The Right regulary is more supportive of Israel, because such support is in-line with the principle of democracy, of which Israel stands out like a sore thumb geographically.
The Left is irregulary supportive of Israel, when and only when it suits them politically. In other words, the Left's support for Israel is a tactic to gain Jewish votes. And it is a similar tactic to accuse the Right of politicizing Israel.
One day, Sharon is Bush's puppet. The next day, Bush is just a rubber stamp for Sharon's plans.
I'm sure the template can be applied to the Left's treatment of Blacks, and every other "vicitm" constituency.

Actually on the Jewish front - you missed the evangelical component. Evangelical Christians support Israel because they are the chosen people of God and the Christ is the seed of David. Evangelicals believe that America is blessed because we Protect Israel. Evangelicals also believe the history of the world and the close of the age hinges on Israel and the Temple Mount. Evangelicals support Republicans who support Israel so that they can fulfill the teachings of Christ and the prophecies of the old and new testatments.

Democrats understand that Republicans are not courting the .16% of the population but the 45 Million Evangelical Christians AND most of the 60 percent of the American population that goes to Church.

THAT my friend is the key to the Democratic rant on the Jewish position of Republicans and especially of this President, a avowed Christian.

Katherine: your point is taken vis a vis the views of Bible believing Christians (including myself). Your point does not, however, address the casual anti-semitism of the left or the fact that Israel remains the lone democracy in the region. There are important reasons to support Israel and oppose conspiracy theories whatever the religious views of some Republicans.

I understand the evangelical argument, but -

1. It's a relatively new one - it doesn't really explain pro-Israel policy under Bush Sr., Reagan or Nixon.

2. It doesn't account for cheesing off the small yet growing Muslim population that votes Republican.

Most leftists that have trotted out the Jewish pandering theme to me are shocked to learn that there are only about 6 million Jews in this country.

You're right though, the evangelical argument has gained major currency. It ignores the real value of Israel to the US - a strategic, Democratic ally in the region.

I support Israel because of "I will bless those that bless you, and curse those that curse you." I don't agree with everything they do, but I know which side my bread is buttered on. That it's a lone democracy is important to me, but secondary.

Jews represent 1.6% of population, not .16%.

I believe when you discount all the Jews that vote democrat or are inconsequential because they are locked in democrat strongholds, the number of voters the republicans are pandering to, shrinks to the fractional number quoted.

Well, at least George Bush has gotten Jews and Muslims to agree on something...a majority of both groups are voting against him on Tuesday (the above stat cited by Bill, as well as the recent news coverage on the major American-Muslim organizations switching their endorsements from Bush in 2000 to Kerry for this election).

Does anyone know where the roots of the Democratic hold on the Jewish constituency come from? I don't know myself, but I'd be interested in learning.

In addition to providing a sinister lobby far out of proportion to our numbers, don't you know that we Jews use the blood of Christian babies to make our kosher ketchup?

What a slime. Like father, like son.

meobius, there’s been rather a lot written about that. If you want to you can start with this and this.

Now it sounds like Christians are getting slimed.

Why do people assume some mysterious Biblical mandate makes evangelical Christians support Israel? I'm not saying that there aren't some evangelicals who think that way, but you can't group all evangelicals into one neat voting bloc.

I am an evangelical Christian--Southern Baptist, to be specific. I have been going to church my entire life. I have been to Sunday School, Church Training, Vacation Bible School, any number of church retreats, and several special Bible Study courses that delved deeply into Christian doctrine and life. I even went to a Southern Baptist college and took multiple religion courses as electives. And in all that time, I can't remember anyone telling me that I have to support the present-day nation of Israel because God or the Bible said so.

I support Israel because it's an island of democracy surrounded by a sea of despots, under fire from the same sort of radical, barbaric terrorist orthodoxy that flew planes into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and, God bless the heroes of Flight 93, a field in Pennsylvania.

Bush isn't pandering to me as a Christian with his support for Israel. He's appealing to me as a lover of freedom and peace who knows that if the Palestinian terrorists drive Israel into the sea, the world will suffer for it in ways that have nothing whatsoever to do with the wrath of God.

I hope my remark wasn't taken as Christian-bashing. I respect all sincere and sane people of faith, certainly including evangelicals. And whether evangelical belief or some other matter is the reason for support for Israel--it works for me.

It appears that Chris Heinz is as dumb as Ron Reagan.

Moebius,

May I suggest an off-line source. Try reading Thomas Sowell's "Race and Culture" where he analyzes diaspora of Jewish and non-Jewish extractions. Hint: They all tended to adopt socialist politics.

I'm with bamaconservative on this one. I'm also an evangelical Christian whose primary motivation for supporting pro-Israel policies (insofar as they intersect with the national interests of the U.S.) is that it makes sense to support democracies in a region desperately in need of more of them.

While I am mindful of the Biblical passage promising blessings to those who bless the Jews and curses to those who curse them, this does not, for me, equate to a divine mandate of solely political policy towards solely Israel per se. First off, 25% of Israeli citizens are Arabs. And there are plenty of Jews who don't live in Israel. Maybe God was ignorant of these demographics? Or, just maybe, we are encouraged to exercise a little flexibility in our thoughts?

Besides, the implication that evangelical Christians can be mobilized into some lock-stepping army of 100% pro-Zionist voters merely by the evocation of a Biblical passage and the symbolism of a Christian President is, if you ask me, a little Manchurian-Candidate-ish.

"Why don't you pass the time by playing a little solitaire?"

Please.

Bill -

Remember when the liberals in this country used to root *for* democracies and *for* the underdog?

You would think that would make them natural allies of the Israelis.

Mai non. People have varying interpretations on this, but my take is that the left's sympathy for the Jews generally ended about when (Israeli) Jews stopped being victims and started pro-actively defending themselves from annihilation.

Gee, they were *much* more popular when they were corpses stuffed into ovens. But put a rifle in the hands of an IDF soldier ... damn, you've just lost the left-liberal vote.

Richard Marpet -

Read more closely - 0.16% of the population refers to 25% of Jews that vote Republican, divided by 2/3 that don't live in NY.

It's extrapolative, inexact matrh, but it probably represents a very rough estimate of the real number of Republican Jewish votes.

Remember when the liberals in this country used to root *for* democracies...

They're not liberals. They're leftists. (Leftists don't care for democracy and never have.) The liberals in this country still do root for democracies: Bill of INDC, Joe Leiberman, George W. Bush, Glenn Reynolds, Lt. Smash, etc. Liberalism has nothing to do with the zealous and fanatical opposition to rich, powerful Americans and Jews. That's leftism.

'Bama, I'm SB too. Our churches are autonomous. If it's not in the statement of faith, it's the local church's lookout. It's not anything I learned in church either, but rather on my mother's knee, and had it firmed up by observation later in life.

In any case, the SBC has taken no position on the modern state of Israel, and we're the biggest Protestant denomination in the country.

Jim -

That's kind of my point. Maybe I didn't state it as well as I should have.

I know in my head that there is a distinction between liberalism (the old kind anyway) and leftism ... but I have a hard time actually drawing the exact line where it falls today. And IMO, unfortunately for all of us, wherever exactly leftism does fall today it seems to encompass a lot more Democrats than it used to. (One of several reasons I departed the Democratic party after many years.)

Joe Lieberman would, IMO, have been a much better presidential candidate than John Kerry. But he was not even a serious contender for the nomination this year. Why?

If Lieberman-style liberalism were the dominant force within the Democratic Party, we should see staunch pro-democracy-oriented positions at the forefront of DNC foreign policy. But instead we get pandering to unelected UN kleptocrats and bribed-by-tyrants Frenchmen.

You can keep telling conservatives "liberals are NOT leftists" till you are blue in the face, but as long as anti-democratic (and anti-Semitic) leftists are allowed to steer the DNC ship, it is in effect a distinction without a practical difference insofar as a lot of political campaigns (esp. the presidential kind) in this country are concerned.

Liberals have a similar PR problem to that of moderate Muslims, I think -- your "brand" has been hijacked by whack jobs. Insisting that "they aren't the same as us!" may be true, but outsiders are only going to hear the noisiest voices in the crowd. Time for the moderates to get noisy again.

I cannot think of a Leftist I know who is not actively an anti-Semite. The irony of this is lost on much of the public. David Horowitz chronicles a fascinating personal history of Communism and American Jews. I don't know if post-modern Lefties can handle it as Horowitz airs a lot of dirty laundry. From the open-minded intellectual to the average thinking American, his work makes for a fascinating read. The anti-Semite Left seems to sandbag his work whenever possible. I wonder if this is because they cannot look at themselves?

For some, politics has become Religion; their operative mechanism of devotion, worship and prayer. The matter of Communism's collapse into Stalinism is very interesting; even more so, the ascendency of neo-Stalinism to a secular religious status in the West. Are not these various derivative organizations espousing "peace and social justice" just another form of "Church" behaving with the time-honored immodesty of intolerant, distempered dogma? What irony to demand separation of church and state when one practices politics as their religion.

Perhaps this partially explains the religiophobic predisposition of the post-modern Left and its anti-Semitic bent. But in this the Jews are not alone. Most religions are dealt the same Leftist contempt. What good is a "Useful Idiot" if they cannot be used? The Left's notoriously totalitarian attitudes about power and acceptable discourse belies a fanaticism rooted in the worst of religious behaviors.

One look at today's DNC and it becomes obvious what is happening. When a national political party behaves as a cult it becomes something to be feared. That is the lesson of Stalin, Beria and their ideological progeny.

I agree with bamaconservative and Othello: religious belief is hardly the only reason non-Jewish Americans support Israel. That doesn't mean it's not an important one, of course. I could be wrong, but I think the fundamentalist (evangelical, if you prefer) religious rationale for supporting Israel is a relatively new phenomenon, and probably has a lot to do with dispensationalist theories advocated by guys like Hal Lindsey and Tim LaHaye. I have the impression that dispensationalism has gained much wider acceptance in the past twenty years or so than it had previously enjoyed. And I have little doubt that that's led to an increase in support for Israel in this country.

But yes, there are lots of other reasons to support Israel. My father was at best an agnostic, and a strong supporter of Israel. I'm a conservative Catholic and also favor a very pro-Israel foreign policy, even though I think dispensationalism is bad theology. (I don't mean to offend anyone and, no, I'm not interested in debating the merits of dispensationalism here. I'm just trying to make a point about reasons for supporting Israel.) So while religious belief may be an important explanation for why some non-Jewish Americans strongly support Israel, it's by no means the only one. I suspect a lot of them -- like me -- just think it's the right thing to do.

Othello, I agree with every word you say. I'd only add that many of the conservatives you distinguish from liberals are indeed liberals in the sense of the term you and I mean. The stand for liberty an the pursuit of happiness as inherent rights of all decent people. It's just that they are more conservative on many other topics than most of their fellow liberals. I guess at some level it devolves in to pointless semantics. But at this point in time, "liberal" has been hijacked by leftists, probably due to the fact that both were against concentrations of wealth in the early 20th C, I don't know.

The Democratic Party is dysfunctional and needs to go. I'm voting straight Republican ticket this year, and every year until that thing is dead. It needs to be replaced by a reasonable libertarian party (not that I'm a libertarian, mind you), but such doesn't exist yet.

Not every Democrat who criticizes Israel does so on anti-Semetic grounds, though I admit that there is an unsettlingly large amount of that going on in certain sectors of the party.

An open letter to Ariel Sharon by a reasonable critic of Israel goes something like this:

Israel, we love you as a bastion of Democracy and Western values in a largely corrupt and unstable Middle East, but we can't keep giving you carte blanche.

You have a right to sovereignty and democracy and territorial integrity, but you have to stop egging the Palestinians on by building more settlements. Once Arafat dies, go back to the peace table and get it done.

We understand and support your policy of assassinating terrorist leaders, but you need to realize there are extremists on BOTH sides; you need to put a leash on the Orthodox parties before they kill you or incite a civil war.

We understand the Wall is an effective deterrent for terrorist attacks, but you can't turn it into a political tool to reify your control of disputed areas. It's making you look like the bad guy.

It's nice to know the would-be first family has an anti-Semite among itself.

I really hope the Bush campaign circulates this among the Jewish community and uses it to maximum advantage.

Kerry would be the most anti-Israel president ever, even worse than Carter. How else to please his foreign friends than to abandon Israel?

This cokehead remark is yet another Gasp and Gaffe of Desperation as I wrote about at patternsofink.blogspot.com
When I read the story, I flashed back to the moment I knew George HW Bush was going to lose to Bill Clinton in the 1992 campaing. It, too, was near the last day of the race. Bush 41 was at a stop in Macomb County, Michigan, my boyhood home (though I was watching the event live on C-Span in Iowa). At the end of his speech, the desparate candidate called Bill Clinton and Al Gore "a couple of Bozos." The live audience responded with an awkward laugh, but in my living room, my father and I just looked at each other with dropped jaws, and I said, "He knows something we don't know. It must be over." The remark was so off message, so off the cuff, so unpresidential--and sounded so hurt--that I knew there would be no joy in Mudville for Bush/Quayle.
Twelve years later, in spite of everything, with 48 hours to go, Bush 43 is staying on message, his opponants and their surragates are the ones making the last-minute gasps and gaffes that tell me they know something no pundits dare say before Tuesday night. I think this race is over. Why else would the Democrats be so willing to upset the checker board before the final move?. We can only hold our breath, pray, and vote!

Can someone explain this phenomenon to me? Clearly Jewish people, like almost all, act in their own self-interest. Any disinterested observer knows that (current) US policy is highly supportive of Israel and the Republican's are the best hope for a continual existence of the state of Israel. Given those observations (and feel free to correct me if I'm off base) I would think that Jewish support for Bush would be off the charts. What am I missing?

I agree, there is a distinct difference between a liberal and a leftist; Christopher Hitchens (along with Horowitz) has done more than anyone to expose the totalitarian leanings of leftists. The common description of leftist opposition to the war or the GWOT is "leftists trashing democrats fighting fascists."

The primary Article of Faith for leftists is a fundamental opposition to western civilization (of which the US is regarded as Exhibit A), which opposition gives rise to a whole host of predictable adjectives: racist, sexist, classist, hegemonic, capitalist, patriarchal, homophobic, imperialist, logocentric, etc etc. The current cutting epithet is "neo-liberalism," which is a catch-all phrase encompassing all the combined degradations of the western world, and which constitutes the common enemy of all right-thinking people. This is all common fodder in the humanities departments of most of our universities.

Leftist don't disagree with the policies of the United States; they disagree with the very existence of the United States as presently constituted (and the rest of the western world), regardless of the policies of the day.

The Democratic party has 3 generic elements: leftists, liberals, and conservative democrats, although many leftists cleave off from time to time to the Greens, or Nader, or some other fringe group. It's an interesting speculation how many leftists actually inhabit the Democratic Party; they are a common political species in the political parties in Europe.

"Can someone explain this phenomenon to me? Clearly Jewish people, like almost all, act in their own self-interest. Any disinterested observer knows that (current) US policy is highly supportive of Israel and the Republican's are the best hope for a continual existence of the state of Israel....What am I missing?"

It is possible that not every person of Jewish descent is thinking about Israel 24/7, or that it is important issue but it also competes with OTHER important issues...like jobs, health care, or education.

Or it might not even be an important issue.

First, let me say that I have learned a lot from reading this thread about why many thoughtful non-Jews support Israel. Second, I am that elusive creature that you have been talking about an American, a Jew, and a classic liberal who has always voted Democratic, but who this time will be VOTING FOR GEORGE BUSH!!! I am not happy with some of his administration's domestic policies, but I support his resolve to defend this country against the pathologies of the Islamic world regardless of what the EU, or the UN think. I am also deeply moved by his support for Israel, surrounded as it is by so much irrational hate. It is clear to me that his religious faith is a strong component in his resoluteness and I am mystified why anyone feels threatened by it. With all my heart, I hope he wins.

Well you can add me to the list of SBC evangelicals whose main reasons for support of Israel are due to good politics and not some Biblical mandate. I do think there are some evangelicals who certainly are motivated by a Biblical mandate in their support, but I am not convinced it is a majority-I can't say that I have ever heard a pastor or Sunday School teacher address the issue of supporting Israel as a nation.

As for why the Jewish Americans seem to vote overwelmingly democratic, my guess is that you have the tradition factor at work. Probably because it was democrats in office when Israel became a nation, Jewish citizens felt compelled to support the democratic party, and now it is tradition. Also, I suspect the lean towards liberalism and socialism is at work. I wonder what percentage of the Jewish population is conservative verses liberal, because that would also play a factor. Also, I am not convince that all American Jews care a whole lot about Israel as a nation-especially those who are cultural and not religious Jews.

The unifying thread between Leftists, The Democratic Party and the European Left is found in the conduits of the SEIU and the international labor movement. Culturally, Kerry is as 'Old Europe' as he is American. Couple that with the international labor movement and one can reasonably be concerned at some point the Democratic Party will be transformed into the first 'international' domestic political party in US history. Never have foreign and multinational interests had such prospect of direct representation over the affairs of our nation. Kerry's nationalism seems as guided by France and Germany as by New England. Certainly, you can bet our great American flyover country will find little consideration from a narcissistic europhile like John Kerry in the oval office.

Willem, true. All should read about "transnational progressivism" (go to USS Clueless for some good articles on that particular phenomenon).

As for Jewish voting patterns, that pattern was well-developed before Israel became a state. Using some broad strokes here, America's Jewish population emigrated from Europe, and, in Europe, the Jews were traditionally on the left and active in the left -- socialists, Bundists, communists, trade unionists, intellectuals, playwrights, writers, etc, and for good reason, they were for the most part a disenfranchised portion of the population, particularly in Eastern Europe and Russia, which at that time (late 19th to early 20th century) were still governed by monarchs, czars, or dictators. After WWI, the monarchs, czars, and dictators were succeeded by fascists and the Stalin regime in Russia, which were even worse, and drove the Jews either to leftist politics, emigration to Israel or the US, or the death camps.

Books have been written about this. These patterns are deeply ingrained in the Jewish community, and will be difficult to change.

Generally the Jews in this country take the position that at any given time they're one election away from a pogrom. They remember the "country club" Republicans of the Eisenhower era who wouldn't let them in their country clubs and excluded them from their neighborhoods. The Democrats of that era, otoh, championed civil rights and tolerance (or at least their biographers say so). Forgotten are inconvenient facts, such as FDR refusing to bomb the railways even though he knew Jews were being shipped to death camps as fast as possible in the fading days of WWII