Seth,
As you have noted American Jews tend to be liberal; historically moreso than the general population. Their views are especially liberal in the social issues, and it will be interesting to see whether the Republicans can gain on the single issue of Israeli-US relations. (I even
detect a strong current of liberalism in Israel itself, these people think a lot) Recent trends indicate there may be some movement towards the GOP, but I believe their core values on social issues makes this a challenge.

Criticsim of the Israeli gov't is not anti-Semitism.

But you'd expect that sort of feeble thinking from Hugh Hewitt.

It seems strange to me too, but it's true that most American Jews are liberals... which I don't understand at all. *sigh* There are so many things I don't understand; for one, I don't understand why anyone is a liberal!

BB --

Having grown up in an old fashioned Democrat Jewish family, I can safely say that we're talking two completely different Democratic parties -- the conservative one that used to exist, and the liberal one that now exists.

One difference between the two is that the old one was comprised of patriotic Americans who wouldn't dream of viciously attacking a President during time of war, as today's crop do, if at all. The liberal take-over was engendered by the same crowd that probably threw bags of feces at American soldiers returning home from serving in Vietnam, and as such that's pretty much what today's Democratic party is.

Being an intellectual-breeding religion (I don't know how they missed me, LOL), we produce far too many "thinkers" as opposed to "doers" -- I did a post on that concept a few months ago, I'll have to find it. Many of the thinkers go on to become doers, just look into science and technology for them, but others quagmire themselves in academic lives and construct barriers between their intellects and the realm of reality. Such people are given much too much credibility and enjoy way too much access to the minds of our young people.

When I hear fellow Jews decrying 2nd Amendment rights we sure could have used in places like Warsaw, badmouthing this country and the Bush Administration for their efforts to defend the country against terrorism and taking the Palestinians' side, the side of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah and criticizing Israel's defending itself against Hezbollah, I just shake my head.

Thousands of years of bitter experience has taught these people nothing.

You want a good example? I'll give you one.

When I was in my teens I belonged to a Zionist youth group. During the summer, we had a sleepaway camp, during the school year we met on Friday evenings in group buildings rented with our dues. Most of our meetings were spent in debate.

So,

The most memorable(to me) debate among my sub-group was on whether or not North Dakota really existed. It went on for several months, and in the end the "proven" consensus was that it did not exist, it was merely a creation of Rand-McNally to fill in a blank spot on the map.

I occasionally look in on some of the folks I got to know therein, and several of them are today veteran denizens of the Groves of Academe, so far to the left that they are almost on the right.

I have a number of Jewish friends who have become Republicans in the last decade or so after being totally disillusioned by the Democrats, and I should hope that more will embrace reality to the extent that they will follow, but as far as I'm concerned, those that have gone too far left and abandoned G-d, Israel and America are simply lost souls, period.

Like a Brit novelist I read named Harry Patterson, who writes as Jack Higgins, is fond of saying, "they can go to hell their own way".

Arthur --

There are only five possible replies to your comment:

1) You didn't even bother reading the linked article,

2) You did read it and you are obtuse,

3) You didn't read it and you are obtuse,

4) You are simply obtuse, or

5) Being the lonely troll you are, you could care less one way or the other as long as you are able to elicit a heated response -- or any response at all, any attention at all for that matter and, of course, you are obtuse.

Gayle --

It's a real "hoot" trying to get any kind of reason out of fellow Jews who are liberals. As do all liberals, they embrace ideals that are incompatible not only with reality as a whole, but even more specifically with human nature.

Unfortunately, they tend to follow the liberal line to the max, becoming the prime rationalizers of portside political dogmas because of my religion's tendency toward intellectualism.

I attended yeshiva(the Jewish version of a parochial school) for a year when I was growing up. The courses covering things like Jewish law, philosophy and morality were intense, and comments and debate were highly encouraged. And this was merely the 7th Grade!

And the intellectuals' tendencies to head left are nothing new. Israel, like the kibbutz system, is a socialist democracy. It's a product of those same intellectuals, except it has been tempered by the realities of surviving amidst a community of malevolent enemies. It still, however, has its too-large share of liberals who, despite overwhelming and lethal evidence, still see positives where none exist and perceive negatives where they should see positives.

Such is the nature of liberals, though, Jewish or otherwise.

Seth,
Your reply suggesting regarding Jewish intellectualism reminds me of the Teller/Oppenheimer conundrum. There is in fact a tiny percentage of far right thinkers of the school of Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle. I cannot speak with your first-hand experience, but hung around with a Jewish NY kid in the Army and worked for a Jewish family-owned company,but
am only an outsider. So from that limited perspective, my observation was that as a people, Jews tend to wear humanity on their sleeves, so to speak; they tend not to be bound by some of the fundamentalist Christian constructs regarding right-to-life, stem cells,
conservative "family values" and the like. One may suspect they still view the rightwing Christians with suspicion, having been victims before the latest swing to Israel support from this sector. [heh, if you decry their intellectualism would you suggest lobotomies, that they become GOP? heh] Regarding sleepaway camp, my Army friend was a camp counseler up in
the Catskills, kind of a fun guy? Regarding the
existence of N Dakota, I drive across there at least twice a year: group consensus was right-it doesn't exist. :)

Aha, we were right, all those years ago!

BB --

I read an interesting article in WSJ about 20 years ago that talked about the effects of inter-faith marriage, and its diminishing effect on the Jewish family over the next couple of generations, and seen that article manifest since it was published.

I've actually seen migrations from Orthodox to conservative to Reform to Agnostic over a couple of generations, and it is these last that tend to oppose the legitimacy of organized religion, for example. As G-d is abandoned, so apparently are principals, discipline, respect for country and personal honor.