Saturday, November 3, 2012

Latest Times of Israel Piece

Mike L.

The Democratic Party is Abandoning Israel

According to a recent Pew Research Center poll 46 percent of Republicans believe that the US is not supportive enough of Israel while a mere 9 percent of Democrats think so.

What we are clearly seeing, and have been seeing for quite some time, is an ongoing process of erosion of support for Israel among Democrats.

13 comments:

  1. So what do you see happening when support for Israel is no longer a bipartisan issue in the US (not that I believe things are ultimately headed that way, but let's just put forth the hypothetical)?

    I wouldn't even know where to begin...

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    1. "I wouldn't even know where to begin..."

      Which is why, aside from all the other issues (I just don't agree with the Republicans on anything domestically, and I don't see that changing on either end anytime soon), I can't imagine even considering leaving the party myself.

      We're stuck with the two-party system we have, and I sure don't want to step aside and allow anti-Israel fanatics to gain an uncontested foothold in one of those parties.

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    2. Jay,

      support for Israel is already no longer a bipartisan issue.

      The Democratic party can hardly be considered supportive of Israel when the leader of that party helps usher the Muslim Brotherhood into power in Egypt.

      The party has also torn very significant pro-Israel language from its platform, thus setting the stage for later defection.

      And, needless to say, the party doesn't much care about the rise of political Islam in the Middle East. Political Islam is a movement that is deeply hostile toward the Jewish people for racist theological reasons and the Democratic party in the United States, via the president, has helped it along for years, now.

      The bottom line is that while the the Congressional leadership of the party has generally been friendly toward Israel, the base is becoming more and more hostile and the president, whatever his intentions, acts against Jewish well-being in the Middle East.

      The party oscillates between kissing Jewish ass and throwing the Jewish state under the bus. The reason for this is the tension between the party as it is now and the way it was, once upon a time.

      Once upon a time the Democratic party was pro-Israel, but the current trend is strongly in the opposite direction.

      What to do about this is precisely what we need to discuss and precisely what it is taboo to discuss.

      So thank you sincerely for having the gonads and the intelligence to even the raise the question.

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    3. Sorry, but you are painting with too broad a brush.

      No question that there is a significant segment of progressives in the Democratic Party that have no love for Israel, but more Democrats can see what is going on and understands that Israel is our friend, even if Obama might prefer something different.

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    4. School,

      I certainly agree that many Democrats, perhaps even a large majority, see themselves as friendly toward Israel.

      The problem, of course, is that for ideological reasons the party has acted in ways that are, in fact, perilous for the Jews of the Middle East.

      I'm sure I sound like a broken record, but supporting the Brotherhood, or the rise of political Islam, more generally, is a policy which is exceedingly dangerous to our fellows in Israel.

      We have to remind people that at the core of political Islam resides a ferocious hatred for the Jewish people.

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    5. Yes, people must be reminded. I think, however, that most Democrats know who these guys are, even if it often seems that Obama does not.

      Obama appears out of step, and that will be increasingly understood as events show how much he has misjudged the moderate character of the Islamists.

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    6. Well, most Democrats may know who these guys are, but most Jewish Democrats seem to have not the slightest clue.

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    7. I think the Jews know also, but the ones you refer to make their own choices. That is not to say there is not a significant element within the Democrats of the post-colonialist mentality, including Jewish Democrats. Just that they are not the driving force. In time, I think, they will be shown to be on the side of repression. The way they get people to follow their vision is through coercion, and they have no qualms with using authoritarian methods.

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    8. Y'know, very often people, including me, will say something to the effect that ideology acts as a blinkering filter in people's political decision making, but I keep thinking that that is not quite right.

      When people refuse to acknowledge that which is obvious, for example fizziks' refusal to acknowledge that BDS comes out of the political left, it's not really just a matter of ideology.

      Coercion, as you say, is a big part of it. Social coercion or the desire to fit in and this, in itself, is intimately bound up with "group think."

      It's not really a matter of ideology because very few of us study a particular ideology so that we really understand it. In other words, few of us are actually reading Marx for the purpose of applying Marxist criticism to our understanding of world politics.

      It's really more about subcultural presumptions than ideology, per se.

      The reason that most progressives refuse to acknowledge the Jihad is not out of left-wing ideology, but because the culture that they swim in frowns upon doing so and refuses to do so, itself. Thus it just doesn't come up for discussion accept by those who are immediately condemned for allegedly coming from some other hostile political culture.

      Thus progressives lay the charge of "conservative" on anyone who opposes political Islam, despite the fact that political Islam could hardly be less conservative, itself.

      In truth, political Islam is the single most conservative political movement in the world today.

      When progressives like Barack Obama support political Islam they are supporting the most reactionary, conservative political movement in the world today and are, thereby, betraying their own professed values.

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    9. Yes, they do appear to be doing that, but they will reject anything outside the echo chamber. The Republicans do this as well, but Progressives like to pretend that they are above being petty and intolerant, when they are sometimes much worse.

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  2. Huh. And I just saw a Romney-Obama-Romney-Obama commercial block on the teevee machine here in Pennsylvania. The ads have really picked up (from almost none prior to last week) over the past week, but that's the first I've seen four in a row like that...

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    1. Not seeing that here in Illinois. Guess why ;)

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    2. I was worried about canvassers becoming annoying, as this is the first time I've ever lived in a 'swing state' during a presidential election (I lived in NJ and OR during all the others of my adult life), but it turns out I didn't have to fear.

      The outside door only leads into the hallway, and they can't get to my door without a key. The flyers and doorhangers doing their wind-assisted dance with the leaves on the pavement is evidence of their contact attempts, though...

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