Hey, Morrie Amitay and Repubican Jewish Coalition–eat my dust! They plunked down over a cool mil to finance a scummy anti-Democrat campaign during the mid-terms and what do they have to show for it?
American Jews expressed flagrant support for Democratic candidates for Congress, contributing to a turnaround in the House of Representatives. According to a CNN sampling of voters, 87 percent of Jewish voters voted Democrat.
This was the highest percentage of support for Democrats since the Republicans took over Congress in 1994.
The Republican Party tried to frighten Jewish voters during the election campaign, primarily with their ads in Jewish newspapers, but no one was buying.
In this election, Jews voted for candidates they thought would be good for Israel, but not necessarily the ones who would be the best for Israel, said Steve Rabinowitz, an elections expert who served in the White House during the Clinton era.
Hey, Morrie and RJC, I warned you you were wasting your money. You should’ve spared yourself and donated the funds to UJA. It would’ve helped Israel far more than the way you actually spent it. In fact, an argument might be made that American Jews saw through the ads and were so offended by them that those who might otherwise have considered voting Repubican either didn’t vote at all or voted Democrat. That’s an unscientific assessment. But Jews are pretty smart folks and know a political con when they see one.
Other interesting tidbits from this story:
Additionally, the number of Jews in Congress is expected to increase: Bernie Sanders (Independent) from Vermont and Ben Cardin (Democrat) from Maryland will raise the number of Jewish Senators from 11 to 13 out of 100 – in a nation where Jews comprise only 5 million of the 300 million person population.
There are some 25 Jewish representatives in the House of Representatives, several of whom are expected to chair important House committees in the future.
Hat tip to loyal reader Dan Sniderman.
Thanks for the credit (which I got from reading other blogs somewhere else – can’t remember which one)… One thing I would also like to point out – this is also a defaat for our “Good Friends” over at AIPAC who have been closely aligning themselves with the Republican Party as Eric Alterman explains here
Yes, & do read the Michael Massing article which Alterman links to there. It’s first rate stuff. In fact, prob. the best overview of Aipac & the Israel Lobby I’ve read. Far better than Walt-Mearsheimer in that it doesn’t overstate or slant the case. Just cold hard facts w. lots of terrific analysis. Massing also published either the same piece of something similar in the NY Review of Books a few months after the W-M essay came out.