Ron Kampeas of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency is a good journalist to acknowledge the murmur in the discourse, Why is “Jewish influence” so “pervasive” in our political culture? But his answer (below), that Jews are engaged constituents who go out into the freezing rain to leaflet, is pure mystification.
Kampeas purports to be dealing with Middle East policy– “The lobby– a crash course” is his headline.
This is a legitimate and important question, and any honest answer would first engage the matter of our wealth, that we are the richest group by religion in the U.S., as Ynet has shown. And that we give more than half the Democratic presidential donations, per the Washington Post, and now the Wall Street Journal warns that the Republicans are peeling off “Jewish donors” from Obama. Over Israel.
An honest answer would also speak of Jewish numbers in the media. Consider: An American politician is told that Jews love Israel, and then he wanders out into a media terrain heavily populated by Jews, from Andrea Mitchell to Howard Fineman to Tom Friedman to David Brooks to Rob’t Bazell (I’m guessing) to both hosts of All Things Considered, and so forth– well that politician is going to love Israel too!
The problem, I insist, is not Jewish numbers. Societies have elites, they always have. The problem is that there is not an open discussion of Jewish attitudes on the Jewish state, that war has not broken out inside that elite over two simple questions: Do you feel unsafe in America? Do you feel a need for a Jewish state to escape to if things get too hot over here? That is an essential conversation for Jews to have. In the meantime, we are simply in denial about our success inside American society, and our safety. And Kampeas, who owns property in the Israeli occupation, is hardly a reliable guide on these questions. His take:
I’m forced to deal with, more frequently than anyone could possibly stand, theories of why Jewish influence is so pervasive in the United States.
Is it money, is it threats of ostracism, or is it just that America loves Zion?
A little of each, maybe, but the answer is so wonkish, it defies sexiness: Jews are involved politically.
We join together as a community and we contribute a chunk of our earnings to pay folks to insert themselves into the political process through lobbying and activism. Beyond that, we volunteer our hours to activism and lobbying.
AIPAC is persuasive, above all, because it can get 6,000-plus people up to the Hill each year.
But the key is the holistic quality of the involvement: Every election, every decision is important.
And not just about Israel, about everything: Immigration, health, religious freedoms, the economy.
None of it is made up, or faked.
Politicians listen to Jews because Jews tend to ask them incisive questions, on just about everything.
As anyone who has leafleted a suburb in a freezing November rain will explain to you, there is no better match made than that between a pol and an involved constituent.
“Politicians listen to Jews because Jews tend to ask them incisive questions, on just about everything.”
Until this point I thought this guy was serious.
Jews are influential because they are united and borderline paranoiac (the whole world hates us, etc.). Once you also have the money and the media it’s pretty easy to have a huge influence by presenting a united front. I’m talking mainly about the support for Israel, as I’m not aware of any other issue that is supported by Jews with such fervour.
It’s entirely a matter of leverage. Zionist Jews aren’t just rich, although certainly some of them are among the world’s richest persons. It’s the fact that they leverage their money, they put it where their interest lies, in Israel. They donate, heavily. And when they’re pissed off, the donors call up and threaten to withdraw their funds. And when they’re challenged, they use all their clout to discredit the challengers.
Muslim and Arab voters in the US will soon greatly outnumber Jewish ones, but these communities aren’t mobilized – not for Palestine. There are reasons for this, largely fear and intimidation, as well as facist US laws designed to inhibit donation to Palestinians causes. But voters don’t count in this contest.
“Do you feel a need for a Jewish state to escape to if things get too hot over here?”
Oh yes, absolutely! And, it goes without saying, when that day comes, I expect a good year to transfer all my assets, sell my property, convert my money at advantageous rates, and book a first-class flight to Israel at charter rates. If America does any less before they kick us out, I’ll be the first one to scream “anti-Semitism!” Actually, I think America should pay for the trip out. That is if they care about the common Jewish people, the oy-polloi.
“Politicians listen to Jews because Jews tend to ask them incisive questions, on just about everything.”
Questions like: ‘Who was that lady I saw you with last night?’
“The problem is that there is not an open discussion of Jewish attitudes on the Jewish state, that war has not broken out inside that elite over two simple questions: Do you feel unsafe in America? Do you feel a need for a Jewish state to escape to if things get too hot over here?”
You are getting nowhere because you are asking the wrong questions. The Jews in America are divided according to this question:
Do you care about the Jewish community in general and the Jewish community in Israel in particular?
Most of your life you didn’t care at all about the Jewish community. Now you care in order to make Jews in the US care less about the Jews in Israel. You care about the Jewish community in order to divide it. I am not sure that this is what is meant by “caring” about something.