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Krugman’s coverup

Yesterday Paul Krugman, the Times columnist, Princeton professor and Nobel laureate, wrote a column about Romney peeling off wealthy backers from Obama and said they were leaving Obama because of his economic policies:

according to them, it’s because he “demonizes” business — or as Mitt Romney put it earlier this week, he “attacks success.” …

Needless to say, this is crazy…. 

they also insist that their perception that Mr. Obama doesn’t like them is at the root of our economic problems. Businesses aren’t investing, they say, because business leaders don’t feel valued…This, too, is crazy

But one issue that is separating Obama from some former backers, including Daniel Loeb, who held a big Romney fundraiser with Ron Perelman two weeks back, is his perceived hostility to Israel. Loeb now funds the Emergency Committee for Israel, which bashes Obama all the time.

That is the reason Romney is holding a fundraiser in Jerusalem next week: he is demonstrating his Israel bona fides, and trying to light a fire under Obama donors.  As the Wall Street Journal put it a year ago:

Jewish donors and fund-raisers are warning the Obama re-election campaign that the president is at risk of losing financial support because of concerns about his handling of Israel.

Or as John Heilemann of New York Magazine said on Hardball, Obama has alienated “a lot of Jewish donors,” because of his Israel policy. ”It is a real problem,” Heilemann said. “[B]ack in 2008… the core of his support of the financial community, the core of his support in terms of fundraising was Wall Street donors… He can’t afford to lose any major bundler support…”

Israel is obviously a factor in the big-money defections. How large a factor I don’t know. This is surely one reason Jewish Democrats are trying to position Obama to Romney’s right on the issue— because rich Jews who donate on the basis of Israel are so conservative. Krugman has the ability to call some of these folks; but he won’t go near the subject. Why not? Because he would have to open the door on the role in our politics of inflexible Jewish support for Israel’s inflexible policies.

Krugman explained it himself back in April in a mild defense of Peter Beinart (emphasis mine):

The truth is that like many liberal American Jews — and most American Jews are still liberal — I basically avoid thinking about where Israel is going. It seems obvious from here that the narrow-minded policies of the current government are basically a gradual, long-run form of national suicide — and that’s bad for Jews everywhere, not to mention the world. But I have other battles to fight, and to say anything to that effect is to bring yourself under intense attack from organized groups that try to make any criticism of Israeli policies tantamount to anti-Semitism.

So he obfuscates.

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Jewish money or no Jewish money, at some point the United States of Israel is going to upset folks back in the USofA.

There is a line that can be walked only so far until there is a backlash. It is stupid for the Democrats to be positioning themselves a hairsbreadth to the left of the Republican Party.

To position themselves to the right of the Republican party leaves them open to being the one to take the fall when the hits the fan.

Who knows – maybe there will be unintended consequences. Perhaps the Republican Party will go so completely wingy that they will alienate themselves. Or perhaps the majority of Americans will fail to notice or even worse be truly represented? Or perhaps the US will continue its slide into authoritarian “democracy” with no recourse for the majority of the population.

It is also stupid for mainstream Jewish groups to continue to pray towards Jerusalem. There may be a backlash against recognized Jewish groups as well over the creation of the United States of Israel. There’s a reason that separation of church and state is so important.

they also insist that their perception that Mr. Obama doesn’t like them is at the root of our economic problems. Businesses aren’t investing, they say, because business leaders don’t feel valued…This, too, is crazy

Interesting, because the pro-Israel crowd is complaining about Obama in similar terms. They can’t put their finger on any particular anti-Israel policy or decision, but they feel that Obama “doesn’t love Israel” and are convinced that this has a real impact on Israel’s welfare. So they’re transferring their support to a candidate who “values” them.

thing is, romney checks off more boxes for the big biz/finance guys – its a package deal, in my opinion.

It is no secret that Romney and Bain are champion out sourcers. Less discussed is that GE, also champion out sourcer and big time non-tax payer, gets to have its CEO as Obama’s jobs creator. The 1% has the Democratic and Republican parties to choose from, leaving nothing for the 99%.

Phil, maybe you ought to put together a piece to counter Frank Gaffney’s on the Muslims in our midst, “The Neocon Brotherhood in America: The Enemy Within” which is doing so much damage to our American way of life. That ought to put your name in lights among the neocons it would be like when MJay Rosenberg called them Israel firsters, it’ll stir up the hornets nest.

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/jacob-heilbrunn/the-plot-defame-huma-abedin-7217

Frank Gaffney’s Center for Security Policy, an outfit that has specialized in identifying what it sees as American-Muslim agents of influence who are engaging in sedition. This year, it released a series called “The Muslim Brotherhood In America: The Enemy Within” that it terms a course in ten parts presented by Gaffney.