Interesting

[ProSense]

(12/09/2005)
Attack On Right Reveals Fault Lines
Jewish groups differ on Evangelical ‘threat’ as they try to hash out consensus going forward.
James D. Besser - Washington Correspondent

snip...

He cited the scandal surrounding Tom DeLay, the Texas Republican forced to step down as House Majority Leader, as raising Jewish concerns about the power of the religious right.

Several Jewish activists said that this year’s furor over Terri Schiavo, the Florida woman whose right-to-die case became a crusade for the religious right, also set off communal alarm bells.

“Before, the idea that religious extremists were influencing national policy was all sort of abstract, and it was easy to ignore,” said an official with a major Jewish group here. “But in the Schiavo case, we had the majority leader trying to intervene with a remote control diagnosis; we had Tom DeLay making all kinds of extreme statements. Suddenly it all became very real to a lot of people. I think this really had an impact on our community.”

University of Akron political scientist John Green, who studies the religious right, suggested another factor in the flurry of attacks on the religious right by Jewish leaders.

“Bush’s domestic problems, scandals, the war in Iraq and so forth may suggest the Christian right’s position is weakening — and so it is an opportune time to rally opposition to them,” he said.


snip...

“There’s a reason John Kerry got 75 percent of the Jewish vote, and it’s because Jews continue to be terrified of Evangelicals,” said an official with a major Jewish group. “There really is a growing sense that this group is starting to change the nature of our democracy, that they are starting to pull down the church-state wall. Elements in our community agree with a lot of their positions, but they are a very small minority.” n

http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=11774

[ginnyinWI]

1. I saw something today about

how the Fundies have looked ahead at the GOP legislative agenda and have seen precious little on it of their "pet projects" they were so hoping to get installed. When will they realize that they have been "had" in every election since the GOP started mobilizing them in the 1980s?

I think most of this posturing turns out to be pretty empty of any real change--the vast majority of us out here are not going to buy it, and the GOP knows this all too well.

[ProSense]

2. What I want to know is

Every time Lieberman's hawkishness is mentioned comes the reminder that he is Jewish and pro Israel.

So is it that Lieberman supports the Iraq war because of his pro Israel stance or is it that Jewish groups who oppose the war do so only because they fear the evangelical influences.


I hope the question is phrased sensibly.

[ginnyinWI]

3. ok I did have to read that over a few times!

I think most people who comment on Lieberman feel that his Jewishness leads to his hawkishness, even though he's a Dem. Because supposedly this war will help Israel.
If most Jews voted for Kerry, then they also saw him as being pro-Israel, and at the same time anti-evangelical. I wonder what they all think of the war--it would seem that by 2004 they had had it with * and his war!

[ProSense]

5. Right

So it's possible to be anti war without being anti Israel.

[karynnj]

4. In my personal experience

Almost everyone I knew at synagogue was anti-war before it started, but most of my friends were the people who chose to be involved in Social Action as opposed to the Ritual Committee. There were enough discussions or events in the area that it became an issue because we were including information on them in our weekly email communication. (In addition to a monthly newsletter, we had a weekly email and emergency emails) With so many, it was decided we couldn't include the anti-war events because of tax status concerns. So, a different person started with the full list and created a peace list.

The synagogue I belong to is on the opposite end of the spectrum. I don't know if the Orthodox are more hawkish.

As to Israel, about a month before the war started, someone asked a young Israeli who was aa our synagoque to talk to the teens about visiting Israel - someone asked him what he thought about it. His answer was that Israel had invaded an Arab country and had been an occupier and it really had been a devastating experience. He mentioned that attacks by Lebanese militias on refugee camps, which Israel didn't stop, still bother some Israelis. So, he was against the US attacking Iraq. I have no idea if he was the least bit typical.

[ProSense]

6. This is good

The key is to be against invasion period. It seems that some have created yet another set of unjustifiable reasons to perpetuate the occupation.

[ProSense]

7. I forgot fear.

The unjustifiable reasons are to avoid civil war, stave off Iran's influence and fighting terrorism.

Then there is the position that assumes protection for Israel, which I don't think is assumed intentionally to continue the occupation, but probably out of fear. Whether fear is justified or not is the question.