American
Jews On War And Peace: What Do The Polls Tell Us
And Not Tell Us?
By
James Petras
18 December,
2007
James
Petras Site
Introduction
On questions
of the Iraq war, the escalation of US military forces in Iraq (the ‘Surge’)
and military action against Iran, most Jewish Americans differ from
the leaders of the major American Jewish organizations.
Most liberal,
progressive or radical Jewish commentators have emphasized these differences
to argue, “most American Jews resoundingly reject the Middle East
militarism and GOP foreign policy championed by right-wing Jewish factions.”(2)
This progressive interpretation however avoids an even more fundamental
question: How is it that a majority of US Jews who, according to the
AJC poll (and several others going back over two decades) differ with
the principal American Jewish organizations, have not or do not challenge
the position of the dominant Jewish organization, have virtually no
impact on the US Congress, the Executive and the mass media in comparison
to the Presidents of the Major American Jewish Organizations?
The issue
of the ‘silent majority’ is questionable since all Jewish
and non-Jewish commentators point to the highly vocal and disproportionate
rates of participation of American Jews in the political process, from
electoral campaigns to civil society movements. Not is it clear that
the progressive majority lacks the high incomes of the reactionary ‘minority’.
There are some Jewish millionaires and even a few billionaires who hold
views opposing the leadership of the major Jewish organizations. There
are several probable explanations that account for the power of Jewish
leaders in shaping US Middle East policy and the relative impotence
of the majority of American Jews.
The
Poll: A Re-Analysis
The poll
results highlighted by progressive Jewish analysts point to the 59%
to 31% majority of Jews disapproving the way the US is handling the
‘campaign against terror.” The problem with using the answers
to this question to indicate progressive opinion is that a number of
Zionist ideologues and their followers also oppose the ‘handling
of the campaign’ because it is not sufficiently brutal, authoritarian
and arbitrary. Other findings cited include a 67% to 27% majority currently
believing that the US should have stayed out of Iraq, a 76% to 23% majority
who believe the war is going ‘somewhat’ or ‘very badly’
in Iraq, a 68% to 30% majority believing that the ‘surge’
has either made things worse or has no impact.
Evem more
important, a large majority (57% to 35%) of American Jews oppose the
United States launching a pre-emptive military attack against Iran,
even if it were taken ‘to prevent (Iran) from developing nuclear
weapons.” The progressive analysts then cite the polls finding
that most American Jews are ‘some shade of liberal’ rather
than ‘conservative’ (42% to 25%) and overwhelmingly identified
as Democrats rather than Republicans by 58% to 15%. Most Jews believe
that Democrats will make the ‘right decisions on the war in Iraq
(61% to 21%). Finally, the progressives have very favorable views of
the top three Democratic presidential candidates.
On the surface
these polling results would suggest that American Jews would be at the
cutting edge of the congressional anti-war movements, arousing their
fellow Jews to join and resurrect the moribund peace movement. Nothing
of the sort has occurred.
One reason
for the gap between the ‘progressive’ polling results and
the actual pro-war behavior of the major American Jewish Organizations
is found in several of the opinions not cited by progressive analysts
but emphasized by the 52 leaders of the major communal organizations
(Daily Alert, December 13, 2007). Over eighty percent (82%) of American
Jews agree that ‘the goal of the Arabs is not the return of occupied
territories but rather the destruction of Israel’. Only 12% of
Jews disagree. And 55% to 37% do not believe Israel and its Arab neighbors
will settle their differences and live in peace. On the key issue of
a compromise on the key issue of Jerusalem, by 58% to 36% American Jews
reject an Israeli compromise to insure a framework for permanent peace.
Given the
high salience of being pro-Israel for the majority of American Jews
and the fact that the source of their identity stems more from their
loyalty to Israel than to the Talmud or religious myths and rituals,
then it is clear that both the ‘progressive, majority of Jews
and the reactionary minority who head up all the major American Jewish
organizations have a fundamental point of agreement and convergence:
Support and identity with Israel and its anti-Arab prejudices, its expansion
and the dispossession of Palestine. This overriding convergence allows
the reactionary Presidents of the Major Jewish Organizations in America
to speak for the Jewish community with virtually no opposition from
the progressive majority either within or without their organizations.
By raising the Israeli flag, repeating clichés about the ‘existential
threat’ to Israel at each and every convenient moment, the majority
of Jews have bowed their heads and acquiesced or, worst, subordinated
their other ‘progressive’ opinions to actively backing the
leaders ‘identity’ with Israel. Their franchise on being
the recognized Jewish spokespeople intimidates and/or forces progressive
Jews to publicly abide to the line that ‘Israel (sic) knows what
is best for Israel’ and by extension for all American Jews who
identify with Israel.
A second
important factor in undermining progressive American Jewish activity
against US-Israeli war policy in the Middle East (Lebanon, Iran, Iraq
and Palestine) is the influence of Israeli public opinion. A Haaretz
report (December 9, 2007) documents a civil rights poll showing that
‘Israel has reached new heights of racism…’, citing
a 26% rise in anti-Arab incidents (Association for Civil Rights in Israel
Annual Report for 2007). The report cites the doubling of the number
of Jews expressing feelings of hatred to Arabs. Fifty percent of Israeli
Jews oppose equal rights for their Arab compatriots. According to a
Haifa University study, 74% of Jewish youth in Israel think that Arabs
are ‘unclean’.
Progressive
American Jews, identifying with a racist colonial state, face a dilemma:
Whether to act against their primary identity in favor of their progressive
opinions or whether to back Israel and submit to its American franchise
holders and recognized leaders.
Given these
issues, a serious analyst clearly must distinguish between ‘opinions’
and ‘commitment’. While a majority of American Jews may
voice private progressive opinions, their commitments based on their
identity as Jews rests with the State of Israel and its principal mouthpieces
in the US.
This probably
explains the unwillingness of progressive Jews to criticize the principal
reactionary Jewish leaders and their mass organizations, even worse
to attack and slander any critics of the pro-Israel power configuration.
Progressive Jews have subordinated their progressive opinions to their
loyalty and identity with Israel. Organizationally this has meant that
the majority of major American Jewish organizations are still led and
controlled by pro-war, pro-Israel leaders. Progressive Jewish organizations
are on the fringe of the organizational map, with virtually no influence
in the Congress or Presidency and backers of a pro-war Democratic Party
and Congress.
Progressive
analysts who cite overwhelming Jewish support for the Democratic Party,
its top three Presidential candidates and their preference for the liberal
label as differentiating them from the leaders of the major organizations,
commit an elementary logical and substantive fallacy. Liberals, like
the Clintons, supported the wars against Iraq and are among the driving
forces promoting a military attack on Iran. The Democratic majority
in Congress has backed every military appropriation demanded by the
Republicans and the White House. Being Democrat and ‘liberal’
is no indicator of being ‘progressive’ using any foreign
policy indicator, from the Middle East wars to destabilizations efforts
in Venezuela.
The apparent
paradox of progressive anti-war Jews contributing big bucks to pro-war
Democrats is based on the latter’s unconditional support for Israel
which trumps any ‘dissonance’ that might exist in the head
of progressive Jewish political activists.
With the
American Pro-Israel Power Configuration leading the way to savaging
the Naitonal Intelligence Estimate study, released in December 2007,
on the absence of an Iranian nuclear weapons program, progressive Jewish
opinion is silent or complicit. Worse still, progressive liberal and
radical Jewish peace activists have acted as gate-keepers in the anti-war
movement – prohibiting any criticism of Israel and labeling individuals
or citizen activists critical of the pro-war Zionist lobby as ‘anti-Semites’.
The AJC opinion
poll on the high proportion of American Jewish with more progressive
opinions than the leadership of all the major mainstream organizations
would be officially welcomed if it led to something else besides private
opinions compromised by Israeli identities.
Footnotes:
1.http://www.ajc.org/site/c.ijITI2PHKoG/b.3642849/
2.Glen Greenwald,
“New Poll Reveals How Unrepresentative Neo-Con Jewish Groups Are”,
on salon.com
James
Petras is the author of The Power of Israel in the United States
(Clarity Press 2006); The Rulers and the Ruled in the US Empire: Bankers,
Zionists and Militants (Clarity Press 2007)
He is a specialist on US Zionist politics and a close reader of the
Israeli and American Jewish Press.
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