Arlene Kushner: Thoughts And Articles About Election Day

From Arlene Kushner:
November 4, 2012

Election Day

Sharing some significant articles today -- relevant for this day and thereafter...

"I Didn't Leave the Democrats, They Left Me," writes Sheldon Adelson (with my emphasis added).

"When members of the Democratic Party booed the inclusion of God and Jerusalem in their party platform this year, I thought of my parents.

"They would have been astounded.


"The immigrant family in which I grew up was, in the matter of politics, typical of the Jews of Boston in the 1930s and '40s. Of the two major parties, the Democrats were in those days the more supportive of Jewish causes.

"...Like most Jews around the country, being Democrat was part of our identity, as much a feature of our collective personality as our religion.

"So why did I leave the party?

"My critics nowadays like to claim it's because I got wealthy or because I didn't want to pay taxes or because of some other conservative caricature. No, the truth is the Democratic Party has changed in ways that no longer fit with someone of my upbringing.

"One obvious example is the party's new attitude toward Israel. A sobering Gallup poll from last March asked: "Are your sympathies more with the Israelis or more with the Palestinians?" Barely 53% of Democrats chose Israel, the sole liberal democracy in the region. By contrast, an overwhelming 78% of Republicans sympathized with Israel.

"Nowhere was this change in Democratic sympathies more evident than in the chilling reaction on the floor of the Democratic convention in September when the question of Israel's capital came up for a vote. Anyone who witnessed the delegates' angry screaming and fist-shaking could see that far more is going on in the Democratic Party than mere opposition to citing Jerusalem in their platform. There is now a visceral anti-Israel movement among rank-and-file Democrats, a disturbing development that my parents' generation would not have ignored.

"Another troubling change is that Democrats seem to have moved away from the immigrant values of my old neighborhood—in particular, individual charity and neighborliness. After studying tax data from the IRS, the nonpartisan Chronicle of Philanthropy recently reported that states that vote Republican are now far more generous to charities than those voting Democratic. In 2008, the seven least-generous states all voted for President Obama. My father, who kept a charity box for the poor in our house, would have frowned on this fact about modern Democrats...

"Although I don't agree with every Republican position—I'm liberal on several social issues—there is enough common cause with the party for me to know I've made the right choice.

"It's the choice that, I believe, my old immigrant Jewish neighbors would have made. They would not have let a few disagreements with Republicans void the importance of siding with the political party that better supports liberal democracies like Israel, the party that better exemplifies the spirit of charity, and the party with economic policies that would certainly be better for those Americans now looking for work.

"The Democratic Party just isn't what it used to be."

Read: Sheldon G. Adelson: I Didn't Leave the Democrats. They Left Me

Maybe this will provide important perspective for some traditional Democrats who are no longer happy with the party but find it hard to leave the fold.

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Then we have Barry Rubin explaining, Why Obama Should be Voted Out of Office Today" (Emphasis added)

"There are many reasons why I’m thoroughly disgusted with all the phony Obama-loves-Israel or Obama has done a good job on foreign policy nonsense and the foolish things many American Jews and many Americans say about him on this topic. But let me reduce all of these points to one central–and indisputable by anyone who is honest–issue:

"Obama has helped put into power in Egypt the Muslim Brotherhood, the world’s leading anti-American, anti-Semitic movement; has backed its coming to power in Syria (though he backed the equally anti-American, anti-Semitic, anti-Israel Bashar al-Asad dictatorship before the revolt); and helped maintain in power another Brotherhood branch, by pressing Israel to reduce sanctions and opposing Israel’s self-defense against it,, in the Gaza Strip. This group openly embraces genocide against Israel and Jews generally.

"He has also backed a Turkish regime that loathes Israel, employs antisemitism, supports Hamas and Hezbollah, and wants to kick U.S. influence out of the region. The leader of that regime is, according to Obama, his hero. The Obama Administration has not lifted a finger to press Turkey toward rebuilding relations with Israel. On the contrary, it has rewarded a Turkish regime that is doing the opposite. Only on the issue of continued aid and intelligence cooperation with Israel has Obama kept up the traditional relationship.

"As a result of Obama’s policies, too, even more extremist Salafist movements have been unleashed. The Muslim Brotherhood is quite tolerant of these terrorist forces and uses them as part of its overall strategy.

"How can one lionize an American president who has given major backing and been an apologist for such a movement?

"...Obama’s policies have placed the lives of Americans and Israelis in jeopardy, as well as the citizens of many other countries, and made war more likely. For the first time in many decades, Israel cannot depend on the U.S. government. Neither can a dozen Arabic-speaking states that have relied on U.S. support. Neither can Middle Eastern pro-democracy advocates, moderates, secularists, women, and Christians. Neither can Americans.

"Something should be done about that. And today is the day to do it."

Read: Why Obama Should be Voted Out of Office Today

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I put out a posting recently refuting Alan Dershowitz's positions in supporting Obama, which appeared in the Jerusalem Post. Today, to my delight there is a piece, "An open letter to Professor Alan Dershowitz from a former student at Harvard."

This is by one Anthony Gordon, who writes, "I felt duty bound, and I say this with a heavy heart, to warn the readers of the Post to discount and ignore the weak and baseless arguments that you proffer in your attempt to justify why President Barack Hussein Obama has earned your vote."

Regrettably, I cannot find a URL for this -- I have it in hard copy. Perhaps it is simply not up yet. This piece addresses both the inadvisability of considering Obama worthy of re-election, and the inadvisability of considering opinions as espoused by Dershowitz as necessarily having any merit. The second point transcends the issue of the election.

What is ironic is that in the Internet version of the Post today, Dershowitz advocates for negotiations for a two state solution. Right...

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© Arlene Kushner. This material is produced by Arlene Kushner, functioning as an independent journalist. Permission is granted for it to be reproduced only with proper attribution.

See my website at Arlene From Israel Contact Arlene at akushner18@gmail.com

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