text:
2. Obama appeases Jew-hating Islamists.
The idea that Obama is secretly Muslim is ridiculous. It is well-documented that Obama believes in the America-hating, racist form of non-Christian Christianity preached by Jeremiah Wright. I only wish Obama were Muslim so you could reason with the guy! However, his policy of apology and appeasement to Islamists is giving strength and incentive to a world-wide movement of jihad that has the destruction of the Jews as one of its primary goals. As a recent example: After terrorists murdered our ambassador and military men in Libya, Obama's people refused to call terrorism terrorism and instead blamed the pre-arranged 9/11 assault on a silly YouTube video. To avoid confronting the Islamists, the administration went so far as to pressure YouTube to remove the vid (YouTube courageously refused). And at the very least, the administration inspired (if they did not actually encourage) law officers to drag the filmmaker from his home at midnight for "questioning." Encouraged by this sort of puling weakness, Islamist protests have spread from Libya to more than a dozen countries worldwide.
Obama's failure to understand the nature of the Islamist threat has led to his bungling of the Arab spring. Despite his narcissistic belief that his personal life experience would help him reach out to the Muslim world, tension between Islam and civilization is on the rise. Even Obama's strutting pride at having personally killed Osama bin Laden with his bare hands is indicative of the fact that he misunderstands that the Islamist chant is true: "Listen, Obama, we're all Osama." Terrorism isn't crime; it's warfare.
Jews don't always have to vote for what's "good for the Jews." But Jews who vote for policies that encourage their own annihilation are dumb Jews.
153 Comments, 56 Threads
1. hoban washburne
Your videos are funnier and smarter than anything that the Romney campaign puts out. They should farm out all their multi-media efforts to you and then at least we'd have a decent shot at getting the good word out.
JohnSeptember 24, 2012 - 5:16 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
While Andrew and (most) PJM readers know the truth, and the dangers for anyone-let alone Jews-to vote back in the most destructive POTUS in history, it is by far a herculean job to convince Jewish leftists of said dangers.
September 25, 2012 - 12:16 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
reality: the best predictor of how people vote is to ask how their parents voted. And that is as true as gravity. Sorry.
September 25, 2012 - 2:21 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
Max Friedman
Normally Jews will vote as their parents die. My sister, who is politically uninformed will, but I'm sensing a change, perhaps in the form of "apprehension", by liberal Jews as to what Obama is doing to Israel, to the defense of the US, and to our economy.
During Yom Kippor services, I was talking (outside) to a friend who was a diehard Democrat activist, but he is apprehensive, because he has some common sense about life.
When I mentioned to him that under the Obama tax program, people, such as widows and other elderly, will be hit with a 40% tax rate on DIVIDENDS, starting Jan. 1st.
Since many such people depend on investment dividends for their food/living money (Social Securiy usually only pays the rent or mortgage), they are going to get slaughtered.
He looked at me and said, "I never thought of it that way".
Point, Set, Game!
September 27, 2012 - 5:45 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
That is not a true statement! Both my parents were dyed in the wool FDR/JFK and LBJ fans and I would no more vote for a progressive than I would fly to the moon tomorrow night. Our oldest daughter is an Obama fan and our youngest daughter dislikes this POTUS almost to the point of being ill when his name is mentioned.
September 30, 2012 - 6:07 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
3. elkh1
But elitist Jews could look into the unknown and see the truth, for instance, FDR's refusal to admit more Jews to America during the War was good for the Jews who should be forever grateful to his Party. Obama's cozying up to the Islamists are good for the Jews who are already here. Who want to be identified with those rotten Jews from that shitty little country?
Oh, where is Mayor Koch? And where is that "Independent" Senator Lieberman? Are they out there distancing themselves from that shitty little country?
September 24, 2012 - 9:12 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
ahad ha'amoratsim
FDR surely never earned his reputation as a friend of the Jewish people. But the GOP at that time was isolationist and did their best to keep the US out of the war. And as far as I know, the GOP was not any friendlier than FDR to the idea of letting Jews fleeing Europe enter the US or for that matter Palestine (not that the British would have listened anyway). So given the choices between keeping European Jews out of the US but fighting against the Nazis, or keeping European Jews out and staying neutral, what choice was there but to vote for FDR?
September 25, 2012 - 8:47 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
The point would be that FDR had the power then for 3 terms and the GOP didn't. It was FDR's administration that condemned the European Jewry to the Holocaust by limiting their escape destinations.
September 25, 2012 - 9:13 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
Vindico Libertas
So….you are voting for Obama?
September 25, 2012 - 12:20 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
Koch and Lieberman
are both, in their mealy-mouthed ways, dangerous to Jewish life on earth.
September 25, 2012 - 8:54 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
Mayor Koch and Senator Lieberman
are mealy-mouthed, sniveling cowards, dangerous to Jewish life.
September 25, 2012 - 9:00 am Link to this Comment | Reply
4. Wolfer33n
While 2 & 3 are most convincing to the Jewish voter, I would like to see a shift where the American Jew doesn't vote Republican solely on the policies of Israeli-American relations (aka #1 as well). I heard Peter Schiff mention that more Jews will vote Democrat than blacks, I believe the number was 96% of Jews will vote Democrat across all income levels. We should assume that most Jews are supporters of Israel (aside from Noam Chomsky). It's unlikely they'll be swayed on social issues but then again aside from abortion I could care less about those myself.
September 24, 2012 - 9:33 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
Its ironic you mention Noam Chomsky; here is a guy who never met a mass murderer he did not like and spent a good amount of effort trying to persuade folks that Pol Pot did not exterminate a few million people and that all the bad apples in the world – Castro, Stalin, etc., were FORCED to do what they did by the USA.
Yea right.
Oh yea, he is also jewish, supposedly brilliant, and yes, cannot wait to see Israel annihilated.
By the way, some years back some jewish idiot from Philly went to Iraq and get his head sliced off – LIVE ON YOUTUBE. If your recall his parents blamed Bush for the murder of his son.
I will bet that his parents – as was the victim – are well educated and very successful in the careers.
I can only surmise that Chomsky as well as jewish voters for Obama must really
hate jews . I can think of no other reason for their suicidal world view.September 25, 2012 - 6:12 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
Did you read Thomas Sowell's Intellectuals and Society? Being an intellectual, even one that's brilliant in his own field, doesn't guarantee being wise or even having basic scientific standards, such as any regard for facts… It actually seems to be quite the opposite. Intellectuals, by the demands of their profession, seem to be more inclined than others to espouse "original" nonsense that often lead to negative, sometimes catastrophic, consequences for their societies.
And with colleges and universities being in reality leftist indoctrination institutions one can expect that the more "educated" (read indocrinated with left-wing propaganda) a group is the more it will tend to vote for the left.
September 25, 2012 - 9:40 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
So glad to hear someone cite Thomas Sowell, the gentleman is one of my heros whose clear thinking always put the subject matter into its proper perspective.
September 25, 2012 - 1:05 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
Noam Chomsky was an idiot in 1969 and hasn't improved over the decades. He has a style of writing essays with quotations from lots and lots of sources, and when challenged on something factually wrong, will say, "Well… I didn't make that claim. So-and-so did." And the "intelligensia" have always let him get away with that when the obvious response is, "If you deny believing So-and-so, why did you bother to quote him?"
I was 21 years old in 1969, and saw Chompsky (yeah… I know it's "Chomsky") on one of the early talk shows… "Face the Nation"? Maybe… and saw him pull that cute little side-step with the, "I didn't say that, So-and-so did," and the red flags went up immediately. He didn't fool a 21-year-old, but managed to pull the wool over the eyes of the "intelligensia" all these years. To this day, when someone quotes Chompsky to me, that merits the automatic eye-roll and outright dismissal that the left usually reserve for Rush.
September 29, 2012 - 10:24 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
96?! That figure is way too high for the average Jewish voting stats. In 2008 it was 78% and it was considered high. To get 96% of the Jewish votes Obama needs to persuade the majority of conservative Jews, persuade about 80% of the Jews who voted for the Repubs in 2008, to vote for the most radical leftist admin in American history this time. It's hard to see how he can manage something like that – it's not like Obama has proved to be such an exceptional success, certainly not in conservative terms. Not that 78% of the Jewish vote is that much better.
September 25, 2012 - 9:16 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
I've enjoyed all the remarks made by Mr. Klavan's commmentors. But it reminds me of the hospital scene where the patient is gasping for his last breath while his relatives out on the hall are arguing.
Debt-wise, The United States is headed for:
a) train wreck
b) train wreck
c) train wreck
d) all of the aboveI am a retired accountant. NO country on earth has ever borrowed an amount so massive as the United States ($16 trillion), and continues to borrow (or print) money at a a rate of 40 cents for every dollar in tax revenue. The White House Budget anticipates debt of $21 trillion in 2017.
During Obama's Letterman view he charmed the birds out of the trees on every question but the country's debt, which he COULDN'T REMEMBER "precisely". Like the snake charmers of old, he wants us not to notice either.
I "looked up" the US Treasury URL for debt. It's on-line back to the Revolutionary War. Next I downloaded to my spreadsheet the country's debt for the past 12 years. Subtraction and division gave me the average debt added. Not good folks. This is not good news for the country or for us.
The US debt just passed $16 trillion. It was $8 trillion 6 years ago.
Here is how fast Washington is adding NEW US debt.
**** NEW DEBT ****$103 Billion – Average PER MONTH, 112th Congress
$143 Billion – Average PER MONTH, 111th Congress
$63 Billion – Average PER MONTH, 110th Congress
$45 Billion – Average PER MONTH, 109th Congress
$48 Billion – Average PER MONTH, 108th Congress
$23 Billion – Average PER MONTH, 107th congress.Who says so? The Bureau of the Public Debt", US Treasury
Google US Treasury Debt to the Penny"p.s. if you do this yourself, a FY or Fiscal Year for the US Treasury runs from October 1 thru September 30.
September 27, 2012 - 2:21 am Link to this Comment | Reply
5. Wolfer33n
*Much of the time when I read articles on why Jews should vote Republican from Dennis Prager and many others it is for reasons 2 and 3 and there is not enough emphasis on #1.
September 24, 2012 - 9:41 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
6. kjh
Great commentary, Andrew! For people who are so smart — and, in addition, are God's chosen people (I firmly believe this) — it's astonishing how knee-jerk Leftard they are when it comes to politics. 'Not only astonishing, it's extremely disappointing because there almost seems to be an attitude in successful Jews that "it works for me," without looking beyond their affluence and success to what doesn't work for others less fortunate than they, a point you make in reason #1.
Smarten up Dumb Jews!! (I'm quoting Andrew Klavan here who was brought up Jewish …)
September 24, 2012 - 2:12 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
Not only astonishing, it's extremely disappointing because there almost seems to be an attitude in successful Jews that "it works for me," without looking beyond their affluence and success to what doesn't work for others less fortunate than they…
No, it's the exact opposite. Most Jews don't need the Dem policies to succeed. Time and time again Jews proved to need only equal rights, not even perfectly equal, and some freedom to succeed, not welfare or affirmative action or special government programs. Jews are successful in a capitalist framework, so it's not a question of what works for them personally, for their success. It's exactly because they do care for the less fortunate that they vote for the Dems. It's the belief that the Dem policies will work for the poor and the disadvantaged, while the Repubs only serve the rich. To change the Jewish voting pattern Republicans and conservatives should address not only specifically Jewish interests, but the core belief that being compassionate, caring for and helping the poor require voting for the left. And it's difficult to change not only because generations of Jews have been indoctrinated with liberal and left-wing ideas, but also because it defies common sense. It's much easier to believe that government special programs and intervention on behalf of the poor will help the poor. It's counter intuitive to believe the opposite. It can only be countered with lots of facts and data most Jews are never exposed to.
Compassion and caring for the poor are rooted in the Jewish religion, as is the idea of changing the world for the better. Even for secular Jews they are considered central Jewish values in the cultural sense. The same is true, of course, for Christians as well, but the difference is that most Jews identify it with left-wing ideas that always directly address the poor and the "little people". This is why it sometimes seems like leftism has replaced Judaism as the religion of the Jews. It really is related to old-age religious values. If there's ever to be a significant change in voting patterns the automatic connection between compassion and the left should break up. The only other way it can happen is if the Dems hurt specific Jewish interests in very egregious ways that can't be ignored or rationalized.
September 25, 2012 - 10:30 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
Very well put.
I'd be happy to learn how to persuade Jews without insulting them. Seems to it more likely to succeed.September 25, 2012 - 10:48 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
I'm not sure how much I can help you with that since being an Israeli I don't really know American Jews and their mindset. I get some of it, but I'm not part of it. American Jews are different from Israeli Jews. We live in very different environments and face very different challenges. Americans live far more sheltered lives, including from the consequences of their own mistakes that don't immediately explode in their faces, so they are less apparent. American Jews also don't have to run a state. When you're a minority you can afford different opinions than when you're 100% responsible for every consequence of every action. However, when it comes to leftist attitudes towards socio-economic issues there are a lot of similarities. Personally I used to be a social democrat myself, and I believe the positions of a majority of Israelis are closer to social-democracy, even of many of those who vote Likud.
Israel was founded as a socialist democracy, like one would expect of Jews, and gradually cahnged, but the socialist basic conceptions or instincts are still predominant. The Labor party was the ruling party for decades until Likud was first elected in 1977, but even then it wasn't about free market, though it is part of their platform. It was partly about the grave mistakes in the Yom Kippur War and partly about social issues that would normally be associated with, ahem, the left. And while Likud started a process of privatisation it also initiated grand government programs to rehabilitate poor neiborhoods. Likud is more popular among the poor, or at least used to be until Netanyahu became its leader (he's a real capitalist, at least in his worldview, if not always his actions). Today Likud is elected because of the security issues that in Israel trump the economy. If it wasn't for that we'd probably be electing social-democrats.
Personally I was never seriously, meaningfully, systematically, exposed to the depth of the capitalist/free market worldview and its fundamental arguments until I started hanging around American conservative websites. And I'm not a unique case of ignorance. As you know, the free market and other "conservative" (actually true liberal) arguments don't get much fair air time in the media anywhere in the West, and right-wing positions are often presented in a distorted way. E.g. class warfare – socialists are socialists because they represent the interests of the poor, and capitalists are capitalists because they represent the interests of the rich. It usually isn't portrayed as a real ideological argument, but as simply representing different segments of society – the rich, the middle class, the poor. So if you are poor or care about the poor there's only one way to vote. Even when they do present real arguments, it's usually in a sarcastic or mocking tone or accompanied by a suggested suspicion that the argument isn't honest, but just a coverup for the interests of the rich. And of course academia is even more leftist than the media. At least in the US you have a long tradition of free market economy and a significant, if shrinking, part of the population still remembers the arguments. Israel was historically socialist, and most of my family members are either socialists or former socialists and there were also two or three communists, so I couldn't learn the free market arguments from my social-democrat mother who doesn't know them herslef. The most I got at home was my father (a former socialist) saying that communism is a beautiful idea, but doesn't fit human nature.
So the main problem, IMO, is a lack of serious, deep, systematic, exposure to right-wing arguments, even for many American Jews. People who grow up in a leftist environment are exposed since childhood and for many years to the leftist arguments and therefore might see them axiomatically, so just arguing with them every once in a while isn't enough. They need a systematic and prolonged exposure to the opposite arguments before they have a chance to get convinced. In my case it was a gradual process that took years, and I also started listening and reading conservative intellectuals. I find Thomas Sowell very effective. He provides a wealth of factual information as evidence, is systematic, easy to understand, witty, he deals with contemporary realities, and being black doesn't hurt. I mean, according to the left capitalism exists to serve rich white men, so not being one of those (i.e. being non-rich, non-white or non-male) infers more credibility to the speaker because then the arguments are supposedly less self-serving. Of course, the left portrays Sowell as Uncle Tom to preserve the self-serving and white-hegemony image, but his blackness still has a psychological impact. What's even better, Sowell was a Marxist in his youth. A black former Marxist who spent some of his youth in Harlem is far more effective arguing for capitalism than a rich white man who fits the stereotype. I'm not saying it's fair and should be like that – I'm saying that realistically it has a different psychological impact. So all in all I recommend Sowell as one of the starting points. There are videos of his interviews that can be used as appetisers for his books.
September 26, 2012 - 9:51 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
Remember you don't have to convince THE Jews. You have to convince 20-30% of the Jews to make it even. Those Jews will also educate their children differently. Not all leftists can be convinced. The dogmatic ones who are very emotionally invested in leftist ideology are usually lost causes. I'm generally a moderate, more cerebral and really interested in positive results, so I could be convinced by rational arguments accompanied by a lot of factual evidence that some policies provide better results than other policies, even though none of them leads to Utopia. It's people like that you have to target – moderate, pragmatic, really interested in positive results and more logical. Don't confuse logical or cerebral with intellectual or a verbal genius, or even an engineer. By logical I mean people who are not that emotionally invested in their political views and can be convinced by logical arguments and factual evidence. For people who see so-called "liberalism" as a defining part of their indentity it's more like losing their religion than like being convinced that certain policies are more efficient, which is more like a consumer choice than conversion. For the "logical type" it's important to present a lot of facts and stats that refute left-wing assumptions and support right-wing ones. And it takes time. People who were not systematically exposed to the "conservative" (liberal) worldview need time to learn it – it's new material. And they usually don't have an incentive to learn it because they think they already know it and already know it's wrong. What they know is the distorted version they got from the media, academia, peers, family etc.
People usually don't radically change their moral views, so if, for instance, someone cares about the poor countering that with arguments about freedom will be less effective than countering it with facts about poverty. It will mean for them that in exchange for more freedom they should give up on the fate of the poor, which is a very difficult moral choice. A more effective counter argument is that the free market economy actually reduces poverty more so than a socialist economy, which should be accompanied by a lot of supporting facts and stats (for the "logical type"). And it should be repeated often. Don't assume leftists already know the arguments and the facts you do. You were exposed to them for many years and they weren't. They were exposed to very different views for many years, so don't expect them to change their minds immediately. It's a process. Arguments should be repeated again and again, but from different angles or different cases and with supporting evidence. And ask them questions. Like: Is it more important to you to reduce inequality in incomes or to reduce poverty?
The big question is what will make leftists, Jewish or not, spend enough time reading and absorbing rightist arguments. In my case I was attracted to American right-wing websites because they are pro-Israel, so my initial attitude toward them was positive, which made it natural to listen to what they have to say on other subjects. But this isn't the case for most American Jews, much less other leftists. It can, however, attract some Jews, even if a small minority. It's not that you become more right-wing on other issues because of Israel, but that it makes you listen to people you didn't listen to in the past, and after doing it for several years it may change your mind about some things. I think for David Mamet, for instance, Israel was one of the factors, as well as writing a play about politics. The left has become extremely anti-Israel, Islamically anti-Israel, and occasionally even anti-Semitic, which creates a discord for some Jews, even if a minority. That opens a crack for the right. They first listen to the right about Israel and feel they agree more with their views. Then gradually they start listening to other things as well. As for literature I think Mamet also started with Thomas Sowell whom he described as a "our greatest contemporary philosopher".
September 26, 2012 - 9:52 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
Beth Martin
The journey you describe is one I made from age 40 to 55. I left a high-paid job (which moved to another state) and I said to my husband, good, I'll take 10 years off to be with the kids, the youngest was in diapers.
Mentally, it was impossible to give up "contributing" outside the house, so I began unpaid work, overlapping volunteer work. Six years of meals on wheels, six years of after school literacy volunteering, 6 years of school volunteering, six years of prep work cooking a hot lunch at the Day Shelter.
This is how I began to understand for the first time that my city, a sanctuary city run by Dems for 75 years, has policies that often work against poor people. Has superintendents making decisions which often work against children of everyone, but worse for poor people.
I am the child of JFK Democrats. My grandparents had FDR on the wall. I went to the first Tea Party in my little city. Guess what, mostly grannies and grandpas in caps and worried about bankrupting the country and their grandchildren. When I saw us villified on tv as every horrid kind of thing, it just made me realize how ridiculous the media is, every bit the "brown shirted" propagandists of Joseph Goebbels.
I agree Thomas Sowell is a great place to start reading. He is also on Twitter, has a different quotation of his every day and they are wonderful. Delightful – they tweak as well as make you smile.
If anybody like myself, brought up by generations of Democrats, wishes to question things, I can vouch, it will be difficult, but do-able.
September 26, 2012 - 4:41 pm Link to this Comment
"while the Repubs only serve the rich" Funny I stopped reading your post right after this phrase. I wonder if I was the only one? Do you understand why? I didn't think so.
September 25, 2012 - 12:02 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
Marc Malone
Stupid, snarling, sneering comment. He said it's "the belief". He did not endorse it. Try reading for comprehension. But you "stopped reading" at that point. Your mind was only slightly open, then slammed shut.
His is actually a good point. The Catholic Church has the same problem. They think the government should do more "to help the poor". IOW, they see the government as having money. They do not see the harm that government does. The are Big Church, so they have an affinity for Big Government. Then they are outraged that the contraceptive mandate came down, after they supported ObamaCare. Well, WTH did they think was going to happen?
Culturally, Jews have a similar leaning towards collectivism, but like the Catholic Church, they do not distinguish between a collection of individuals taking action for the community, and a collectivism without individuality, where it is all compelled from the top.
They "think" the government can do good. IOW, the government has the money to do good. It's all about the money. Of course, government does not really have its own money, a point they fail to understand. It's not magic money.
September 25, 2012 - 1:39 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
Hey Marc, I continued to read but after the following I have to come back to the question of smarts.
"It's exactly because they do care for the less fortunate that they vote for the Dems. It's the belief that the Dem policies will work for the poor and the disadvantaged, while the Repubs only serve the rich."
So if Jews are soooo brilliant, how come they have yet to see that 60+ years of social justice, redistribution and socialism-lite has NOT helped the poor especially blacks?
So they believe in fairy tales because that is what the progressive Dems have been selling them for that period of time and yet Jews are so smart…They have neither the brains or logic to see that the Dems have played them for fools again like blacks?
ow come these same wealthy Jews don't give more of their money to the poor? Where is the Jewish foundation that collects money and gives it to illegal immigrants and blacks; how come Jews don't let blacks and illegals into their private primary and secondary schools?
I am tired of the Jews are smart meme. I think Asians would give them a run for the money on IQ…Since you are so up on stats, give us a comparison of Jews and Asians in the hard sciences?
September 25, 2012 - 8:47 pm Link to this Comment -
I didn't say the Jews are brilliant, so why drag my comment into it? I only said Jews are successful in the capitalist framework without affirmative action or special government programs, which is a demonstrable fact and is true also for Asians and White Europeans. BTW, how do Asians vote? According to what I've read Obama won the Asian Americans vote 62% to 35%. So the brilliant Asians also voted for Obama. What do you make of that?
Statistically, including IQ tests, occupations and achievements, Jews succeed in areas that require mathematical and verbal abilities. I also think – but this is just my personal impression – Jews succeed more than average in fields that require thinking out of the box. That includes science, technology and innovation in general, and to some extnet business, as well as literature and music. However, that doesn't necessarily make one smart in politics, human relations or anything that requires common sense. Jews have produced a genius or two in physics, but not that many great social and political theoreticians by whose ideas I'd recommend to fashion whole societies (that includes both Marx and his perfect opposite, Ayn Rand). Abstract thinking isn't the same as politics and human societies.
As for donations, which you accuse the Jews of not giving, Jews are well over-represented among American philanthropists. Here's a list of the 50 most generous American donors of 2011:
Jews make waaaaaay above 2% of these top 50, which is IIRC the percentage of Jews in the American population, so your assertions are baseless.
September 26, 2012 - 11:20 am Link to this Comment -
Cat Kid
P'Nina is a woman's name!
If it IS true that Klavan was raised Jewish but now isn't, then I have some discomfort with his analysis of "The Jews" as he saw fit not to stay one. Jewish Americans and Jewish people are not monolithic as P'Nina makes clear. Generalizations made by non-Jews can be very misleading. Personally, I, my family, my circle of friends and my rabbi and his family will not be pulling that lever for the Democrats. So, I guess I am immune from being labeled "dumb." What a relief (sarcastic). Furthermore, I do think our current president has such intense sympathies for Islam that he is at least an honorary Muslim. If Klavan in his ultimate wisdom thinks Muslims are easier to negotiate with than leftists, he should ask the late ambassador how well he did. That Dmimmi comment was as dumb as one can get. Klavan must fear being called that catchy Muslim Brotherhood word islamaphobe (an anti-Semitic term as Jews DO need to be in fear of the Muslim religion's preaching of racist hate against Jews).
September 26, 2012 - 11:34 am Link to this Comment
"Compassion and caring for the poor are rooted in the Jewish religion, as is the idea of changing the world for the better."
As a Christian, I know this about the Jewish faith, so how come smart Jews seem unable to discern that Democratic policies, which grow dependency not initiative and success, are a disaster for have-nots?
That's what I don't get and I stand by my original statement, that while successful, capitalistic, Jewish people, who don't depend on welfare, affirmative action, or special government programs, support Democratic policies which rely on just those things that smart, successful Jewish people eschew: welfare, affirmative action, and government programs. Do compassionate Jewish people have lower standards for people who are less successful than they are?
As for Jewish people rather universally thinking that the Left does more for poor people than the Right, and that the Left is more compassionate than the Right, just look at the record of the Bush administration's outreach to Africans afflicted with AIDs as compared to the Obama administration's rather dismal outreach.
Here's the myth: that the Left is more charitable/compassionate than the Right. I'm still astonished that intelligent, compassionate Jews fall for this nonsense, which has no basis in fact — except for a lot of passionate yet empty wordplay from our chattering classes — while dissing capitalists which they are.
There's a schizophrenia here which is extremely unattractive and disingenuous.
September 25, 2012 - 7:42 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
so how come smart Jews seem unable to discern that Democratic policies, which grow dependency not initiative and success, are a disaster for have-nots?
Because it was not properly explained to them. To have it properly explained you need people like Thomas Sowell to write half the columns in the New York Times and make 50% of college professors. Most Jews don't grow up in conservative homes, so they should get it from other sources. These other sources are the MSM and academia, and you know what they get there.
There are assumptions here. For instance, that success is a product of individual initiative. However, it is easy to see that someone coming from a poor background has more impediments than someone coming from a wealthy background. His education is of lesser quality, he'll have more difficulty or won't be able to afford high education, and if he has any ideas for a business or a product it'll be far harder, and in many cases impossible, for him to get funding for it. So obviously success isn't just a matter of individual initiative, but also of background, personal circumstances and luck. Denying that won't convince anyone, so the question is how do you answer that. And also WHERE do you answer that since even if you have a very good answer you're not likely to get space in the NYT to promote such "heretical" ideas.
September 26, 2012 - 12:24 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
"Because it was not properly explained to them."
So, it's other people's fault that the myth about Democrat charity and compassion vs. the Republican's capitalist greed hasn't been "properly explained" to them?
That's Oblahblah's excuse too: His policies haven't worked because he hasn't been able to "properly explain" them to the masses.
That Democrat vs. Republican myth was never properly explained to me, either. I used to drink the Kool-Aid and hang on every word of the legacy media. Then I opened my own eyes — or maybe it was the Holy Spirit that opened my eyes — and realized, like many others on this thread, that I was believing in and living a Leftist lie.
Jewish people for the most part are smart. They can figure things out for themselves if they want to. For some reason, it seems that too many of them just don't want to — which makes me sad and, to tell the truth, somewhat pi**ed off because their intransigence basically turns them into the proverbial frog in a pot of boiling water while consigning the rest of us to an impossible U.S.A. if Obama is re-elected.
September 27, 2012 - 4:36 am Link to this Comment
Pnina, social justice is an important value for Catholics (like me) too. America's bishops and Catholics overwhelmingly support government spending on poverty, BUT unfortunately do not closely examining RESULTS. Catholics get to feel virtuous, whether or not the programs they vote for help people. It's idiotic, but there it is.
I have wondered and wondered why otherwise shrewd people think like this. Most Catholics immigrated in the 19th century and into the crowded, impoverished big cities. Catholics were treated with contempt by WASPs. That was not literally a lash, but it caused economic harm when Catholics were not hired and went hungry. Catholics understand bigotry and prejudice and when the Civil Rights movment started, recognized wrong that needed righting.
Due to corporate consolidation, I retired way earlier than expected. Over the past 20 years and at least eight hours a week I have done face to face volunteering. Day shelter. After-school shelter/tutoring. It makes a HUGE difference when a program is funded by local donors, not the state.
Some time later I spent several years in New York city (Brooklyn). I visited a day shelter thinking to offer my food prep skills once a week. I decided not to. The paid staff there weren't very nice. Plus there was an "I own this place and what I say goes" attitude there. I felt the environment was disrespectful to those who used the services.
The US runaway debt is likely to lead to a trainwreck. But if bishops and rabbis vote always and everywhere to bankrupt the country, OK. What a footnote in the history books. This nation abandoned all moral precepts except charity. Eventually the golden goose died. RIP America.
September 27, 2012 - 3:37 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
Wow! do results mean ANYTHING to anybody. While it might be true that Republicans don't focus enough on "helping" the poor their policies do assist the working poor with more chances to get out of poverty.
Democrats have controlled our largest cities where most poor minorities reside. After 40 years of programs, policies and welfare please let me know how much better off these individuals are then before the family crushing, loss of dignity, pandering and a totally broken education system implemented and administered by Liberal/Democrats.
Keep doing the same thing over and over and add clusters of abortion clinics and you have a permeant poor population that is shrinking due to abortion being encouraged by Liberal population control advocates. Who are they "REALLY" helping. Could it be any worse?
October 1, 2012 - 9:58 am Link to this Comment | Reply
7. FeralCat
By his 20 year attendance in Jeromy Wright's so-called church, by his saying "The Arabic Call to Prayer is the most beautiful sound on Earth", by his celebrating Ramadan in the White House, by his 2009 speech in Cairo praising Islam, by his call to go back to the pre 1967 war borders, by his giving the Muslim Brotherhood and their auxiliaries entrance to the White House, the State Department and even the military, by his deep bowing to the Saudi King – By each of these things Obama's calling is plainly revealed. That all united should fail to enlighten the competent inquirer is almost inconceivable.
September 25, 2012 - 12:18 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
ahad haamoratsim
Everything you said, except there are no 1967 borders; those lines have never have been recognized as borders by any party. You are referring to the 1949 armistice lines, established by the happenstance of who held which ground when the fighting stops. The 1949 armistice specifically recognizes that they are NOT borders, and so does the same UN Security Resolution 242 that all the anti-Israel forces are so fond of mis-citing. Let's not make the same mistake as our Appeaser in Chief.
September 25, 2012 - 8:51 am Link to this Comment | Reply
8. FeralCat
A man can be Jew or Christian, or he can be an Obama supporter, but he can't legally be Jew or Christian, and be an Obama supporter … except in the usual way: one of the two with the mouth, the other with the heart. The spirit of Judaism and Christianity proclaim the survival of Israel and the meaning of that has no longer been left to guesswork, but made tremendously definite … the Jew and the Christian must fight all who would commit or enable another genocide or enslavement of the Jews or of Christians. That is the spirit and the law of Judaism and Christianity.
Well, Obama has his beliefs and actions and it is a perfectly definite set, there is no vagueness about it. He commands that the Jew and Christian bow to the Muslim at every turn they do him hurt or threaten him and his children with death. Word it as softly as you please, the spirit of Obama is the spirit of the evil shadowed specter of the Beast of Austria insidiously billowing in and building and building to ever more horrific heights. The moment there is a question about a boundary line or a building or some Muslim somewhere complaining about any matter, see Obama rise, and see him spit at the Jew and the Christian from the corner of his twisted mouth. The spirit of Obama being in its nature narcissistic and selfish — it is in the man's line, it comes natural to him — he can fully live up to all of the teachings of Jeremiah Wright and even of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; for the spirit of Judaism and of Christianity are entirely impossible to him.
September 25, 2012 - 12:20 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
ahad haamoratsim
You and I do not get to decide who is a Jew and who is not. That fact is established by Torah, and if someone is born to a Jewish mother they are a Jew, whether they are misguided enough to vote for Obama or not. Whether Obama's policies are inconsistent with Torah (some are, some are not), or bad for the Jewish people (almost all of them are) or for the US (ditto), or for the world (ditto) or for Israel ( ditto) have nothing to do with whether someone ceases to be Jewish by voting for the man.
September 25, 2012 - 8:55 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
Marc Malone
I am not so sure about this. Are there not ecclesiastical courts for Jews? Do they not determine whether or not you are living a Jewish lifestyle, and thus, are qualified as a Jew and eligible to receive the benefits of Jewish society? I think it is more complex than you say. There is being born a Jew, and there is being culturally a Jew.
September 25, 2012 - 1:48 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
myth buster
No, there aren't. The Sanhedrin fell centuries ago, and hasn't yet been restored.
September 25, 2012 - 2:35 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
No, it's as simple as that unless a Jew converts to another religion. The thing is that Jews are both a people/nation as well a religious community going back to times when each nation had its own gods. A Jew is either a physical or a spiritual descendant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Thus the concept of nation and the concept of religion can't be completely separated as they are in European modern understanding. I don't mean the separation of church and state – that's a completely different idea that belongs to governing. I mean that a Jew isn't just a physical ethnic definition like, say, a German, nor is it just a religious definition like, say, a Christian. Hebrews have our own ancestral homeland, our own ancestral language and a history as a nation even if we lost our homeland at some point.
From a religious perspective god chose the people of Israel as a whole to perform some purpose in his grand design (that purpose is not entirely clear to mere mortals, but the specific instructions are the commandments of the Torah), much like he chose the Israelite tribe of Levi as a whole to perform certain duties in his temple. If you're born to the tribe of Levi you are a Levite and you inherit these particular duties. Likewise if you're born to a Jewish mother (or to a Jewish any parent according to Reform Jews) you are a Jew and you inherit the particular duties of Jews, i.e. follow the Torah. If you don't observe these duties (but don't convert to another religion, which is completely "cutting the chord") you're still a Jew, but according to orthodoxy you're a bad Jew.
September 25, 2012 - 7:05 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
9. Wemedge
Being Jewish and being a Zionist are not always mutually inclusive, it seems, especially for American Jews. Like some other brilliant people (the Brits, for example who make self-loathing an art form), Jews often seem to despise themselves because of their spectacular success.This is possibly because of a mistaken belief that success is a zero sum game and must come at the expense of someone else. Mr. B.O. seems to share that world view. At any rate the old promise to Abraham holds true: "I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you." (See America, The United States of, and The Middle East, The Idiotic Anti-Semites of.)
September 25, 2012 - 1:14 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
This is possibly because of a mistaken belief that success is a zero sum game and must come at the expense of someone else.
Exactly, and that causes people to feel guilty for being successful, which leads to all kinds of disasters and self-sacrifice (see the West in general). This is a fundamental assumption of left-wing doctrine – indeed that success/riches is zero sum and one can have it only at the expense of someone else. To change the minds of leftists (Jewish or not) of the not-terribly-dogmatic type this is the first assumption that should be refuted. Without it much of the leftist economic construct will crumble.
September 25, 2012 - 10:56 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
I really don't believe that riches is a zero-sum game. But often it can be an exploitive one that comes about because of the greed and human weakness.
Entire Empires have risen and fallen on the the backs of slaves, exploiting of others resources and on and on. Some thinking people incorporate this view into their personal success and may see themselves as gaining at the loss of another.
Somewhat like APPLE owners actually caring about who and how their precious gadgets are constructed. Systems, businesses and governments too often succeed and move ahead at the expense of others and/or their governments. Many people don't really give a sh*t. Hence the vague feeling of guilt by individuals aware of these connections. This complex relationship has been going on since the formation of conscious and/or ethics.
October 1, 2012 - 10:21 am Link to this Comment | Reply
10. JeremyR
I'm not Jewish, but most of my friends were when I was growing up.
If Jews have one real character flaw as a culture, it's this sense of guilt over being successful. That more than anything I think explains why they vote for liberals – because it assuages their perceived guilt. Not in a condescending way, they think they are being helpful.
It's why Israel continues the farce of negotiating with the Palestinians who have no intention of making peace. Anyone else would just put up fences and not worry about it. But they feel bad so they continue for a negotiated peace, even though it's cost them dearly. (And the sadly, the Palestinians too)
September 25, 2012 - 1:52 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
Now, this is a genuinely interesting analysis as to Jewish culture: that it means that worldly success should be shameful, fits with what I know of my own Jewish American in-laws.
Also, I recall a post pogrom photo from old Russia, of dead Jews, laid out prepared for burial. I thought, these people think that this photo will result in sympathy for their plight. Instead, of course, for many people, it results in a bloody joy.
September 25, 2012 - 2:29 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
11. Menachem Ben Yakov
Nothing is dumber than a Jew who abandons his own faith and then spends his time preaching at his former co-religionists regarding intelligence.
September 25, 2012 - 4:03 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
Nailed it. And their numbers are staggering.
September 25, 2012 - 4:42 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
Menachem Ben Yakov
Sadly true. Buy we live with JOY and LOVE and FAITH. While they are left with only ashes.
G'mar Chatimah Tovah!
September 25, 2012 - 5:41 am Link to this Comment | Reply
Deb K
Agree, Menachem. I know exactly what you're saying.
September 25, 2012 - 6:14 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
ahad haa,oratsim
Or sadder. You could have stopped after the first 11 words, though, and had an equally true sentence.
Them again, it beats what Pablo Christiani or Nicholas Donen did after they abandoned their faith.September 25, 2012 - 8:58 am Link to this Comment | Reply
12. Betina
They aren't Jews. They are COMMIES. When the hell are people going to finally get it? They morph into Jews when it pushes a commie agenda. Not only are they killing Israel, they are killing America too.
September 25, 2012 - 4:06 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
A Communist by their very nature has NO religion, faith or conscious. Unthinkingly some Jews might be drawn to the intellectual idea of "written" Communism.
The actual implementation and "ENFORCEMENT" or its' tenants and ideology is so against the human spirit and individual desires that it is a brutal, murderess assault against the humanity it asserts that it supports. It looks so GOOD on paper like any devils compact but it is just that a devils deception that dehumanizes people by force until they are either killed or consumed by the organs of government.
NO Communist government has ever created what their blueprint and manifesto has offered. Humans at the top rule others and twist and bend ideas to fit their own desires and faults.
Forced limited government, like ours, MIGHT keep the imperfect people who run it from forcing their ideas down our throats but it takes an aggressive and informed public to recognize, individuals who serve themselves or an unworkable ideology, and end their careers such as they are.
October 1, 2012 - 10:45 am Link to this Comment | Reply
13. ChrisS
Actually, "The Problem with Jews" is the notion that they're an intelligent race of people. Communism and Socialism share a common theme – the elites shall lead and the dross will follow. Because Jews view themselves as "intelligent" it's only natural that they'd be drawn to a system that allegedly puts a premium on excellence. So the Jews say "we're better than everybody else, we're God's Chosen People, we should be running the show" and they flock to an ideology that will load them on trains to death camps. Which brings us to two great philosophers, William Buckley who said "I'd rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University." and Forrest Gump who said "Stupid is as stupid does".
Jews may be an educated race but they're not an intelligent race.
September 25, 2012 - 4:31 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
Higher Game
Your "Jews" are the heirs to WASP neocon culture, the last remnant of it anyway. Funny that you cite Buckley, one of the more dubious credentialed poseurs of that crowd. Their education/intelligence doesn't matter because they're all dying or dead now.
September 25, 2012 - 5:55 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
Actually, the elitist view that the "intellectuals" should run the show really came to the fore when Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and FDR became president. Both Roosevelts were blue blood aristocrats that held the common folk in contempt. Wilson, though not born into wealth was the proto-typical "intellectual" progressive who felt only intellectuals had the smarts to govern and run society.
All three are liberal progressive icons. Wilson and FDR both held the constitution in contempt and frankly, FDR should have been impeached for his gross violations of the US constitution.
All three led the charge into war, by the way.
Just part of the liberal progressive mindset that they have the smarts and wherewithal to change the world and that is why they were put here on this earth.
Jewish neo-cons arrived about 60 years after FDR almost totally destroyed the USA, and about 100 years after our first liberal progressives flaunted the Constitution.September 25, 2012 - 6:20 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
Pres. Wilson was a deeply flawed elitest, racist to the bone. This is historical undisputed fact. His wife and Sec. of State criminally covered-up his stroke for over a year and illegally ran the country. Yet the Liberals over this up and brand the sell the man as a great Pres. Anyone no matter how criminal and racist is acceptable to the Left as long as their agenda is advanced. History is twisted and bent to show him in a "good" light. He forced an unwilling country into WW I and tried to force us into the League of Nations. All for our own good no doubt. Try quote below.
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
C.S. LewisOctober 1, 2012 - 11:00 am Link to this Comment | Reply
Deb K
Chris, you are apparently talking about the "strawman Jew" who conforms to the ridiculous stereotype that that you have drawn. Jews are actually individual people with individual thoughts, just like the people in every other group. I have never met any Jew who has the thought processes that you describe here.
As for the phase, "the chosen people," I'm not sure why this bothers so many people. Every religion has some form of "chosenness" in their teachings. For example, many people believe that only they and their co-religionists will have eternal salvation, all others will be damned for eternity. That's the ultimate in being chosen. Judaism teaches that all righteous people will have their reward in eternity. The Jews I know are much more humble about the chosen people phrase than you might imagine, often saying that we are chosen to follow the 613 biblical commandments (Jewish Law), which is not an easy assignment.
September 25, 2012 - 6:39 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
You're quite right, of course, as nothing says "individual thought" quite as well as a group voting in lockstep. If that's not representative of originality then nothing is.
I could point out that Jews were very active in the formative years of the Soviet Union, before the purges that is. Or that Jews were very active in the early years of the CPUSA, and still are for that matter. Or that one argument of the Democratic Party is that "all smart people vote for us". Or that the thrust of Big Government is the elitism mantra "government must do for you because you can't do for yourself". But I won't since you've got anecdotal evidence that clearly explains why Jews believe that voting for the Democratic Party represents their enlightened self-interest… Jews believe themselves incompetent.
There are only two reasons to vote for Big Government: I'm incompetent and I need you to make decisions for me; you're incompetent and you need me to make decisions for you. If your anecdotal evidence says "Jews are incompetent" then I certainly won't argue. That's not the stereotype but, hey!, you've got the anecdotal evidence.
September 25, 2012 - 10:17 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
Deb K
Chris, since you decided to double down on your vitriol, let me make this simple for you. You have no idea what "the Jews" think or why Jews do what they do. Jewish history is much more complex than the few examples that you site.
And by the way, the Jews that you are addressing in this forum are politically conservative, so why are you calling us lemmings and suicidal? (That's a rhetorical question.)
September 25, 2012 - 11:57 am Link to this Comment | Reply
Being Jewish, I know quite a few liberal Jews, and I assure you they're not plotting to set up a Leftist dictatorship where they rule the world because they're the Jewish elite (LOL, if only they had more pride in their Judaism).
Unfortunately, most liberal Jews are not Torah educated or even particularly interested in Judaism, which is considered to be mostly a "cultural" food-related type of club.
History proves, to the extent Jews are "intelligent" it's only because they keep the Torah commandments, which is an intelligent and wise way to live (e.g., the Ten Commandments, which BTW implicitly respects private property in the commandment not to steal).
Even most secular Jews in the Baby Boomer generation had the advantage of an upbringing by Torah observant parents, which kept them away from many of the common mistakes of youth, and encouraged a focus on educational excellence.
Without exception, every liberal Jewish person I know has drunk some tainted kool-ade and really believes that without liberalism the poor, minorities, and the weak would be crushed underfoot by mean, selfish, greedy conservatives.
Because they're not grounded in the Torah's moral principles, they're defenseless suckers for any political con-artist who can bite his lower lip and pull their heartstrings.
September 25, 2012 - 8:30 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
ahad ha'amoratsim
You have no idea what "chosen people" means, but it is most definitely not a belief that Jews are better or smarter than everyone else or that Jews should be running the show. Take your Jew-hating vomit and go back to Stormfront.
September 25, 2012 - 9:00 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
I don't hate Jews, I pity them. You're determined to commit suicide. I can't save you, the free world that you're intent on destroying can't save you, only you can save you but that's not going to happen. Collectively, you're determined to turn "Never Again" into "Maybe Later" which I find utterly baffling. And I have no doubt you'll blame me when you're once again loaded on the trains… after you laid the tracks, built the rail cars, fueled the locomotives, and organized the line into a proper queue. There's a reason why Jews vote overwhelming for an ideology that will ultimately destroy them. I say it's an idiotic belief in elitism, you say nothing useful. I'd ask you to consider the logical outcome of your actions but logic clearly isn't operative. Like Mr. T, I pity the fool. All I can do is make sure that your lemming-like rush to oblivion doesn't take me with you. I can't save you from yourself.
September 25, 2012 - 10:52 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
Jack in Silver Spring
ChrisS – Lighten up. You clearly are unaware of what 'chosen-ness' for Jews means, at least for those who are observant. It means Gpd us to obey his commandments, which some of us continue to do. That way, we could be a light unto the world, without us there be no Christianity and its strongly Jewish ethics. Unfortunately, our daughter religions seem to be intent on committing parricide. As for who continue to be observant, many (probably half) will not vote for Obama. The other portion that continues to vote Democrat is overwhelmingly not observant and to use a term of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, they are dissolving. Those Jews will not last more than two generations. No need for cattle cars and the like. They'll be gone – like poof.
September 25, 2012 - 11:30 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
ahad haamoratsim
Jack, I know of non-observant Jews who are planning to vote for him and observant Jews who are planning to vote against him, but from my limited sample group, both are exceptions. Among the Jews I know, much less than half of the observant ones are planning to vote for Obama.
As to Chris, anyone who swallows or spews his nonsense about choseness being elitism is at best ignorant, and is spreading a false canard that has led to the spilling to too much Jewish blood over the centuries. His canard about Jewish socialists and communists is not as old (Marx and his followers being very recent in terms of Jewish history) but no less false and no less poisonous. It is no less disgusting than the charges on the left and the paleo-right about Jews trying to stir up war for their own financial interest, reaping the profit from Christian blood.
September 25, 2012 - 11:45 am Link to this Comment -
Jack in Silver Spring
ahad haamoratsim: Well said, and g'mar chatimah tovah. I should observe, though, from where I sit (in Silver Spring) about half my shule will vote for Obama. Indeed, a close relative of mine will, and so we are no longer on speaking terms. In my Shabbath gemara group, three of six will vote for Obama (and one of them is so touchy when it comes to criticism of O, although he 'liberally' criticizes Romney). I have asked what will it talke for the scales to fall from their eyes? For Obama to nuke Jerusalem?
September 25, 2012 - 11:58 am Link to this Comment -
myth buster
Jack, the Scriptures are perfectly clear on this point: ever since leaving Egypt, the greatest problem the Jews have ever had has been traitors in their own ranks. These apostates led their own kin into every manner of idolatry and abomination, and nearly destroyed the Jewish people several times in the process. It is not Christians you need to fear, but rather Jews who have no love for the God of their fathers and who detest the Law.
September 25, 2012 - 2:33 pm Link to this Comment
Hub 312
Young, secular, college- (i.e., Marxist-) educated Jews vote for liberals because they have been taught to believe that: (1) "consciousness" is determined primarily by membership in a collective (race, class, gender, "ethnicity"); and 2) religion is "false consciousness." Therefore the left attributes support for free enterprise, the US, Israel, limited government, etc., to membership in a collective that oppresses victims (e.g., white, wealthy, male, WASP (not Jews, yet)) or false consciousness (e.g., hidebound religious dogmas). Given the Left's dominance of the culture (media, education, entertainment), support for Israel by Jews is usually attributed either to their "ethnicity" or to false consciousness (religion). Most young Jews are secular and get their values from the culture at large, not from their religion, and want to be associated with the "victims," not the "oppressors." Being college educated they don't have the necessary understanding that might make the kind of courage to stand up to the Leftist consensus possible. Plus, if most Jews switched their party affiliation to Republican, anti-Semitism would jump the tracks and enter the US mainstream in a big way ("rich Jews", etc.). They would see something which in their minds is impossible: massive Left-wing Jew hatred in the media, the campuses and popular culture. Maybe this kind of courage would be counter-productive for Jews in America given where our elites are today. Maybe it's better for the Jews in America and America as a whole that most continue to be as deluded as they are and identified with the "progressive" mainstream.
September 25, 2012 - 12:25 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
I beg to differ. The left-wing Tikkun Olam crowd definitely see themselves as chosen for a mission of "healing the world" through a whole assortment of left-wing dogma. At some reform temples, you can't shut them up. To them, Judaism and leftism are one and the same; the only difference being that the Goyim are too dumb to see the shining light of Marxism, so the task of dragging the bitter clingers to enlightenment – for their own good – falls to the chosen ones.
September 25, 2012 - 2:46 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
Marc Malone
Actually, Jews on average, have the highest IQ of any of the races, about 115, or 15 points above the average. So, yes, they are smarter.
The problem is, nothing is more dangerous than intelligence without moral restraint. That way leads to Frankenstein and his monster. Communism and other forms of Collectivism are such monsters, the products of intellectualism without moral restraint.
The adherents of these faiths spit at God. They violate the 1st Commandment. "I am the Lord, they God. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me." They develop new golden calves with new morality and codes of virtue. Look at environmentalism and its Gaia worship and its code of "morality".
Those of us who adhere to the traditional faiths, the ones which this country was founded upon, are overwhelmingly on the Right. Those who adhere to the new gods, are overwhelmingly on the Left. Those with no gods, are the mushy middle, entirely directionless. It's a cultural/religious conflict.
September 25, 2012 - 2:04 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
14. Laurie J
American Liberal Jews are repeating what their parents and grand-parents did: assimilating.
September 25, 2012 - 5:34 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
Take any other "assimilated" ethnic group — Irish, Italians, Poles, etc. — and I doubt you'll find any other group that so consistently and self-righteously votes left.
September 25, 2012 - 8:33 am Link to this Comment | Reply
15. empire sentry
Bad habits are hard to break.
Sure, some things done the same year after year or the same way as Grandpa did may be valid. Driving to work the same way everyday. Change the oil in the car before its time. Brewing coffee with cold distilled water or not.
The selection of government should never be a casual habit based on family tradition or outdated perceptions.
Most Jewish I know, including a few family members, have voted Dem out of some lost reason of supporting the poor, the homeless, the elderly. The Dems no longer support the underdogs and if htey knew this they would change their minds…..but only after breaking the bad habit of voting based on who Grandpa voted for.
The old dem party has been hijacked and is gone.
September 25, 2012 - 5:52 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
16. Mickey Reno
Mr. Klavan, I agree with all three of your main thrusts against the idiocy of Jews who support Obama and his coalition. The one thing I would criticize is the directness of calling them "dumb Jews." This will just repel those Jews who happen to read this, and who otherwise fit the description. It will trigger their emotions, and turn off their intellects. Better to call them "unwise Jews."
September 25, 2012 - 6:46 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
17. Essgee
The One State Solution………..I LIKE it!
September 25, 2012 - 6:47 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
18. Mr. G
The statement that Jews vote like Puerto Ricans is quite insulting to Puerto Ricans who vote their interests and learn from their mistakes.
No vote in the world is as worthless as the liberal Jewish vote. They have no beliefs at all. They simply take whatever seem to be the most popular liberal positions and parrot them. They have no order of belief, no ability to defend their positions (they go from topic to topic hoping for some agreement) and need tightly controlled conditions in which to state them. As for the belief Jews are smart. The reality is they are simply human and have the same averages as every other human group. Yes, some are extraordinarily intelligent but they are a minority within a minority. If the Jews choseness was based on intelligence we would have been long gone. We exist in the merit of Abraham, not some idiot flaunting the right college degree, in the right neighborhood who reads all the right magazines.
I never saw the like elsewhere until I saw Barack Obama.
September 25, 2012 - 6:52 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
19. nueces
Read the Old Testament. It's their book. They wrote it. They have been blowing out their butts for 4,000 years. God's object lesson for the world.
September 25, 2012 - 6:53 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
Larry, Israel
Charming comment. Well, most of your posts are absolute so not surprising. The difference between the 'Old' And 'New' Testaments. The first is honest about human nature, the second presupposes Christians as a group of people whose behavior, mostly angelic, basically defies human nature.
Any respect I had for you – gone.
September 25, 2012 - 8:15 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
myth buster
Yes, it does defy the human nature we were born with, in favor of the godly nature given through baptism. "Be holy as I am Holy," says the Lord. The New Testament is an instruction in holiness.
September 25, 2012 - 2:28 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
Hub 312
So, Myth Buster (Mr. Mote? Meet Mr. Beam), how's all that "holiness" worked out for you Christians over the last 2000 years?
Both the Hebrew Bible and the "New Testament" are instructions in holiness, and both reflect the Jewish tradition, with the latter being more influenced by Jewish apocalyptic literature of the first two centuries C.E. There are significant differences in their approaches to how to achieve holiness, but almost every Christian denomination accepts the Hebrew Bible as sacred, i.e., God is God, and God teaches holiness in both books. The Protestantism of the American founders was especially attached to what it considered the "Old Testament." I suspect your opinion regarding the differences between the two with respect to holiness is ill-informed and greatly exaggerated.
September 27, 2012 - 1:59 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
20. Libertyship46
And even if you are not Jewish, shouldn't Americans be offended at how our pathetic president and Secretary of State have been acting over the last two weeks? It's embarrassing. As an American, I'm genuinely offended by people apologizing to a bunch of sub-moronic, medieval, barbaric, knuckle-draggers who belong in the 14th century, and that's being kind. Some would say they would be better off in the 8th century, but we can always find room to quibble about how primitive these people really are.
And let's stop and think about one, important, fact. An American ambassador and three others were KILLED by a bunch of terrorists, and WE are supposed to apologize to them??? OUR embassy is attacked in Cairo, the leader of that country takes about two days to even acknowledge that fact, and yet HE demands an apology from US??? He says that we deserved what happened to us because we are so "inconsiderate" to believe in something so "foolish" as Freedom of Speech? Are you kidding me?
These are shabby little people living in shabby little countries who's major export is terrorism. The never come up with any major scientific or financial breakthroughs and have been content to live the way bigoted and ignorant men lived about 700 years ago. And we're supposed to bow and scrape before vermin like this?
Sorry, folks. I'm with Thomas Jefferson on this one. When threatened by Islamic fanatics well over 200 years ago, Jefferson promptly told them to go to hell and sent the US Navy off the coast of North Africa to "enlighten" them as to how America does business. As I said, that was over 200 years ago and it's obvious nothing has changed with those pathetic people since then. As we did with Communism, we need to stand up to the Islamofascism that has infected the Muslim world. And if they are determined to keep attacking us and if they are also determined to live in the Stone Age, I say we accommodate them and send them right back there the first chance we get.
September 25, 2012 - 7:12 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
Texas Diva
Libertyship46 – I look for you comments and you never disappoint – keep it up!!
September 27, 2012 - 4:30 am Link to this Comment | Reply
21. snork
Further to point #1 -
Obama's energy policies have not only hurt the poor the hardest, they've also been manna for the Sauds and other foreign oil producers. A twofer. Is this what the headline intimates with "fracking idiots" (as opposed to frakking idiots)?
September 25, 2012 - 7:34 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
22. Swa
I must strongly protest the use of the word "fracking" as a pejorative.
It is not helpful. Fracking is a valuable resource recovery technique; used correctly it can help bring prosperity to the United States. The word should not be given such low connotations.
September 25, 2012 - 7:36 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
I think "fracking" and "frakking" are like "silicon" and "silicone". People always chose the wrong one. I think they meant "frakking".
September 25, 2012 - 10:32 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
some of my best friends
Maybe use 'effing' instead? Easier to pronounce, no site-censor problems, not precious, and the meaning is clear.
September 26, 2012 - 12:11 am Link to this Comment | Reply
23. glenn
It really is this simple folks, If we allow the destruction of Israel and another holocaust it will be the end of us. Morally, ethically and literally. And by we and us I mean all of Western Civilization.
September 25, 2012 - 7:44 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
24. Old School Conservative
I agree w Libertyship46. To be an American and still vote for Barack Obama calls that persons cognitive and reasoning ability into question.
September 25, 2012 - 8:00 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
He was a "bump in the road",
Now a bump in the earth.
While we join with his family in grief.
He foresaw grievous danger,
But petitioned in vain,
To "THE WON" who could offer relief.His defiled remains now shout: "TRAITOR,
As his life and his faith are besmirched,
By appeasement, even tribute, to killers,
Who laugh at his blood on their earth.
May we find some small solace in learning
Those harsh lessons now known from his death:If you're under attack when Barak's got your back,
Then you know that you've breathed your last breath.NO RIGHTS RESERVED.
See, "Obama Went to Bed While Consulate was Under Siege" at http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2935033/postsROMNEY & RYAN GET THE MESSAGE
OUR TROOPS GET THE MESSAGEISRAEL, DO YOU GET THE MESSAGE? The only time BO pats Israel on the back is to secretly affix a bulls-eye for the assassins saying: "Stab or shoot here".
That would make an insightful comic–the caption: "BO has Israel's Back".
[Maybe someone already thought of that?]September 25, 2012 - 8:38 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
I hate to say it but my friend also a Jew always says "The Jews got on the trains". Voting for Obama is in a similar vein.
September 25, 2012 - 9:18 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
27. Yehuda
What can I say?? As a Jew who would NEVER vote for Obama, I am SO ashamed of those who did in 2008, and even more ashamed of those who will again in 2012.
Recently met a Jewish senior, who told me that Obama was the best friend Israel ever had. His proof? Michelle Obama and the kids went to a bar mitzvah of someone he knew.
WHAAAAT? I mean, with that logic, how could he have made enough money to retire and play on the golf complex at which I saw him??September 25, 2012 - 9:47 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
28. Yehuda
My theory is that non-observant Jews vote Democrat because it's the only thing they don't mind practicing in the tradition of their grandpa. Their grandpa was an observant Jew and practiced Judaism to its fullest extent, but nah…that's not for them. The only thing that ties them to their Jewish past is voting Democrat. So the Democratic party has changed radically? So what, they still get that warm and fuzzy feeling knowing that their voting record is stuck sometime in the 1950s.
Dumb Jews, indeed.September 25, 2012 - 9:51 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
29. Mark v
tension between Islam and civilization is on the rise.
You say that as if Islam and civilization are enemies.
Which, of course, they are.
September 25, 2012 - 9:54 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
rigdum funidos
yes, best put by Tony Blair: "This is not a battle between civilizations: it is a battle about civilization."
September 25, 2012 - 12:57 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
30. Custos
It is important to understand that Obama feels himself to be ETHNICALLY Muslim. In addition, he absorbed from an early age the left-wing atheism of his communist grandparents and mother. Anti-semitism may have been part of the mix from that time as well.
At Occidental College and Columbia, Obama latched on to various fashionable left-wing causes including support of Palestinian terrorism. It is precisely the terrorism aspect that makes this cause "cool" (similar to the cult of Rap music).
Rabid anti-Semitism under the guise of "Palestine liberation" is part of the mental furniture of many left-wing activists, particularly those from relatively modest backgrounds like early Obama.
The Los Angeles Times is still protecting the video of Obama at the farewell party for Palestinian terror apologist Rashid Khalidi.
September 25, 2012 - 9:56 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
31. Walter K.
The Hebrew Benevolent Congregation Temple, a Reform Jewish temple located on Peachtree Street in Atlanta, Georgia, and known simply as "The Temple," was bombed in the early morning hours of October 12, 1958. An explosion of approximately fifty sticks of dynamite tore through the side wall of the building. The synagogue was one of Atlanta's oldest and wealthiest. No one was injured in the bombing.
At 3:45 a.m., shortly after the bombing, a United Press International staff received a call from "General Gordon of the Confederate Underground" who said "We bombed a temple in Atlanta. This is the last empty building in Atlanta we will bomb. All nightclubs refusing to fire their Negro employees will also be blown up. We are going to blow up all Communist organizations. Negroes and Jews are hereby declared aliens."
Five men associated with the "National States' Rights Party" were tried and acquitted of the bombing.
The Republican Party of today is the living legacy of the ideology that led to that bombing. The ideas have not changed, nor have the people. They've merely gone underground and into virtual bunkers like RedState and PJMedia. Every time I see a Tea Party bumper sticker that says "Don't Re-Nig in 2012″, every time I hear another Republican screed about how it is lazy black and Latino moochers who are destroying America, and every time I hear from some corrupt, thrice-divorced GOP legislator how it is "Hollywood" that is ruining the "moral fabric" of this nation, I am instantly reminded that the only difference between the men who bombed that temple in 1958 and the current crop of right wing Republicans is opportunity. If these folks could get away with calling Jews slurs, they certainly would. If they could get away with bombing the temples of "liberal" Jews, they certainly would.
Most Jews understand that it is completely moronic to cozy up to the Christian right simply because of a shared affinity for Israel, because we know that this common cause is not based on any real mutual respect, but merely on hatred of a common foe and some endtime Revelation story, the conclusion of which, might I add, features Jews either converting or going to hell. The Republicans do not have a monopoly on supporting Israel, and their attitude of "let's bomb Iran just to show them who's boss" will likely make for a less secure, less stable region.
So call us "dumb" all you want, but until you convince us that you're not a party of anti-science, anti-civil rights, minority-hating fundamentalist Christians who see Jews merely as pawns in your political confidence scheme, you're not getting our vote.
September 25, 2012 - 9:58 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
Hey, Walter. Guess what? Those southern segregationists? They were Democrats, every one. The guys who bombed that Temple – their splinter party supported Orval Faubus: a Democrat. You've got your history – and your party – wrong. So, as I was saying…
September 25, 2012 - 10:04 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
Walter K.
Notice I wrote that "The Republican Party of today is the living legacy of the ideology that led to that bombing."
Ideology, not party.
I'm sure that I don't need to provide you with a history of demographic political shifts in the South from the 1950-1970s? I'm sure that you're well aware that Southern Democrats fled the Democratic Party for the Republican Party when it became clear that the Democratic Party would enforce Civil Rights legislation throughout the South? And I'm sure I don't need to remind you that Republicans from Richard Nixon to George "Macaca" Allen have been running on the so-called "Southern Strategy" ever since? I read and enjoy your novels, and reason you to be an intelligent person, so I am just going to assume you are being willfully dense for the sake of argument.
The fact remains that the racist, bigoted, white supremacist ideology of the Pre-Civil Rights Southern Democrats, which was chased out and found a home in the Republican Party, continues to survive in the shadows, and rears its ugly head every four years to remind us that we should all be afraid of thuggish urben blacks, shiftless job-stealing Mexicans, marriage destroying gays and, last but not least, culture-perverting Hollywood Jews.
Again, you may think we're "dumb", but we're smart enough to know that just beyond the GOP's canned speeches and sound bytes about freedom and equality, the GOP is irresponsibly massaging the same twisted hateful sentiments that led to the temple bombing, and has become an ideological home to folks who would bomb it again if they knew that they could be acquitted, like in the good old days.
September 25, 2012 - 10:29 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
"and rears its ugly head every four years to remind us that we should all be afraid of thuggish urben blacks, shiftless job-stealing Mexicans, marriage destroying gays and, last but not least, culture-perverting Hollywood Jews. "
Right , and the modern "progressive" party of equality , tolerance , and modern secular non values supports the idea that the thuggish blacks "are just being themselves" and "just need some more government support". And that illegal immigrants to this country need voting rights and amnesty because they are "victims" of the shit country they fled and that gives them the right to break the law and disrupt the economic livelyhoods of lower class americans who need those jobs. And that the hollywood jews that are teaching our 13 year old daughters its completely okay to be as whorish as humanly possible because thats just "normal girl behavior" in america, and if you ever want attention from boys you have to put out immediately or you are just a prude.
Am i right?
September 25, 2012 - 11:22 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
"The fact remains that the racist, bigoted, white supremacist ideology of the Pre-Civil Rights Southern Democrats… continues to survive in the shadows,
Apparently so deeply in the shadows that only the paranoid actually see it. Try drawing any connection between KKK violence and a major Republican electee that's stronger than the connection between Obama and terrorist Bill Ayers.
"Again, you may think we're "dumb", but we're smart enough to know that just beyond the GOP's canned speeches and sound bytes about freedom and equality, the GOP is irresponsibly massaging the same twisted hateful sentiments…"
Blah blah blah. Sooo… you think you're delusions are a more accurate gauge of a party's platforms than, say, their actual platform? Because… let me see if I have this… the public speeches are just a cover for how we "really feel", and you know this because… ESP?
Can I play too? Can I assume that when a Democrat says something like "Unemployment is too high" it's really just a cover for his concealed, "shadow feelings", which are "Death to the capitalist infidels!"?
Why do you want to kill people?
September 27, 2012 - 9:49 am Link to this Comment | Reply
Holy christ , klavan demolished his entire existance.
September 25, 2012 - 10:53 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
I think its time andrew did a piece on how modern liberals have now adopted poor minorities as their base as an act of desperation. Promise them the world and condemn the other side as white slave masters. Get them hooked on the drug that is welfare and win every election back to back with their growing numbers and falling employment rates. Thus is the story of change. How minorities went from being energized political up and comers who were self dependent not only themselves but in their communities , to disenfranchised "victims" of the white upper class riddled with crime , violence , and government dependancy promised to them by the democrats.
September 25, 2012 - 11:02 am Link to this Comment | Reply
You are right about the history Mr. Klavan. Those guys were Democrats. Republicans would be the party of Charles Lindbergh, Pat Buchanon, and Ron Paul. Irrespective, what Walter K. is saying is a widespread perception in America and it is not just Jews who believe that. In order for Republicans to win elections that perception has to change and Jews are just a drop in the bucket in this country.
The second point is that I am waiting for your article on why Blacks, Hispanics, Women, gays, people with Post Graduate degrees, people making less than $50,000 a year, and both the East and West coasts are all "dumb". Good thing there are still a minority of "smart" Americans like yourself willing to point out how "dumb" everyone else is.
No the Jews keep getting singled out at PJM for some strange reason. To be sure if the Republicans win the Jews will be blamed by the other side as happened with Bush.
Republican Party needs to wise up and stop blaming its failures on everyone else. Bush-McCain-Romney is not exactly a super bowl class team for one thing. If minority groups have the wrong perception then it is up to Republicans to change that perception or just keep on losing elections. Failure is failure.
Your article just makes things worse. I am a Jew who did not vote for Obama but I am quickly losing interest in his opposition thanks to the many articles and comments like yours. Writing an article calling the majority of Jews "dumb" on the eve of Yom Kippur is not making you any friends.
BTW, we have George Bush to thank for insisting on the elections that put Hamas in office, ending the Lebanon war ensuring Hezbolla's power and granting them a "victory", doing nothing about Iran, and denying Israel the bombs, refueling tankers and airspace when they were ready to attack Iran. Despite this, Jews are supposed to blindly bet that Romney who has given no specific commitments at all will be just great for Israel security for no other reason than he is 'not Obama'.
September 25, 2012 - 11:56 am Link to this Comment | Reply
Mohammed H. Prophet, can you possibly be any more lame? Try actually having an original thought for once in your life. What? They didn't teach you how to do that in college?
September 25, 2012 - 10:35 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
Jack in Silver Spring
Walter K. – Don't know what planet you're living on, but I'm sure as heck would not want to be there (and you probably wouldn't want me there). The Democrats today are no different than the Democrats of 1860 or Jim Crow days. Today, though, instead of discriminating against black and Jews, they discriminate against whites and Christians (and sometimes Jews). The Democrat Party is doing its damndest to destroy the Constitution and this country. America is an idea, and the idea is freedom, not helping the little guy with negative-sum games that ultimately destroy him, our freedoms and will impoverish us all, especially the mindless idiocy about global warming. I'll tell you who the anti-science, anti-civil rights paryt is: It's the Democrats, and that includes you!!
September 25, 2012 - 11:44 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
Jack in Silver Spring
Some other thoughts Walter K.: It was the Democrat Woodrow Wilson who instituted segregation into the US military; it was the Democrats who had the KKK at their convention in 1924; it was Leftist Democrats who were in the KKK. It was Franklin Roosevelt, the Democrat, who ignored the plight of Jews in Europe; it was the Republicans in the 1944 Convention who called for recognition of a Jewish state in Palestine; it was the Republican, Eisenhower, who wanted to pass a civil rights bill in his second term, and it was the Democrats who voted it down. It was through the Republicans that the 1964 Civil Rights passed. It is the Republicans who are pro-Israeli despite getting so few votes from Jews.
You remind me of the first paragraph of the Democrat history published at this year's convention: It said the Democrats were for civil rights for the last 200 years; a flat out lie that no one called them on.
September 25, 2012 - 12:05 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
Deb K
I live moved to the South a few years back have found the atmosphere for Jews to be 180 degrees opposite of what you describe. The Christians that I know are kind, respectful and interested in learning about Judaism.
I think that with our country operating on a 2 party system, we cannot guarantee that there will be no one with offensive views in either party. However, much more often, I see anti-semitism coming from the left rather than the right.
September 25, 2012 - 1:49 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
32. SunsetDistrict,Inc.
If David Geffen did not give lots of money to the Democrats then we would see Obama with wearng a palestinian head scarf dancing around in Ramallah with an AK-47 raised above his head singing about pushing the jews into the sea.
To the left the Jews are a white, colonial invasive species in 3rd world palestine.
It is not their jewishness that the left resents, it is their whiteness.
The Palestinaians hate them for multiple reasons.
September 25, 2012 - 11:13 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
33. Sarbo
# Karl Marx, Father of Communism
# Leon Trotsky, Lenin's heir apparent, murdered by rival, Stalin
# Gregory Zinoviev, born Radomyslski, leader of the Leningrad Bolsheviks
# Rosa Luxembourg, inspiration behind the Communist Party of Germany
# Lazar Kaganovich, Stalinist hard-man in TurkmenistanWhat do these famous Communists, among many others of their community, have in common? They are all Jews.
Does anyone think that in the 21st Century some prominent Jews will not be hardline left-wingers?
September 25, 2012 - 11:27 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
Jack in Silver Spring
Sarbo – Karl Marx, contrary to popular belief was a Christian. His parents or grandparents had converted. I should observe that because of Jewish assimilation in Europe, it does not take a lot to find Jewish anscestry in most European families.
September 25, 2012 - 11:50 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
I stand corrected. Marx Sr became a Lutheran just before the son was born. Karl was born a Protestant. There is a lot to be said about why the father converted and why the son rejected both Judaism and Christianity in favour of Atheism. But not here and not now. Maybe, Jack, there will be other occassions to visit the influence of Judaism, Christianity and Atheism on Karl Marx. Not least, the role of Bismarck during Marx's adult years.
September 27, 2012 - 11:46 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
Deb K
Sarbo -
Mao Zedong
Che Guevara
Pol Pot
Fidel Castro
Ho Chi MinhWhat do these famous Communists, among many others of their community, have in common? They are NOT Jews!
Why don't you make a list of Jews who have done good throughout history. I assure you that list will be very long, but I guess it wouldn't suit your purposes.
September 25, 2012 - 1:35 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
You do me a grave dis-service. Not your fault, you know nothing of me. The fault was probably mine, since my "list" appeard to calumnify Jews by naming only Jews..
My purpose was only to respond to Klavan's conclusion, that any Jew voting Obama must be dumb or fracken idiots. I have tried to draw attention to a significant period in Jewish history which Klavan seems to have marginalised and air-brushed out.
There is no doubting a large contribution to Marxist Communist theory was provided by European Jews. By the time of Stalin, most had despaired and recanted. Among the most famous was Arthur Koestler.
The point is, given the strong intellectual attachment that SOME Jews, highly educated and highly prosperous, had a close inentification with Marx's central conclusion (something which no one seems to remember) – that Capitalism will continue to prosper and it has become fully mature. Then, organic growth of the Political Economy of the world will see the birth of socialism.
If this was a view strongly held among some Jews, then it must be fracken idiocy to believe that view has disppeared altogether, less than a century later.
And, Deb K, enough with the East Asian communists. They got their mantras second-hand from Europe. European Communism was urban and industrial, Asian was rural and agrarian. And, nationalist, to boot. Mao had no use for Cominterns.
As for a list of Jews who have done good, how large is your hard disc? If you want me to name one – well, I play the violin for relaxation, so naturally Mozart is my favourite.
September 27, 2012 - 11:23 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
34. Bffalobob
After reading the article and ALL of the response this phrase near the end @31 "fundamentalist Christians" is the answer. The dirty secret once almost broached by a National Jewish commenter is that prog Jews fear Fundamentalists more than they fear islam and will continue to vote dem and therefore obama. They have convinced themselves that somehow the vile preachings of Jeremiah Wright, Farrakhan are just "noise""bumps in the road" to true acceptance by the prog left.
September 25, 2012 - 12:05 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
Since Obama's entire re-election platform claims that national superiority requires a politically enforced redistribution of resources, based solely on the stereotypes of race and class and since that is the exact same claim Hitler used to buy his own majority support, I think your statement, that "Jews think like Einstein," is a bit of a stretch.
September 25, 2012 - 12:59 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
36. Brutus
Mr. Klavin has nailed what I've always thought: Conservatives love Jews, as long as they are in Israel and/or put Israel above all other concerns. Jews are have diverse opinions and perspectives, even in Israel. Don't allow yourselves to slide into anti-Semitism just because you don't agree with how they vote. And the little jab "…vote like Puerto Ricans…" is just racist. Sure, it is an old line, but there are lots of all lines that need to be retired.
September 25, 2012 - 1:17 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
37. carla
Will the last liberal Jew, please shut off the lights before, and shut the doors after you step into the ovens.
September 25, 2012 - 1:47 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
38. some of my best friends
Jews are widely viewed as an intelligent race of people
They are? Judaism is certainly a religion but you'll have hard time arguing that Jewish identity is a race — there's usually a shared cultural identity, arguably often an ethnic one, but no common ancestry. Are African Jews the same race as Norwegian or Japanese or Eskimo Jews? The race card is dealt far too often and, in the opinion of this goy, generates heat not light.That doesn't mean I understand what's going on. Lots of Jewish pundits are plainly perplexed, too. Yet somewhere in all this, particularly in NY and LA, there's room for shame: above all others, Jews should understand who Obama is and what his pathologies and agenda portend. The ugly side, a clear risk, is that if FL goes to Obama because of the 'dumb Jews' — the author chose that phrase to be annoying not racist — you'll see real racism flare up from coast to coast, yet another legacy of Obama and of all those who fell asleep at the wheel. Already, on this thread, you'll find statements like 'Jews may be an educated race but they're not an intelligent race'. If that doesn't set the alarms off, what does it take?
One wonders what a room full of Jesuit priests would say.
September 25, 2012 - 2:01 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
Research shows an interesting (and largely unexplained) phenomenon. Ashkenazi Jews are about one standard deviation higher in IQ than most other human groups, including Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews. So yes, there is a subgroup who are higher in IQ scores (we can argue separately what this has to do with being 'smarter"), but most Jews of the world are in those other, near average groups. This much is science.
Whether the ability to score highly on an IQ test has much, if anything, to do with having the sense to see what's going on in front of your eyes, is a huge subject, that nobody can do justice to in a blog comment. IMO, the evidence is that it can actually blind people, but that's just my opinion. If being blinded by your own intellectualism is "dumb", then this article is correct.
September 25, 2012 - 3:00 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
39. Philippe
Any westerner, free thinker, freedom lover, should see Obama as nightmare, a mix of third-world dictator and muslim zealot.Obama is trying to put the western world upside-down , he is a champion of the south warfare against the north.Jews who still don't get the real character, the subversive strategy of Obama against America against western europe against the free world against Israel are total schmucks.I see Obama as the Lenine of the 21st century and the bolshevik of today are now the muslim fanatics.
September 25, 2012 - 2:18 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
40. heathermc
Judaism is presently a matter of your mother's 'race', but that was not always so. At the time of Jesus, the Jews welcomed non Jews into their congregations. The big "bump in the road" for many of these interested people was the issue of circumcision. Paul of Tarsus smoothed this 'bump' and thus a small offshoot of Judaism spread through the Roman Empire.
Anyway, enough of History. I have noticed that peoples who have destroyed their Jewish fellows, have suffered from not only ignorance, but also poverty and brutishness. I am not sure which comes first, but I tend to believe that this has to do with God, and His plan for humanity.
September 25, 2012 - 2:43 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
41. loveamerica
This thought just came into my head as I read your great article. How's the French Embassies doing after the cartoons were published. I don't see in the news any rioting in the streets with signs that say death to France. Maybe I missed it. This evidence alone should tell every American this was a terrorist act on 9/11, and had nothing to do with a video. Hopefully the people of my tribe will wake up in time.
September 25, 2012 - 3:52 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
42. Rasley
"Even Obama's strutting pride at having personally killed Osama bin Laden with his bare hands is indicative of the fact that he misunderstands that the Islamist chant is true: "Listen, Obama, we're all Osama." Terrorism isn't crime; it's warfare."
You mean the Left is yearning for the good ole Clinton days where we didn't have the stones to call a spade a spade?
Say it ain't so!!
September 25, 2012 - 7:18 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
43. Advo
I used to like Andrew's writing until I saw my first Klavan video. he's even better at delivering his material in person. Now I have to imagine him saying what I read to enjoy it as much as I used to.
September 25, 2012 - 7:32 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
44. BcdErick
A very good essay. I agree 100%. Thanks.
September 25, 2012 - 7:36 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
45. johninohio
The Jews vote for Democrats because they aren't Republicans. What's wrong with Republicans? Jews most likely identify them with hard core Chrsitianity, the one that blames the Jews for Jesus' death and have persecuted them throughout Europe throughout history. The fact that fundamentalist Chrsitians are friendly with Israel right now (because of their exaulted status in end time prophecies), probably doesn't impress the Jews, who probably see these people as 'useful idiots', not as friends. So there you have it. The Jews vote for Democrats because they're agnostic at best, and they vote against Republicans because they hate Christians.
September 25, 2012 - 9:32 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
46. 2012 reality
A few years ago I was invited to a barmitzvah at a Jerusalem hotel. It was during the height of suicide attacks happening almost daily all over Israel. Obviously I did not expect to see any foreign tourists. But when I entered the lobby I encountered a large group of fundamentalist Christians praying for Israel. I shook each and everyones hand and thanked them for visiting at a time when other tourists were long gone. It was an experience I will never forget. Here in Israel Jews appreciate the support of fundmentalist Christians who stand shoulder to shoulder with us in all situations.
September 26, 2012 - 5:48 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
47. Menachem Ben Yakov
Ever wonder why a Klavan piece draws an inordinate amount of anti-semites? Moths to a flame? Perhaps. Perhaps they feel at home with Klavan.
I call them Klu Klux Klavan.
No robes- just plenty of stupidity.
The arrogance and racist tilt of a an article posted with- " Dumb Jews " as part of its title? How come I never read Klavan on " Dumb Christians" or " Dumb Blacks "? Its a rhetorical question- Klavan hides behind his abandoned Judaism as if it elevates him to a level where he cannot possibly be considered an anti-semite. Guess what – He is.
Of the tens of millions of votes in the next election , if ever Jew voted, it would be no more than 2% of the vote. Yet Klavan never dares to bash blacks or christians whose votes will outnumber Jewish votes one thousand to one.Being preached at by Klavan is like getting trapped in a room with a fouls smell you cannot escape. I long for the day I will not have to suffer through his bilge which, for the record, I do only to set the record straight.
September 26, 2012 - 10:24 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
Menachem, Menachem! I feel I have to remove my pointed sheet for a moment to defend myself here. The fact is I have indeed launched vicious assaults on innocent black people for voting in such a way as to do terrible harm to, you know, innocent black people. It's true that, like my Judaism, I've abandoned my blackness to become a white person, but it seems to me that the ideas remain sound nonetheless.
September 26, 2012 - 4:55 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
Menachem Ben Yakov
Your so called " vicious assaults " against African Americans does not exist. It is a reasoned plea for their support of the Republican Party. Nowhere do you call them stupid, dumb or anything of the sort. Your feeble attempt to present yourself as fair minded fails miserably. Post one link, just one, where you call Christians dumb, stupid or anything negative and I will retract my statement.
Your constant history of Jew baiting speaks for itself.September 27, 2012 - 9:56 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
Menachem Ben Yakov
I know Klavan wasn't busy fasting, observing Shabbat or building a Sukkah, so I checked in to see if the guy put up or shut up. The silence is deafening. Proves a point though.
September 29, 2012 - 1:12 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
48. Ross Pudaloff
I'm one whose politics are not those usually forwarded Klavan and Pajamas Media. But I do think I can learn from those with different perspectives. All I ask is logic and fact.
Alas, what I get is something mendacious and not very smart.September 26, 2012 - 1:51 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
49. Loretta in Indiana
@Menachem ben Yakov — I don't think that Andrew Klavan is an anti-Semite, whether he is a lapsed Jew or not. I just think that he is totally ashamed that there is even one American Jew alive who can support Obumbles. He is ashamed of his ethnic roots, the Jewish community, that a majority of them do not possess a modicum of wisdom in distinguishing good from evil.
We have been told over and over that Jews are smart… well that rumor has been put to rest. All those Nobel Prizes — Nobels are now given to Yaser Arafat and Hussein Obumbles. I would trade a boat-load of Nobels for a tea-cup full of common sense from my fellow Jews.
So the support for Obumbles among Jews has decreased from 78% to 59% — big deal! Is that something to be proud of? If there are any supporters for President ZERO after the last 4 years, then that it is one too many. The conclusion — Jews have no common sense, no wisdom, but lots of education and book learning.
There probably were many Jews who supported Hitler and Mussolini, until they heard the box-car doors clanged shut. Andrew is on the money… they are DUMB Jews, and if they vote for him a second time, well, they are DUMB & DUMBER. And yes, I am ashamed of them also.
September 26, 2012 - 4:40 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
Menachem Ben Yakov
Klavan is sick. Despite his detachment he still feels " shame ' for the action of his co-religionists?
The psychiatry books are filled with examples of such personality disorders.September 27, 2012 - 10:05 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
Menachem Ben Yakov
Please read FORMER co-religionists.
September 27, 2012 - 10:06 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
50. Laurel
Why is it any criticism of Jews is considered anti-Semite? Well let the names fly then because I'm going to criticize despite the fact I do support Israel and would die to defend her.
Jews can and will support Obama and one need only look at Jewish history. they didn't wander in the desert for 40nyears for nothing. Take a look at communism in Europe and specifically in Russia. Jews supported communism and it has repeatedly proved detrimental to them. Many Jews right here where I live do as well. Will they ever learn? Only god can answer that.
And for the history buffs: Jews became and remain Democrat for many reasons none of which involved FDR. It was Eleanor Roosevelt that got the Jewish state of Israel created and Truman who voted for it was the first to recognize Israel as a country. The farther we get from God the more in danger Israel becomes. Simple as that.
September 26, 2012 - 6:28 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
Menachem Ben Yakov
Christian votes for Obama will outnumber Jewish votes by 1000 to 1. I see no rabble rousing headlines- Dumb Christians from Klavan. Do you?
September 27, 2012 - 9:59 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
51. apu
This might sound harsh but I think American Jews would buy their own Acela tickets to a modern day Auschwitz if the Democratic party told them to; how else can you account for their lemming worship of their idol who bows to Arab princes and snubs the Israeli PM ?.
September 27, 2012 - 8:10 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
I'm not an anti-semite. I have a great deal of sympathy for the Israelis, and the US should do everything we can to aid them in their conflict with the jihadists. However, to repeat:
"The Jews vote for Democrats because they aren't Republicans. What's wrong with Republicans? Jews most likely identify them with hard core Chrsitianity, the one that blames the Jews for Jesus' death and have persecuted them throughout Europe throughout history. The fact that fundamentalist Chrsitians are friendly with Israel right now (because of their exaulted status in end time prophecies), probably doesn't impress the Jews, who probably see these people as 'useful idiots', not as friends. So there you have it. The Jews vote for Democrats because they're agnostic at best, and they vote against Republicans because they hate Christians."
I know it's blunt. I would like to see this refuted with evidence and not one-off experiences.
September 27, 2012 - 1:17 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
Menachem Ben Yakov
Jews do not hate Christians. All we want of them is to leave our children alone. As far as Klavans remarks, using his logic, I could say Christians vote for Democrats because they are Satan worshippers. How does that go down?
September 27, 2012 - 10:03 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
52. Henton Bingmore
They are not really Jews anymore, but descendants of Jews. Many are communists and above all LOVE ABORTION. They are so perverted they consider the right to murder babies THE HIGHEST JEWISH MORAL VALUE.
September 28, 2012 - 3:21 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
The worst blind man is the one who sees perfectly well but says; But,But I can not see. Who can help that man? Maybe a genius can decode that riddle. That surely will help.
September 28, 2012 - 5:25 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
54. Max LeCompte
All well and good. Now watch 70% of them lunge over the cliff just like they did in 2008.
September 30, 2012 - 6:24 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
55. Bernhardt
First it is not a "Jewish" problem . People of any peaceful,,moral religion see the continuous scorn heaped upon Israel. look at the disdain in which Israel is held at the U.N nations (an oxomoric name if ever there was one )The continued existence of Israel is actually the continued existence of the rational world. Israel acts as , a position it did not want nor seek, as the "Canary in the mineshaft" for the world .To reduce the argument to a question of disloyalty to the USA or indeed any other country with Jewish citizenry is deeply offence. Why did the Germans hate the Jews? Because they were disloyal and looked out for "themselves" first . _The Nazi argument ! First , Jews were just a "German" as citizens of any othr religion .The i accomplishments of Jewish individuals in the fields of literature, arts, science , medicine , technology were not "restricted" to "Jewish collective use " Asking choose between Israel and the USA is a "Sophie's Choice " , which of your children do you love more? Why is this question not put to other Americans? We are all immigrants . This is an existential matter , however simplistic; of life or death . It does not depend on the Hubris of one man ;… depends on good people acting courageously in this most percipient time.
I chose life . Whose with me ??September 30, 2012 - 10:46 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
56. fuzzylogic
After an exhausting review of the replies to this post, I am grieved at the stark absence of understanding of Jewish and Christian doctrines alike (with a glimpse from a few), leading to page after page of useless and contradictory responses. The Torah, and the Old Testament, is a picture of God's covenant (bond) with man. God explained to the Jews that they are His chosen people, to carry out His plan. They are not chosen to be elitists, or guilt-ridden losers. They are, by birth AND faith, partnered to and empowered by God to carry out His plans.
Further, God gave them the Law as a picture of Righteousness. The Law is not just a measuring stick of how one lives life, but to explicitly show just how impossible it is to be perfect, or holy as is God. Since man is imperfect, God therefore took it upon Himself to establish a covenant with the Jews. He showed them that they can rely on Him to provide the means to carry out His plan, and he asks only in return for their faith in Him.
Moving on to the New Testament, God sent His Son, Jesus, to fulfill the covenant for ALL THE REST. Paul explained in Romans 11, that Christians are the "grafted branches" of God's family tree, so to speak. Christians are God's adopted kids, yet loved equally! Again, what did Jesus ask time and time again? He asked for FAITH. It's not rocket science people. Faith in God leads to relationship with God.
The doctrine teaches that when we have faith in Him, great things happen. So, what happens when faith is lost? A great many Jews, and a great many Christians clearly do not understand their own doctrines, and their faith is no greater than decorating a Christmas tree or eating Kosher foods. I believe that the reason so many people, who claim to be Jew or Christian, voted for Obama in the first place, was because they set their sights so low. They placed all their hope and expectation in an obviously and utterly fallible, unqualified person, rather than in God, who would have revealed this to them if only they believed in Him.
I conclude with a response to the "they got on the trains" comments. The Bible also teaches us that God is pretty adept at using His chosen people to carry out His plan. So, we can also conclude that God sacrificed a huge number of Jews to demonstrate just how horrific tyranny can be, perhaps as a warning to us to remember what that face looks like, and never forget it. I think we should all be looking to the Middle-East with anxious resolve. And I suggest we maintain prayer and faith in God to lead us through whatever is to come, because this is far bigger than Barry and Mitt combined.
September 30, 2012 - 1:34 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
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