J Street has a new poll out on American Jewish attitudes that has some fascinating wrinkles re Middle East policy. Including the fact that 60 percent of American Jews oppose the settlements in the West Bank. And that 32 percent say that their "personal connection" to Israel would be "weakened" if Avigdor Lieberman assumes Cabinet position. "I was surprised by this result," says Jim Gerstein, who did the poll, saying that it shows the remarkable effect that a single individual could have on Jewish opinion. And the number goes to 40 percent for Jews under 30!
But here's the headline. The poll shows that 39 percent of American Jews had some degree of Madoff connection. 2 percent say they were personally affected. 17 percent know someone who was affected. 28 percent say: an organization I support has been affected. I'm in that group; some leftleaning orgs were affected. (Why do the numbers add up to 47? Because there's overlap of the three groups.)
I'll have more on the Middle East data later…
Related posts:
- Madoff scandal laps up against the stone walls of the Times (or is that a sandcastle?)
- 2 Out of 3 American Jews Want an End to Occupation, New Settlements
- Like Lewinsky, Rich, and Libby, Madoff Scandal Exposes Jewish Social Cohesion in Establishment
- I’m all wet. Actually the Madoff story is all about Jewish assimilation
- Madoff and the Jewish Elite
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Madoff violated the ultimate jewish rule: don't f–with your own people. Those who joined his venture
did so on a silent jewish gentlemen's agreement which was, " We know you are bending the rules, but we don't care, as you are one of us, not them."
LOL
But I notice the jews are trying to get all Americans to pay for their Madoff losses.
So, what's new?
I took a Madoff poll at the LA Jewish Journal (a link for a student research project). I continued past the part that says "Stop here if you are not Jewish" (who's to say? I only know my family tree back a couple of generations).
The questions were things like, "Do you wish Madoff was not Jewish?" & "Are you upset that he defrauded mostly Jews?" & "Do you think his being Jewish will reflect poorly on other Jews?" (all Q's pretty close…but strictly from memory).
I think they were fair poll questions but it does highlight the tendency it seems to lay claim to successes and distance themselves from the negative.
Here is a hillarious cartoon on the subject
The poll says:
32 percent say that their "personal connection" to Israel would be "weakened" if Avigdor Lieberman assumes Cabinet position.
But when you read more, we learn that this was only after the responders had been prompted by being told what Lieberman had said and done.
My guess is that most Jews don't know this information, and will just blindly support the government, whether or not Lieberman is in the Cabinet.
Funny cartoon from the Forward, kylebisme.
Re Madoff there is this remarkable allegation on the website rense.com by a Mark Graffis stating on the basis of anonymous sources that Madoff was disclosed as hiding assets in Swiss banks, and put forward the "all lost in Ponzi Scheme" story as a way to cover up a more nefarious scheme.
"As more info comes in regarding the Madeoff scheme, news from several sources say that Madeoff and his clients were the largest bank account holders listed on a computer disk leaked by a Swiss bank worker regarding US persons with hidden Swiss bank accounts.
"As the IRS approached him regarding the repayment of taxes from his hidden swiss account, Madeoff reportedly became adamant that his wealth would not be taxed by the US. He also realized that once the swiss records were exposed that his and his client's wealth were also within reach of seizure or judgement by a US court regarding past frauds of him or his clients.
"Realizing that he was be certain to arrested on other securities and market making fraud issues in the near future, insiders say that it was at this point he made the decision to just say it was all lost in trading and move it directly to Israel. Insiders also report that he was ready to pay the taxes on the money in Israel but was adamant that taxes in the US would not be paid nor would any of the money be available for US court judgements in subprime, fraudlent trading and misrepresentation charges in the future.
. . . .
"Finally, sources say that the wealth from Madeoff's scam has been fully transfered to Israel and that "most if not all of the clients have been made aware" that their money is available to them in Israel and that it was felt that this was a necessary measure in protecting certain high level clients in the face of a collapse of the USA."
http://www.rense.com/general84/mado.htm
I have no way of knowing if there is any truth in this. I will say that, when the trustee reported in February that after reviewing thousands of boxes of documents there was no evidence Madoff had ever invested anything on his clients' behalf, I did not believe it.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123514517480633963.html
If he'd invested some of it and lost it, that would be more plausible. This told me he had hidden the evidence of how he had invested it. So far this is the only story I've seen about what he really did with the money. The MSM reports the Ponzi Scheme with all the credulity for which it has become famous. On the News Hour, when Madoff pled guilty, an expert said the prosecutors were looking to find others who had cooperated with Madoff, and were seeking to recover over $100B, and Gwen Ifell quickly asked if he was talking about his family members, who supposedly knew nothing, despite working fulltime in the enterprise. The response by the expert seemed carefully worded, and suggested that it could be larger than that, without saying so. $100B would suggest he'd grown the money people thought they had.
If there was any truth to the allegation, there must be some readers of this blog who have heard what Jewish charities are hearing. Perhaps they could pass that along? Or if anyone knows anything about Mark Graffis whose byline appears with the story, that too would be helpful. Both stories seem too cute by far, but if there were a conspiratorial aspect to it, would you trust the MSM to root it out?
Doppler, I'm sorry but without concrete evidence that Madoff money made it to Israel, these stories are really just tittle-tattle. Some writers make a living producing such unsupported allegations, relying on their air of righteous crusading fervour, the will of the masses to believe the simplistic ready-made collective Jewish Conspiracy Theory, and their personal following. They never cite one piece of hard evidence from one year's end to the next. Christopher Bollyn comes to mind.
Here I am, random New York Jew, and I have two separate lines of communication to Madoff and Madoff's accountant! Dave Freiling lived with his parents on Yaun Avenue after they sold the Stevensville Hotel, and I delivered them newspapers. My friend's cousin is the SEC counsel (married to the mob, as it were) that bobbled the Madoff inquiries back in the earlier part of this decade. I know a number of people who have been defrauded.
I also knew true gentlemen for whom the kindly uncle macher front wasn't a front. Madoff is scum. Frieling is scum.
Does this explain why Sen.Schumer of NY was so gung ho on the IRS ignoring the plain language of the Internal Revenue Code to allow victims of Madoff special tax relief for theft losses that are not available to victims of other theft losses?
res ipsa loquitor
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