenty-two percent choose U.S.-Israel relations.
What does it mean?
It does not mean American Jews don’t care about Israel. They do and poll after poll shows it (although they disagree as to what the best course for Israel is). But they are Americans before they are anything else. And their top concerns are issues that affect their fellow Americans.
They also believe that both candidates, in fact all the candidates for president since the State of Israel was established, support Israel’s security. There is, then, no reason to vote on the basis of that issue despite the partisan efforts to portray one or another of the candidates as anti-Israel. If, perhaps, there was an anti-Israel candidate, Israel would loom larger as a voting issue. But there isn’t one now and no major candidate has ever nominated one or is likely to do so.
But, listening to the candidates, one would think that Jewish voters (and donors) only care about Israel. I doubt very much that the candidates talk about Israel to please so-called Christian Zionists who are safely in the Republican camp due to issues like marriage equality and abortion. No, the candidates are talking to Jews. And it is insulting.
No other group is appealed to with reference to a foreign country. The candidates don’t fall over themselves praising Ireland, Italy or Poland, to name just three of the countries many voters identify with. They don’t talk about Africa to appeal to African Americans. No, only Jews are addressed as if we are some sort of foreign enclave that happens to live here.
That is wrong and it’s offensive. America is the most secure haven Jews have ever had. It has allowed us something no other diaspora country allowed us: the right to be identified as loyal citizens of the country, not on the basis of our faith or ethnicity. To treat us as something else is deeply offensive to almost all of us. It is certainly no compliment.
So candidates, enough with the shout outs to Bibi. He is not our leader. Today our leader is Barack Obama and, in just four weeks, we will discover if he will continue in that position or be replaced by Mitt Romney.
In any case, it won’t be Netanyahu.
Indeed, only MJ Rosenberg can insult American Jews when he calls them “baby penis suckers” and “Israel firsters.”
Excellent article. Of course the United States would do everything to defend Israel, no matter how much Netanyahu blusters and acts put upon. Perhaps if we would treat the Arab nations with equal deference many of the problems we see in the Middle East would be resolved and we wouldn’t be carrying on so wildly about Iran and Atom Bombs. Did we hear the Arab Nations having fits over Israel getting the Bomb? Fortunately, American Jews are wise to this inequity and only a few will vote only on presidential preference to Israel.
In every election we have to make tough choices and from the preferences you list it seems that the American Jews are concerned about the same things most other Americans are:
the economy, health care. social security and national security. One should weigh those things first, and I would add women’s rights and human rights, in order to vote for the man who will serve this country best. If you really want more war, then vote for Romney. But please, don’t waste your vote on outlyers like Ms. Barr, Daffy Duck or some other fiction.
You cannot talk publicly to AIPAC and other big donors without also talking to the public, including Jews. It would be lovely for kowtowing politicians of all parties to be able to kowtow to AIPAC whilst saying lovely things to the public about human rights, rules of law, reining Israel in, etc. can’t do it. The pols would willingly loose Jewish voters in order to get AIPAC’s money. Until November at least.
It is not true that other ethnic groups are supposedly indifferent as to how the US treats their countries of origin. Gerald Ford got in big trouble with Polish-Americans when he claimed in his debate with Jimmy Carter that the Communist Poland of that era was dominated by the USSR. Mexican-Americans, Greek-Americans, Irish-Americans are all very concerned about US relations with their countries of origin. The big difference with Israel is that those other countries, regardless of what problems they may have is that they are not under continous threat and deligitimation by neighboring states as Israel is.
I find it interesting as to how many “progressive” Jews who were active in radical protests against the war in Vietnam, which was viewed as being very anti-patriotic then, are today trying to prove what great patriots they are by continually proclaiming their “loyalty” to the US, a country which because of its tradition of free speech, actually ALLOWS citizens to openly discuss foreign policy and to try to influence it, just as the groups I mentioned above do all the time.
You have a font problem
On Mon, Oct 15, 2012 at 6:15 PM, MJ Rosenberg
Obama is our president. He’s not our leader, nor will Rmoney be our leader if he becomes president. Both are corporate hacks who serve Wall Street and don’t lead anything.
Tell that to the candidates. Telling your readers doesn’t do any good.
I’m seriously thinking of voting for Roseanne Barr. Check her out.