IF LIBERAL JEWS ARE SO SMART, WHY ARE THEY SO DUMB?
Caroline Glick, JPOST [Originally posted in October 2011]
[..] WITH THE overwhelming data showing that throughout the Arab world there is strong support for organizations and regimes which advocate the genocide of world Jewry, the American Jewish community could have been expected to devote the majority of its attention and resources to exposing and combating this existential threat. Just as the American Jewish community dedicated itself in the past to causes such as the liberation of Soviet Jewry and fighting neo-Nazi groups in the US and throughout the world, it could have been expected that from the Anti-Defamation League to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, that major American Jewish groups would be using the financial and human resources at their disposal to defend against this violent, genocidal hatred.
But this has not occurred. Many leading American Jewish organizations continue to be far more involved in combating the currently relatively benign anti-Semitism of the Catholic Church and Evangelical Christians than confronting the escalating dangers of Muslim anti-Semitism.
According to a Gallup poll released last month, 80% of American Jews have favorable views of American Muslims. Seventy percent believe that they are not supportive of al-Qaida. These data indicate that American Jews are second only to American Muslims in their support for Muslim Americans. Indeed 6% more American Jews than American Muslims believe that American Muslims face prejudice due to their religion.
American Jewish championing of American Muslims is disconcerting when compared with American Jewish treatment of the philo-Semitic Evangelical Christians. Matthew Knee discussed this issue in depth in a recent article published at the Legal Insurrection website.
In a 2003 Pew survey, 42% of American Jews expressed antagonism towards Evangelical Christians. In a 2004 American National Election Study, Jews on average rated Evangelical Christians at 30 out of 100 on a “feeling thermometer,” where 1 was cold and 100 was hot.
A 2005 American Jewish Committee survey found that Jews assessed that following Muslims, Evangelical Christians have the highest propensity for being anti-Semites. And yet, in the same 2004 American National Election Survey, Evangelical Christians rated Jews an average of 82 on the 1- 100 feelings scale. Evangelical Christians rated Catholics at 80.
Consistent survey data show that levels of anti- Semitism among Evangelical Christians is either the same as or slightly lower than the national average According to a 2007 ADL survey, the US average is 15%.
There is a clear disparity between survey data on anti-Semitism among various American ethnic groups and American Jews’ assessment of the prevalence of anti-Semitism among the same groups. The AJC survey found that American Jews believed that 29% of Evangelicals are largely anti- Semitic. They assessed that only 7% of Hispanics and 19% of African-Americans are anti-Semites.
As it works out, their perceptions are completely incorrect. According to the 2007 ADL survey, foreign born Hispanics, and African-Americans, harbor significantly stronger anti-Semitic views than the national average. Twenty-nine percent of foreign born Hispanics harbor very anti-Semitic views. Thirty-two percent of African-Americans harbor deeply anti-Semitic views.
Like Jews, Hispanics, African-Americans and Muslims vote disproportionately for the Democratic Party. Evangelical Christians on the other hand, are reliably Republican. A 2009 survey on US anti- Semitism conducted by the Institute for Jewish and Community Research in San Francisco found that Democrats are more likely to be anti-Semitic than Republicans.
The Gallup survey from last month showing American Jews’ deep support for American Muslims is of particular interest because that support stands in stark contrast with survey data concerning American Jewish perception of Muslim American anti-Semitism.
THE 2005 AJC survey showed that American Jews believe that 58% of American Muslims are anti- Semitic. That is, American Jews are Muslim Americans’ strongest non-Muslim defenders at the same time they are convinced that most Muslim Americans are anti-Semites. What can explain this counterintuitive behavior? And how can we account for the apparent pattern of incorrect Jewish perceptions of anti-Semitism among Evangelical Christians on the one hand and fellow Democrats on the other hand.
As Knee argues, the disparity may very well be due to partisan loyalties. The Democratic Party has openly engaged in fear mongering and demonization of Evangelical Christians in order to maintain Jewish loyalty to the party. Knee quotes then-Democratic national chairman Howard Dean’s statement that “Jews should feel comfortable in being American Jews without being constrained from practicing their faith or be compelled to convert to another religion.”
As for Muslims, Knee cites a press release from the National Jewish Democratic Council from March attacking Congressman Peter King’s hearings on the radicalization of American Muslims. In the press release, the council claimed that such hearings “can and will” harm religious tolerance in America. That is, the council implied that by investigating the radicalization of American Muslims – and its concomitant transformation of American Muslims into supporters of the genocidal Jew-hatred endemic among radical Muslims worldwide – Rep. King is endangering Jews.
If American Jews are most concerned with being able to maintain their loyalty to the Democratic Party, then it makes sense for them to wildly exaggerate Evangelical anti-Semitism. It is reasonable for them to underestimate African-American and Hispanic anti-Semitism, and ignore the higher rates of anti-Semitism among Democrats than among Republicans. Moreover, it makes sense for them to follow their party’s lead in failing to address the dangers of global Islamic anti- Semitism.
None of this makes sense, however, if American Jews are most concerned with defending Jews – in America and worldwide – from anti-Semitic sentiments and violence.
On Wednesday evening we begin our celebration of the New Year. Rosh Hashana marks a period of soul-searching among Jews. We are called upon at this time to account for our actions and our failures to act and to improve our faithfulness to our people, to our laws and to God.
It is possible that American Jews are simply unaware of the disparities between reality and their perceptions of reality. But it is the duty of all Jews to educate ourselves about the threats that reality poses to ourselves and our people.
At the UN last week, Abbas received accolades and applause from all quarters for his anti-Semitic assault on Jewish history and the Jewish state. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s remarks were applauded by Israel-supporters in the audience in the General Assembly.
As Israel is increasingly isolated and Jews worldwide are under attack, it is my prayer for the coming year that the American Jewish community will come to terms with a difficult reality and the choices it entails, and act with the majority of their fellow Americans to defend Israel and combat anti-Semitism in the US and throughout the world.
AS far as “foreign politics” is concerned, Am Jews for the majority, are as well educated as the average Americans. In other words they couldn’t care less.
No one really knows what the majority of Muslims true believes are. But interesting recent poll suggests that it is Quran and Sharia first for many and they are yet under no pressure. If the numbers of Islamists were to increase, the Am. Muslims will for the majority sing Islam and Sharia all day long. I am not aware of a SINGLE non-Muslim country where Muslims are freeing themselves from Islamism.
So Evangelical Christians want us to have eternal life and Muslims want us to have immediate death. I am more offended by the latter, Ellen.
Liberal Jews adore FDR, who was a passive accomplice in the annihilation of many of their relatives. They are the most pathetic creatures extant, and if my girl Caroline is waiting for them to behave rationally she had better plan on waiting forever.
Golda Meir: ““We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children.”
There it is – the most contemptible comment ever to emerge from the human mouth. It is the quintessence of ignorant, gutless Jewish liberalism.
American Jews of all stripes have reason for concern. Take 8 plus minutes of your lives and listen to this blatant and lengthy prayer for the conversion of Jews at Rick Perry’s August 6th prayer rally in Houston. It’s an outrage and Jewish Republicans should demand some answers before they try and sell Perry as pro-Israel.
letter to the Editor published in Jpost in response to Glick’s article
It is a threat
Sir, – In “A prayer for 5772” (Column One, September 28), Caroline B. Glick cites research linking American Jewry’s loyalty to the Democratic Party with a tendency to “wildly exaggerate Evangelical anti-Semitism.” She implies that the American Jewish community is out of touch with reality, and rather than combat “relatively benign anti-Semitism” should place its priorities on “the escalating dangers of Muslim anti-Semitism.”
I believe Glick might have misread the American Jewish public’s concern. Its perception of Evangelicals may have little to do with partisan politics or the issue of anti-Semitism. Perhaps American Jews are concerned about spiritual self-preservation and the danger of assimilation.
Evangelizing Christians, who are increasingly identifying themselves as “messianic Jews,” pose a very real threat to Jewish identity. In addition, American Jews are living at a time and in a place where mega-churches thrive and Jesus sits on Capitol Hill. Israelis, on the other hand, live with an up-close and personal day-to-day threat from adherents of radical Islam.
The reality and priorities for Jews is relative, depending on which side of the world one lives. Perhaps we should pray that this year American Jews and Israelis will understand each other and give equal consideration to the existential, physical and spiritual threats facing the Jewish people.
Ellen Horowitz
Content and Research Director
JewishIsrael.com
That the democrats/leftists suffer, in different degrees, from a cognitive impairment leading to schyzophrenic behaviour, idest
a pathological incapacity or refusal to perceive reality … that’s been object of sound psychiatric research : no way to deny that truth.
As to “Liberal Jews love Muslims, hate Christians”… sure, and it’s reciprocal! it couldn’t be otherwise : I do believe that feelings are bound to be mutual and ever more so in a highly emotional field…like Israel. As a matter of fact, this issue has become fundamental in my dealing with any kind of relationship : it’s a conditio sine qua non, a test to figure out the kind of person I have before me, their degree of and the kind of intelligence. It simply defines to me whether a friendship is possible or is out of question
– as a waste of energy and time. Crystal K.
You left out:
(5)Dumbass
So it’s Biden’s life — or Pollard’s?
That’s easy. . . .
I believe that American Jews’ adherence to socialism, the Democratic Party and scum like Obama reflect a serious mental disorder. It is difficult to understand how people who, by and large, are far more successful in their jobs and businesses than the average American, are incapable of recognizing reality, not to mention their own interests. Perhaps they are, in many cases, living 50 years in the past; but that doesn’t account for the aberrant attitudes of the younger generation.
Liberalism among American Jews is imbibed with “mother’s milk”. Norman Podhoretz wrote on the subject and for people of middle age and up
it is very difficult, psychologically, to change the pattern of a lifetime. This would require the individual to question his raison d’etre
for living, a most uncomfortable position. What this means is that no matter how much evidence is presented to counter prevailing beliefs,
the liberal jew (Democrat) will bend over backwards to rationalize the party line.
In the middle of a meeting with 15 rabbis in Boca Raton, Fla., last week, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. took a punch meant for his boss. One of the rabbis asked why Jonathan Pollard, the Israeli spy convicted in 1986, was still in prison. Mr. Biden, on a mission to shore up support for President Obama, replied forcefully, according to several people at the meeting.
So drop dead today Biden. Any Jew who votes for Biden and Obama deserves no less. Fed up with American Jews. I wash my hands of them just like I have with BB.
The report doesn’t say what those noble Rabbis said or did afterwards? Probably took in a movie and Chinese dinner.(Kosher of-course!)
The simplest explanation of the mindset of most American Jews is in Michael Savage’s words,”liberalism is a mental disorder.”
Thanks for the link, Yamit. The following stuck out, and is relevant to the opening piece:
What seems to be happening, is that religion is getting thoroughly mixed with politics. Coming from an American Christian background, this has always been confusing to me: I grew up assuming, as an American, that the two were completely separate.
In my Roman Catholic family, we had some outspoken Republicans as well as “Closet Democrats”. Our “Republican wing” was led by my brother-in-law, who was, ironically, a shop steward in his labor union; and our Republicans were ardent churchgoers. I grew up in a district that was so Democrat, any politician who ran as a Republican wasn’t a serious candidate. I grew up thinking that “church” was one thing, “religion” (which was a secret, private matter) was another, and politics something altogether different.
To the majority of American Jews, apparently, the three are one. The Jewish Trinity, for all practical purposes, might be expressed as (1)Moses, (2) Darwin and (3) Marx, not necessarily in that order. The Democrats identify with two out of three in that trinity, and the Republicans don’t identify with any. The American religion, then, after fusing with politics, is actually Democratism of the Mosaic sect. It is a belief system that is basically Maxist and Darwinist, with Talmudic touches.
You made no comment about Biden’s remarks concerning Jonathan Pollard. I thought the Pollard issue was ONE issue that Jews could agree on. Apparently, the rabbis who approached Biden on the matter thought so. Biden didn’t, though: He seemed to think that his Jewish audience was first and foremost Democrat, and Jewish as a distant second — that they would be able and willing to sell their brother into imprisonment in Egypt, in exchange for… What? NOTHING! That’s right, Reuben: The Democrats offer exactly NOTHING to the Jewish people. They’re like the Arabs who sold Joseph into slavery while the Jews were busy dickering over what to do.
American Jews are, for the most part, Democrats: That is their politics, and that is their religion. To a Jew, who thinks his religion is genetic and not “faith based” as Christianity is, this might be confusing; but it’s the reality. In the flesh, American Jews are sons of Jacob; but in their hearts, they have become Egyptians and worship the golden calf. They kowtow to the very ones who want to enslave them. Their trinity in the desert was (1) Leeks, (2) Garlics and (3) Onions, and the Egyptians represented all three; so they identified with them.
Counting Jews as members of the Democrat religion, and equating religion with politics, the American religious scene might be re-drawn as follows:
1. Catholics
2. Baptists
3. Mormons
4. Blacks
5. Charismatics
6. Marxist-Darwinists
American Jews are, essentially, Marxist-Darwinists. That is their religion, and mocking beratings by Joe Biden and others can be looked at like the self-flagellation that Spanish Catholics undergo on their feast day: It’s a religious exercise, a form of penance.
Democrats Cultivate Fear, Anti-Evangelical Hostility, To Drive Jewish Vote
by Matthew Knee
I don’t know where to post this. One American Jew, namely Jonathan Pollard, was just publicly attacked by Obama’s Vice President, Joe Biden, IN FRONT OF JEWISH RABBIS DURING AN OBAMA FUNDRAISING EVENT. The story:
Is this the way the Obama team courts Jewish voters? Any Jew who still votes for the demon after such an outrage, should be publicly renounced as a Jew.
Well, this just proves the misnomer that Jews are so smart. They’re not. It’s repulsive to speak to a self-hating, Muslim-loving Jew. I am just stunned at the stupidity of these people.
This is completely ignored by American liberal supporters of the “palestinians” all the while they continue to falsely accuse the tea party of racism.
American Jewish liberal attitudes are perverse, embarrassing and shameful. What explains the psychology of positive feelings towards those who despise us and being antagonistic toward those who express love for the Jewish people?
Again, either most American Jews live 50 or 60 years in the past when it comes to the political landscape, or they are simply trying to justify to themselves and their own troubled conciences, their continued support for the Democrat party and their unholy alliance with the political left.
My hope for the new year is that the election outcome of NY9 is the beginning of an awakening, a realignment of Jewish voters. But I have strong doubts. Judaism is less important to most than liberalism, which they treat as their true religious faith.