This morning on NPR, Juan Williams of the Washington Post made the smart observation that Obama's elevation firmly ends the era in which black politicians were presumed to be spokesmen for their race. They are now strictly professional pols who happen to be black. As Irish politicians happen to be Irish, Williams said, and Jews "happen to be Jewish."
I share the idealism, but wonder about the accuracy. It is undoubtedly the case that many/most Jewish politicians just happen to be Jewish. Mayor Bloomberg, Senator Carl Levin, Rep. Bob Filner, Senator Barbara Boxer. The problem is that American policy in the Middle East has been so skewed in favor of Israel, to the disaster of the U.S. reputation, let alone Arab human rights, that this has inevitably raised the suspicion about Jewish politicians, Are they Zionists? How important is Zionism, which is so central to American Jewish religious and organizational life, in their world view?
And I would say that for politicians like Chuck Schumer, Anthony Wiener, Jerrold Nadler, and Jane Harman, they don't just happen to be Jewish. They're Jewish and love Israel, and they're influential. Which is why I want an open accounting of Zionism in American Jewish life.
Jeffrey Blankfort, working on a book about the Israel lobby and the issue of Jewish responsibility, makes the same point re the great English MP Gerald Kaufman:
and in the UK, and one never hears his name mentioned by Jewish peace
groups in the US or invited here to speak. Why not? Because his home
truths make most of our peaceniks want to run home to mommy…
You know in my researches I have never found a single statement by any Jewish member of Congress that is even mildly critical of Israel. What is it about American Jews on this issue? Were they in schul when god passed out the cojones?
