The Nation: "[Expletive] the Jews. They Didn't Vote for Us Anyway"

[marmar]

BLOG | Posted 10/19/2007 @ 11:38am
" the Jews. They Didn't Vote for Us Anyway"
Jon Wiener


Has George Bush ever been to a bar mitzvah or eaten a blintz? Rudy Giuliani has -- dozens of times.

The Bush family has been never been very popular with Jews, but Giuliani won a big majority of the Jewish vote, in the world's biggest Jewish city, both times he ran for mayor. He's the Republican front runner; if he wins the nomination, could the Republican relationship to Jewish voters be transformed? That question lurked in the background when Giuliani and other GOP candidates spoke earlier this week in Washington at a forum sponsored by the Republican Jewish Coalition.

The traditional Republican stance was expressed eloquently back in 1992, when James Baker, at the time Secretary of State to President George H. W. Bush, said "{Expletive} the Jews. They didn't vote for us anyway."

Baker had his facts right: Bush Senior got only 11 per cent of the Jewish vote that year. Bill Clinton got about 80 per cent of the Jewish vote in both 1992 and 1996. Al Gore got the same in 2000. Even John Kerry got 76 of the Jewish vote in 2004.

But could that pattern change if Giuliani is the candidate in 2008? He got two-thirds of the Jewish vote in New York City when he ran against Democratic David Dinkins. He got three-quarters of the Jewish vote when he ran for reelection against Ruth Messinger, herself Jewish.

The Bush family was always more pro-Arab, especially pro-Saudi, than they were pro-Israel. Back in 1992, Baker was arguing for a tougher policy with Israel, pressing them to settle with the Palestinians. He reiterated that position last year in the Baker-Hamilton report, also known as the 9-11 Commission report, which argued we could weaken the appeal of Islamic terrorism by creating a viable Palestinian state, returning the Golan Heights to Syria, and negotiating with Iran.

Rudy is emphatically not that kind of Republican. He made that perfectly clear in his pitch at the Republican Jewish Coalition. As Maureen Dowd reported in the New York Times, he reminded listeners that he refused to accept a $10 million check for 9/11 families from the Saudi prince who urged America to "adopt a more balanced stance toward the Palestinian cause." He reminded listeners that he threw Yasser Arafat out of a Lincoln Center concert held in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?bid=15&pid=244386

[rockymountaindem]

1. Don't count on it

His views may or may not have been a fit for mayor of NY, but wait until people hear about how much he wants G-men to listen to you call your bubbie and I think everybody will see him in a different light.

[Tom Joad]

2. I am sure Adolf Gulliani hates Palestinians, but in an american election he has plenty of

competition.

I don't think Guilliani is doing this out of love, its just that he would eliminate anyone that stands in his way of political success.

[EST]

3. I wonder how he supports the notion that the 9-11 commission report

and the Baker-Hamilton report are the same thing. Maybe I've been asleep but didn't one deal with Iraq and the other with 9-11?
Perhaps this is a quibble over the line, but factual discrepancies tend to undermine one's thesis.

[Tom Joad]

4. Good catch. I wonder how he thinks that Bush is "pro-Arab".

in what way in the world is bush "pro-Arab". He commenced a war that killed 1 million of them. Usually that would indicate not fond feelings.

[Igel]

5. Perhaps that's the writer's comment, and not

Giuliani's?

I can't determine who that should be attributed to, given what's written.

[EST]

6. That's the impression I have--

That it's the author's "ivory tower" treatment of issues. There is a vast number of opinion peddlers, as we are all to aware, who have no business commenting on anything having to do with human relations or challenges. Witness, Pat Buchanan, Cris Matthews, D. Brooks, virtually all wingnut entrail readers, etc.
Their opinions are sought and blasted at us as though they have something meaningful to say when the number of times they've been right on anything can be counted on the thumbs of one hand. They can't get their facts straight and their understanding of people is non existent.

There are so many perceptive, intellectually and compassionately qualified individuals who can't even buy publicity, yet they push people who haven't a clue and are too arrogant to notice.

[EST]

7. Oops! My bad!

I re-read the original article and found this:

"He reiterated that position last year in the Baker-Hamilton report, also known as the Iraq Study Group report, which argued we could weaken ..."

It appears that the OP was inadvertently taking liberties with with the snip, not the fault of the article's author. However, everything I said still applies re. talking heads and opinionators. They are not worth, as a rule, the money they are paid nor the attention they get.

[winston61]

8. Say what you want about Baker ,and there is a lot to say.

Like he can be a cold-blooded shit heel. But he is not stupid. He is right about Israel. And only the U.S. can do make them do the right thing. Rudy's just a whore. The highest bidder gets him. There will not be $0.02 worth of difference between his mid east policy and Senator Clinton's. AIPAC just sends the checks and memos.

[Crap_in_a_Hat]

9. Maybe that's how they can be "perfected"

Since Republican support is pretty much a cult at this point.

[Cha]

10. Yeah, well too bad rudy Fucked up the

Firemen in NYC when he didn't get around to making damn sure they had working RADIOS..what was rudy doing?..judy?

"Standing Their Ground

by digby

Brave New Films has released a powerful new film today about a subject that has the potential to knock Rudy Giuliani's campaign to its knees. Most of us know that the NY Firefighters are mad as hell at Giuliani, but this films starkly lays out one very serious reason why: the radios.

Giuliani came into office in 1994, shortly after the first WTC attack. He knew then that the radios didn't work properly and yet it took him seven years to deal with the problem. And when he finally got around to it, he gave Motorola a sweetheart, no-bid contract for radios that were never tested in advance. When the NYFD got them, they didn't work and they had to be reissued the same radios that had proved inadequate in 1993.

That's why, on September 11th, the firefighters didn't hear the warnings to get out of the buildings. The cops heard them. They mostly got out. Their radios could get the right frequency. The firefighters' old radios couldn't.

In perhaps the most chilling moment of the film, the audience gasps in horror as Giuliani unctuously testifies before congress that the dead firefighters were heroes for "standing their ground."

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/

So, what's more important?

[Indenturedebtor]

11. I think that the real question here is

How many of you really believe that Israel is the primary voting concern of Jews in America? Sure there are some, many even, who vote largely on this issue. But they are about as extreme and narrow minded as Christian Fundies in their views, and are hardly representative of the Jewish population as a whole.

To assume that we are all extreme zionists, and that we are so at the cost of our moral and ethical sensibilities is ignorant and bigoted. The pukes have damn near always been extremely vocal about "supporting" Israel, and American Jews have for far longer than recent history voted solidly Democratic.

Who appeared to be the more solid Zionist in the last two presidential elections for example?

Most Jews that I know (and I know more than a few) want to see PEACE in Israel. Not a bunch of dead Palistinians. Unlike many of my Christian Pukelican friends who say things like "I would think that YOU of all people would vote Republican! I think we should just drop a few Daisy Cutters on those towel headed bastards."

Think I'm exagerating with that little quote? Well I've heard it in more varieties than I can even count.

And I'm really sick and tired of hearing it here... especially when the Jewish voting record contradicts these assertions and conspiracy theories.