Published by The Freeman Center
The Maccabean Online
Political Analysis and Commentary
on Israeli and Jewish Affairs
"For Zion's sake I shall not hold my peace, And for Jerusalem's sake I shall not rest."
By David Basch
November 18, 2008
Studying the Wall Street Journal figures on the US presidential
election, it is evident that Protestant Christian voters moved
away from Republicanism. Elsewhere it was pointed out that right
wing Christian voting was down by 4,000,000 voters. These alone
-- though not the only factors -- made a great difference
in results and helped bring in Obama.
Some have alleged that it was the dispiriting McCain campaign
that was responsible for this alienation. For myself -- not a
Christian -- Sarah Palin\'s announcement of McCain\'s support for a
Palestinian [Arab] State in the last weeks of the campaign came
with shocking force. It could have been a similar shocker to
Right Wing Christians, who apparently voted with their feet.
As was reported, American Jewish voters in general gave Obama 78%
of their vote. This was obviously not because Obama was more
supportive of Israel than McCain since Obama did not disguise his
support for a Palestinian [Arab] State. So this issue was not
overly relevant in the decision of these Jews.
On the other hand, Right Wing religious Christians do see Israel
as a more important issue in their calculations than American
Jews and even of some Israelis. It is therefore possible that
this issue could have played an important part in the decision of
Christians to defect from Republicanism.
And while this may not have affected Jewish voting overall, that
McCain too resembled Obama in his support for a new Arab State
in Israel, McCain\'s support may, nevertheless, have served as a
facilitator in the Jewish vote. For such Jews who indulged
their liberal obsessions could then declare to the more conservative
voting Jews that this vote was not cast at the cost of Israel
since McCain offered no alternative.
The outcome is very shocking since it is evident that support
for a Palestinian Arab State is bipartisan despite the fact that
this policy is based on falsifications of history and injustice
toward the Jews and that its advent will be achieved at the
expense of a greatly weakened Israel. Since the only reason
Israel survives in the Middle East is because of its strength,
such a strengthening of the Arab side will make more likely the
eventual destruction of Israel -- the most universal, implacable,
and cherished goal of the Arabs. The Arabs are enthused at US and
world support for them and the real possibility that the
Muslim-Arab goal of eliminating Israel will be achieved.
The irony is that the US, under cover of supporting democracy,
actually sells itself out in supporting the twin Arab tyrannies
of Fatah and Hamas that weaken the only democracy in the Middle
East, Israel.
Alas, the result will be a vanished Israel and with it a largely
vanished Jewish people that will then only survive in forms such
as Satmar Chassidism that rejects a humanly-achieved resurrection
of the ancient Jewish commonwealth. Such Jews will be satisfied
to be frozen in the pose of yearning on the Grecian vase -- a
youth forever yearning for his love and she being eternally fair.
I can\'t help believing that this outcome, which seems ever more
likely to be the result of the bipartisan US policy, will not
only be disastrous to Israel and the Jews but will also be
achieved at the weakening of traditional Christianity -- what has
been one of the great staples of the US ethos -- that had seen in
the rebirth of Israel an important religious sign. This weakening
will be accompanied by the weakening of political unity in the
US and its role in the world as well of the weakening of the
West against the Islamic threat. The West, in this battle, will
be without that once "unsinkable aircraft carrier" at the Eastern
end of the Mediterranean, which was Israel.
