In light of Franken’s victory over Coleman, Dan Gilgoff wonders about the coinciding trends of increased Christian Zionist influence in the Republican party and the decrease (near disappearance) of actual Jewish republican members of Congress.
The sole Jewish Republican in Congress is now House Minority Whip Eric Cantor.
With Franken’s arrival and Specter’s switch, the Democrats now have 13 Jewish senators and 31 Jewish House members.
What’s so remarkable about the falloff of Republican Jews in Congress is that it coincides with the decade-long trend of Republicans making support for Israel a central issue for their party. That’s been fueled largely by the growing numbers of conservative evangelicals who are identifying as Christian Zionists.
Could it be that Christian Zionism, seen largely as a Christian-right phenomenon, is scaring off more Jews—who tend to be very wary of religious conservatives—than it’s drawing in? Or are these overlapping trends a mere coincidence?
(Lieberman seems to get along great with the Christian Zionists, but perhaps he’s strange in that way….of course it’s not as if the Democratic party allows let alone encourages anti-Zionism…I think largely it’s a matter of Jews being disproportionately liberal in domestic politics but perhaps it is true that many Jews, especialy politically minded ones, are more comfortable with secular Zionism than religious Zionism).
buzzkill 12:53 am on July 10, 2009 Permalink |
I can’t help but feel that the relationship between Hagee’s “Christian Zionist: movement and Israel is similar to Jack Abramoff and Indian Casinos.
Nevertheless, we, as Americans and Muslims, should tolerate and even accept zionism while forcefully rejecting neconservatism.
Jews have a claim to a homeland that is too complicated to reverse. The world should accept this and find a way to negotiate peace and safety for Israel and her neighbors. It will probably always be a tenuous peace, but peace on the whole.
Neoconservatism in the United States is a force equal with or more destructive to America’s safety than Al-Qaeda. These people, with their politicies of agressive foreign interventionism and american imperialism as foreign policy, must be stopped.
Part of the Gilgoff piece on going to a Christians United for Israel Meeting said
The insecurity Jews feel about their homeland is a problem the United States government should try to help solve. But we should help to solve it without bringing the unwilling middle eastern countries to their knees.
This is the difference between zionism and neoconservatism in my opinion.
Shams al-Nahar 7:05 am on July 10, 2009 Permalink |
But in order to open a door to the two state solution the West must first acknowledge the initial injustice of the state of Israel. Israel has a right to exist….no one can unspin that web. But Israel did not have a right to be created by western nations, to assuage their collective guilt over the Holocaust.
That is what holocaust denial is used to exploit…..the idea that Arabs suffer the consequences of western guilt while they did not participate in the event.
muunasafa, justice is an essential component of a solution in MENA. The west still fiercely affirms Israel had a right to be created…..until the initial injustice is acknowledged, the wound will fester and never heal, and opportunistic tyrants like Nejad will exploit it with holocaust denial mythos.
People on the leftside of the bell curve believe most strongly what they want to believe. They don’t have the substrate to analyze and contradict. So they are easy prey for unscrupulous tyrants exploiting holocaust denial.
Buzz Kill 12:20 pm on July 10, 2009 Permalink |
An apology won’t do much.
The systematic genocide of Jews and a glocal war were ample reasons to find a homeland for the Jewish people. The burden fell on Palestine which is sort of what happens at the close of big wars. Weaker parties get exploited and their land stolen.
What would be good and should have been done is some sort of compensation made to local Arabs. Maybe that occured back in the late 1940’s, I don’t know. If not, why not?
The United Nations led by USA and UK should compensate Palestinians now. Cash. And if Israel claims the right to create settlements, they should either declare war or compensate Palestine as well.
Shams al-Nahar 1:52 pm on July 10, 2009 Permalink |
so you are saying that the unjustice of the creation of Israel should never be acknowledged?
Lets do both!
Buzz Kill 2:16 pm on July 10, 2009 Permalink
If, as your matra goes, the US is not responsible to police the world, then the US is not responsible to apologise for the world’s actions. Creation of Israel was not solely a US action.
Shams al-Nahar 1:57 pm on July 10, 2009 Permalink |
I mean…congress finally apolo’d for slavery this year….has congress apolo’d for stealing Indian lands?
The reason the US and the Allies should apologize is most of the lower half of the american bellcurve (ie, conservatives) still believe in some sort of divine right of Israel to exist, and therefore are polically exploitable with the usual gypsyhooks employed the GOP leadership.