I keep meaning to mention this. On Sunday at the Miami Book Fair, Norman Podhoretz talked about his book, Why Are Jews Liberals? (a somewhat disingenuous title; he should have called it, Jews Shouldn’t Be Liberals). And he said that Jews had fallen for Obama the way that they had fallen for the Shabbatai Tzvi in the 1600s, until the Shabbatai shattered all their illusions and converted to Islam. Obama is the liberal Jews’ Shabbatai Tzvi, Podhoretz said in so many words. Meaning? That Obama is a secret Muslim? Or that he is aimed at destroying Israel? Nopod didn’t spell that out.
Many Jews on my side of the Israel question liken Israel to the Shabbatai Tzvi– in that support for the Jewish state has drawn on traditional, messianic feeling in Jewish life. Marc Ellis has made this point. I’m forgetting who else right now, but it’s a common analogy. We have been told to worship the Merkava tank, and we do. The neoconservative Iraq war and the Gaza slaughter are serving to unconvert some.
