From: Democrats give Ahmadinejad reason to smile
Abraham Katsman and Kory Bardash Sep. 24, 2008 http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1222017379006&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Jewish American voters should consider carefully whether opposing a woman who opposes the abortion of fetuses is really more important than standing up for the right of already born Jews to continue to live and for the Jewish state to continue to exist. Because this week it came to that.
From:
Caroline Glick, Sep 22, 2008 www.jpost.com caroline@carolineglick.com
I agree with both of these sentiments. My only question is whether the writers of these articles are expressing any surprise along with their outrage, either toward Jewish Liberals (Glick) or Liberals in general (Katsman and Bardash).
Katsman, Bardash and Glick are missing some of the impeti behind this (relatively) new Zeitgeist.
Regarding Katsman and Bardash’s assessment, one must see that the Democrats are not going to make the same mistakes they did in 2000 or 2004, when they felt compelled to take the ostensible moral high road at the highest political cost: the presidency.
Regarding Glick’s piece, unfettered access to abortion is undoubtedly the closest thing the Democrat left has to a sacrament, and it dovetails quite nicely with the aforementioned political urgency, inasmuch as the Republican Party platform calls for a Constitutional amendment protecting the fetus, and the current Republican VP candidate is on the record opposing abortion in all circumstances including rape and incest.
For doctrinaire liberal Jews, and certainly for doctrinaire liberals, there is no conflict in either case. And, in a certain sense, we shouldn’t expect there to be; it really is a very small majority of Jews—and I include myself among them---whose Jewish identity is central enough to their political identity that it overrides other political sentiments. I say override because I am still not comfortable with many conservative tenets, nor am I convinced that conservatives are our friends any more than I am convinced liberals are our implacable enemies. (We just have to hope that our penchant for self-destruction stops somewhere short of liberals’.)
Irrespective of how the recission of Palin’s invitation to the rally was handled, and the liberal/Democratic pressures that went along with it, I’m not so sure it ultimately would have been a good idea to have only Palin there with no Democratic balance. (I’m not saying that this was anyone’s fault but the Democrats, but bear with me.) The last thing anyone needs right now is for anyone to think that fighting terror is a uniquely conservative concern. Especially in this political climate.
The 1980 election was the last time Jews abandoned the Democrats in a national election; the notion that Carter was hostile toward Israel (if not Jews) has seemed to bear that out. In 1992, however, the Democrats took advantage of Bush I's perceived hostility toward the Jewish state (if not Jews as well, again) and were amply rewarded. I registered as a Democrat in that election, the first election I voted in.
Regarding the question of whether it is better for Jews to be liberal or conservative. I would say a Jew should never be forced to make that choice. I would also cringe when Jews assert that one side of the political fence, or the other, is ipso facto compatible with Judaism, whichever version. I would assert with equal force that Jews who adopt one political doctrine, or the other, as a set of personal sacraments, should be aware of what they are getting themselves into.
I'm ceratinly not going to tell them.
1 comment:
The more religiously right-wing the Jew, the more he will associate politically conservative ideas as being more Jewish, although every time I hear David Luchins speak it makes me question that.
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