The New York Times reports that Romney had a big fundraiser at Revlon chairman Ron Perelman’s house in the Hamptons over the weekend.
But just four years ago, Perelman maxed out for Barack Obama. according to federal records.
Why the change? Well, Perelman has also given a lot to Orthodox Jewish causes, and the Times says one of the people coming to Perelman’s house for the fundraiser had Israel on her mind:
A woman in a blue chiffon dress poked her head out of a black Range Rover here on Sunday afternoon and yelled to an aide to Mitt Romney, “Is there a V.I.P. entrance. We are V.I.P.”…
Laura R. Schwartz of New Jersey, the woman inside the Range Rover, complained that Mr. Obama had not visited Israel as president, a slight to the country, in her eyes. “I don’t think he is good for Israel,” she said. Mr. Romney, she said, “is a fresh face.”
Rather snarky of the Times to publish that VIP bit. But is this the issue, Israel? Is that what Perelman’s flipflop is about? Did he talk about Israel at the fundraiser? The 25th richest person in the country, Perelman gives mostly to Democrats– tons to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and to Kirsten Gillibrand, Hillary Clinton, Bob Kerrey, Chuck Schumer, etc.
By the way, the Times says that Romney also hit the Hamptons home of Clifford Sobel, the former United States ambassador to Brazil under George W. Bush. Sobel is Jewish, and attended the 60th anniversary of the creation of Israel with the former president. I have no idea whether Sobel’s a Zionist, but like so many others in the Establishment, he knows how to pipe the tune.”‘Brazil does not understand Middle East affairs, it’s only joining the ‘anti-Israel’ choir,’ and using clichés and banalities,” he wrote, according to Wikileaks.
I’m betting that Obama’s Jewish # falls below 70 percent this year. And the journalistic question of the hour is: Are fears of losing New York money driving Obama’s policy-making in the Middle East? “I don’t think he’s good for Israel.” Is that an appropriate question for an American political campaign. Imagine if Christians were as involved in a religious/political issue in our public life, what the coverage would be.
I think the VIP bit might be an ode to Blankfein’s wife who was at a fundraiser and screamed that she and her friend (some other big shots wife) were too important to wait in line with the smaller donors……. What was that line from De Gaulle again?
Don’t forget that newly released donation numbers showed that Obama’s June haul in 2012 was actually below his 2008 numbers.
Even if he gets, say, 65 %(remember that he had 65 % for a long time in 2008 and only in the last few months did he get 78 %) of the Jewish vote, that won’t win or lose the election for him. What really gets him will be the drop in Jewish donations.
Perelman, Mort Zuckerman and many others. He was never going to win Adelson. But he needs the money of the neocons in the Democratic party. People like Haim Saban (who briefly abandoned him too before being wooed in). Or just look at a guy like Ed Koch who publicly broke with him. Or as Phil said yesterday, Dersh himself who called him Neville Chamberlin and then keeps getting re-invited. Dersh and Koch may not be big donors themselves but they are the canaries in the coalmines for other Jewish donors. They signal to donors if this guy is okay or not and both Koch and Dersh has been attacking Obama ferociously over the past 3 years.
As a result, out of political survival, he has been bullied into a right-wing corner and all but abandoned any serious attemps to rejuvenate the ‘peace process’ such as it is.
Obama does all these things out of pure political survival. He needs the cash, not the votes. He knows he has the Jewish grassroots. 65 % or 78 % doesn’t make a huge different.
But the donations do.
“The June 8 Gallup poll showed Jewish American support for a Democratic president at 64 percent…”
link to dailyherald.com
If your first loyalty is to Israel, what is keeping you from packing your bags and keeping your nose out of US politics?
But then you won’t be as effective for Israel. They are doing a rational thing from their point of view, even if it is undermining our independence as a democracy to deal with Middle East issues in a purely pro-American way.
Are fears of losing New York money driving Obama’s policy-making in the Middle East?
Watch out Phil. Wesley Clark took some serious heat for this comment.
And yet, no politicians distanced themselves from the statement of a Washington aide who called AIPAC, “The Democrats’ ATM.”
Perelman flops from Obama to Romney. Why?”
Everyone seems to find religion as they get older. Or they revert to what they thought as a kid, when their parents were paramount in their lives.
I see this over and over and over and over and over again.
[I guess I'm lucky but I also prove my own point, because I was a complete iconoclast, an aware iconoclast, before the age of six. I spent my days seething at these things with long legs whose BS I didn't buy. I wanted to kick shins when I was addressed in baby talk. I remember being 18 months old as if it were yesterday in diapers exasperated with my parents (and their friends) and doing things just to piss them off and get them waving their arms. I find I'm becoming more like that, again, as I age.]
RE: “And the journalistic question of the hour is: Are fears of losing New York money driving Obama’s policy-making in the Middle East?” ~ Weiss
MY COMMENT: New York money? Is that some kind of euphemism? Whatever the case, it’s a smart move! You don’t need to be seen by that stinky old “Red Sox”* as “countin’ the jews”! ! !
* ALSO SEE: “My response to ‘DailyKos’ smear”, by Philip Weiss – link to mondoweiss.net
RE: “Is that an appropriate question for an American political campaign. Imagine if Christians were as involved in a religious/political issue in our public life, what the coverage would be.” ~ Weiss
SPEAKING OF EUPHEMISMS: Whatever coverage there might be in the mainstream media would probably not use the word “Christian”, but would instead discretely refer to them as “social conservatives” or “value voters”. That’s essential to Manufacturing Consent (and maximizing profits).
P.S. FROM ROBERT PARRY, 7/09/12:
SOURCE – link to commondreams.org
“Perelman flops from Obama to Romney. Why?”
You couldn’t put an “R” in front of Perelman? You nearly gave me a heart attack, twice over!
There it is agian. The all important and much discussed “Jewish voters” also known as “Jewish support”. All this handwringing over who Jews will be voting for this November – it must mean that Jewish voters will be tipping the scales in big swing states like Florida, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, right? and with so many Jews flocking to Romney, is it possible that even a reliably blue sate like New York will turn red this November because of Jewish voters?
The percentage of registered voters who are Jewish are as follows:
FL 3.4%
PA 2.3%
OH 1.3$
NY 3%
It’s absurd how much attention is paid to “Jewish voters” and to “Jewish support.” It’s not Jewish vote tallys that decide Presidential elections. The plutocratic Jewish millionaire’s and billionaire’s money is the only part of “Jewish support” that has a serious chance, all by itself, to tip the scales one way or annother.
“…It’s absurd how much attention is paid to “Jewish voters” and to “Jewish support.” It’s not Jewish vote tallys that decide Presidential elections. The plutocratic Jewish millionaire’s and billionaire’s money is the only part of “Jewish support” that has a serious chance, all by itself, to tip the scales one way or annother…”
Hear hear. Add that Jewish support for Obama has proven virtually impervious to the ‘Obama is against Israel’ spiel — Jews are still one of Obama’s strongest constituencies. If all Americans were Jews, his problems would be over.
So if the Republicans want to hurl themselves at that hill over and over, it’ll be their funeral. They may well collect Jewish money, but they’ll use it to woo someone else.
“…Sobel is Jewish, and attended the 60th anniversary of the creation of Israel with the former president. I have no idea whether Sobel’s a Zionist…”
This is a joke, right?