This is the most important political post I've done in a while, so listen up.
Joe Bodell is a progressive reporter in Minnesota, and Jewish. On Wikileaks recently, he explored a list of former Senator Norm Coleman's financial contributors, evidently provided by Coleman's campaign, and examined the "Source" column for the contributors, which indicates how they came to the campaign. About 20,000 of 50,000 contributors, Bodell reports, are Jews identified as "gopjew_091307" in the source column. Look for yourself at that spreadsheet. The list of gopjew's in a column on the right begins most of the way down. And the contributors are from California, Pennyslvania, New York, New Jersey, not just Minnesota.
Bodell wrote up his findings in this post called, appropriately, "Coleman's database: lots and lots of Jewish names." He speculated that the source of the list was the neoconservative Republican Jewish Coalition:
Earlier this year, after he was shuffled out of the Senate once his term officially expired, Coleman accepted a role with the Republican Jewish Coalition, which very well could be the source of the "gopjew_091307" source list in the first place. There's no way to know for sure.
Here's my interpretation: It's a good bet that over half the $22 million raised by Coleman's opponent, Al Franken, came from Jews, too. Because authoritative accounts accept the estimate that 50-60 percent of the money going to Democrats is from Jews. Franken and Coleman are both Jews. 13 out of 100 senators are Jewish. Jews make up maybe 2 percent of the U.S. population. But we are engines of the financial strength of the country, let alone the media.
All these facts add up to a simple truth about American political life: Jews are a powerful constituency; and as my website continually affirms, There is not diversity in Jewish political life with respect to Israel/Palestine. There is actually not that much difference between neocons and the "liberal" Jewish camp, which explains why the Gaza assault won the support of Jews 3-1 at the same time as Democrats generally were against it by about 3-2. When the chips are down, Jews are for Israel, as that liberal Alan Dershowitz has said, because Israel is their "secular religion." There are many many exceptions to this orthodoxy, especially among the young. But we are not represented and we don't get paying jobs.
This explains that at the height of their bitter dispute, Franken and Coleman (who is himself a former Democrat; I remember him back in St. Paul) joined in approving the Gaza slaughter. It explains Obama's silence on the Gaza horror, for the same reason: He cannot alienate Jewish money, which is hawkish on Israel. Or as Seymour Hersh said on Democracy Now a year or so back, re the push to bomb Iran, it's all about "Jewish money." And Obama wasn't worried about Sheldon Adelson or the Republican Jewish Coalition neocon money; he was worried about Democratic Jewish money, the Lieberman/Steve Grossman/Lester Crown cohort, which might as well be neocon on Israel.
J Street, which was so brave on Gaza, is changing this; but it's a slow process.
It is common for really smart Jewish journalists to make their careers by exposing the Christian right. I did so myself back when. Michelle Goldberg did a book on Christian fundamentalist ideas, excoriating the evangelical Christians for their effect on gay rights, abortion policy, you name it. Goldberg is smart and very articulate; I bet that's a good book. But again I'd note that when Walt and Mearsheimer presumed to discuss the role of Jewish neoconservatives in pushing the Iraq war, Goldberg attacked them on Salon, in essence saying the oil companies pulled the trigger, and the scholars were touching on a "horribly sensitive" issue.
The media justifies its refusal to look at Jewish power because of the Holocaust. The refusal is not just hypocritical--again, we talk about Christian power in the media all the time--it's clotheslining the political discourse on one of the most important foreign-policy issues of our time. I find this journalistically demoralizing. I help produce this website for the same reason I got into journalism, because I found the democratic tradition in journalism in this country so inspiring in speaking truth to power, from Jacob Riis to Ida Tarbell to I.F. Stone to Bob Woodward (the prototype version anyway). Admittedly, in midlife, oedipal energies ebbing, I find investigative journalism wearying and predictable; but the essential character of the profession from which I've made my living is democratic: it is to describe the workings of power to the people. Good journalists trust Americans to discuss horribly sensitive issues without violence. Let's take that chance again.
P.S. Thanks to a commenter, I believe "frizzled," for bringing my attention to the Bodell story.
It explains Obama's silence on the Gaza horror, for the same reason: He cannot alienate Jewish money, which is hawkish on Israel.
This is my own assessment exactly.
… but the essential character of the profession from which I've made my living is democratic: it is to describe the workings of power to the people. Good journalists trust Americans to discuss horribly sensitive issues without violence. Let's take that chance again.
Bravo, Phil. You are absolutely right on target.
Jews make up maybe 2 percent of the U.S. population.
Maybe less in Minnesota, and yet 40% of donors are Jewish…. and of course both candidates.
Sites like this:
link to census.gov
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Way over my pay grade now.
" But we are engines of the financial strength of the country, let alone the media."
I wouldn't even know where to start to draw a conclusion like that. But I, admittedly, don't get out much.
thanks for this article…
After wading through all your narcissistic crap, I discovered Jews are generally Liberal, support Israel and contribute to the politicians that express their views. Big deal.
Who supports you Phil? What organizations support this site? I find it hard to believe you live off donations.
The media justifies its refusal to look at Jewish power because of the Holocaust. The refusal is not just hypocritical–again, we talk about Christian power in the media all the time–it's clotheslining the political discourse on one of the most important foreign-policy issues of our time. I find this journalistically demoralizing.
I've been thinking about that for some time now. A few thoughts come to mind. First, going back in time, I was appalled to find out the extent to which the creation of Israel was due to the visceral anti-Semitism of its Gentile sponsors:
I strongly suspect that such anti-Semitism continues to exist today among the Gentile political elites of the West who may fear that ending the Zionist project in Palestine (such a prospect being indeed within their grasp) would result in a mass exodus of Israeli Jews from Israel towards mainly Europe. And what of reparations then, financial or otherwise? Hence their continued support for the project that requires them turning a blind eye to atrocities being perpetrated there against the non-Jews living in the land.
Secondly, the Holocaust. As Norman Finkelstein said in one of his many interviews – I can't remember which one, it is unwise to think that if Zionism ends, everything will be fine. I think it might have been in the years past when Jews living in Palestine had some cultural affinity with their Arab neighbours. It is no longer so. An end to Zionism today could easily result in confrontation with terrible results. And so the spectre of the Holocaust is never far behind. As a blogger critical of Israeli policies in the Occupied Territories, I know that the thought of another catastrophe striking the Jews, in Palestine this time, is always on my mind. It doesn't matter that I also think that they are not doing much to prevent such a thing from happening, both internally and externally to their society.* I do know that often while blogging the question pops up into my mind: What if? Would I want that on my conscience? And so I read and re-read my posts to make sure that there is nothing there that I might regret.
Talking about Christian power is different. There isn't such a level of angst associated with that.
* I found the last paragraph in this essay hopeful … a little bit.
Big surprise. The far left is becoming more and more extreme and supports Jew hatred and anti-Zionism. Where do you think Jewish support will go? The problem with the extreme left is that their occupations are mostly as tree-sitters and protesters and bloggers. There's not a lot of dough in that. The extreme left has power – Move On and ACORN and related organizations have piled billions of dollars into the last election – and Arab money was heavy in that. Should we say that a small cabal of secretive Muslims is running the country? Should we buy into the racist notion that you are perpetrating against the Jews by believing the Barack Obama is a secret Muslim meme? There is absolutely NO difference between what you are doing and what those who would paint our President as a Jihadi tool are doing. It's the same racist crap.
If you don't like Coleman – spend your time doing something useful. Get a job, instead of tree-sitting. Oh, right, then you'd have responsibilities and a family to worry about – you couldn't gallavant about the world sneaking into countries as spies and barking at bulldozers and photographing fences in war zones.
"Jewish Power" – you people are so full of yourselves. And Norman Finkelstein – he is the biggest abuser of what he calls the "Holocaust Industry". He uses the fact that his parents were surviviors to shelter him against saying horrible things about Jews. He can call for the destruction of Jewish communities because his parents Jewish communities were also destroyed.
Gene, I went to the url you said gave you a bit of hope and read the last paragraph you mentioned, then I went to its source–I got a pop up saying that web site will subject my computer to malware. Since I already was screwed by malware for commenting on a web site against the occupation, and had to ultimately get a new computer and and change my ID etc I did not go on that website.
@ Harry Fenton (aka SOG aka Chris Berel aka Bill Pearlman)
Get a job. You senile draft dodger, armchair warrior. It's a shame good Americans have to support and protect your flabby, board ass, disloyal tukus.
Thanks for your support, Real American! I may be getting senile, but: wasn't a draft dodger, certainly not disloyal (except to the interests of oil companies and Hamas-idal maniacs), employ quite a number of other good Americans (nativists like yourself and immigrants), ass is not flabby (yet) and Yiddish for rear end is "tuchus" not "tukus". Even the tuchus licking leader of Hamas knows how to pronounce a proper "ch".
As for the AKA's – you flatter me – the rest of those folks are much more eloquent and common sensical.
Maybe when you get down from tree-sitting, you can have a beer and let go of your racist, white power bad energy.
fenton labels everyone and wonders why the labels don't stick so well.. go figure…
Yeah you were a draft dodger. When did you serve, what was your rank, and where did you serve? In what outfit? What was your MOS? You fake American.
MSC, O-3.
Your Mesa State College score is impressive, Fenton.
Thank you Alice. My "score" is what it is – didn't wait around to get to O-4. I'm still waiting for Cu Clux Citizen to disclose his "score".
I never met a single jew in my years of US Army service. I was in three different companies during my 3 year tour of duty. I realize now that is standard experience, especially among combat units. This blog has covered this subject in the past. There are proportionately more Muslims in the US Military than Jews.
Harry, maybe you should tell that to the MSM. The only time America jews carried their grunt weight in the US Military was WW2–because they were fighting Hitler. Otherwise, they have no appreciable interest, and never had. Anyone can check this out on the internet. Now, if you are talking about Jewish armchair warriors, neocons–the figures are reversed. It's only gentile blood and treasure that's involved. Eventually the Gentiles will spot the pattern, see the full pointillistic picture if you will. Then history will repeat itself…one version in the temple, another in the church.
Ivanhoe – Without a draft, there are not a lot of kids from middle to upper income families in America who choose a military career over a civilian career. This affects Jews and non-Jews both, but there are not a lot of mainstream Jews in the lower income brackets from which the military does most of its recruiting.
The percentages in the military academies (other than the air force academy which is not very welcoming towards Jews) are more proportional to Jewish population – at West Point, 2% of the class is identified as Jewish (it is not a requirement to identify religion however, so the number may be slightly higher) – at Annapolis, the number is 3%. The number of Jews in the US population is between 1.7% and 2.2%. The number of doctors/dentists that are Jewish is a higher percentage.
But the US military is not very friendly towards Jews – the atmosphere on bases and ships is fairly Christian – in the non-officer ranks it is even more difficult to be a practicing Jew.
I also think you need to actually look at the real numbers when you make silly claims like "the only time America [sic] jews carried their grunt weight in the US Military was WW2 . . . otherwise, they have no appreciable interest, and never had". With deference towards your lack of education, in WWI, the percentage of Jews in the US Armed Services was 5.73% of the entire force – the percentage of Jews in America at the time was 3.27%. In WWII, the percentage of Jews in the military was 4.23% while the percentage of Jews in America was 3.33%. In the Civil War, the percentage of Jews in the Union and Confederate armies was 0.4%, the same as the percentage of Jews in the entire US at the time. From Vietnam onwards, less so.
Yeah, exactly, Fenton. If I think the Bushies and the Obamaland folks are not representative of the USA as a whole, what makes you think I shouldn't look closely at the Jews also? Considering the support of Israel
is so paramount as told to me by nearly all USA government reps, and considering also the disproportionate USA funds given to Israel to do whatever it wants, and considering also the disproportionate money given by Homeland Security to jewish institutions in the USA, shy shouldn't I, as an American and humanist first, not look at "From Vietnam onwards, less so"?
And thanks for supporting my conclusion that the last time American Jews carried their grunt weight in the US Military was WW2–when they saw themselves as protecting Jews.
Today, in contrast, there are more American Jews in settlements opposed to US Foreign Policy, and in the IDF, than there are in the USA military.
I provided you with the reason that from Vietnam onwards there are fewer Jews in the "grunt" corps of the services. It is a socioeconomic thing that affects Presbyterians as well. The grunts are being recruited out of the lower economic strata and not out of the top colleges or higher economic bracket.
That is not to say that there are fewer Jews in the public service arena – not true – it is apparent that Jews are very heavily involved in non-profits, in low-paying (but Master degree requiring) public school posts and in the domestic and military medical corps. There are fewer Jews swabbing the decks, but the ones that are there will help our boys in the sickbay. Same in the local ERs and cancer-research institutes.
Also, it is ridiculous to say that Jews are "opposed" to US foreign policy. As if supporting Hamas terrorists who are allied with our enemies who want to blow up our cities is actually good foreign policy.
Finally, if you don't like the "disproportionate USA funds" "given" to Israel, don't "disproportionately" tax the Jews in the higher income brackets whose tax payments are funding a "disproportionate" amount of the Treasury revenue. You should also note that 75% of the military aid to Israel (there is no economic aid anymore) is spent in the United States to employ US workers. And you seem to pretend that the United States doesn't give foreign aid to Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon or the Palestinians. Or over $1 Billion a year to the UN. Or that there ARE "strings" attached to the funds.
Read up.