"zionist Leaders Diss Edwards, Kiss Hillary"
"The Jewish perception is that Hillary’s going to win," said a Jewish official who spoke on condition of anonymity. "So Jews want to be with the winning team, and want to be there early."
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"Iran has become the new bellwether for the Jewish community. Historically, Jewish voters were most concerned about whether candidates supported Israel. Now that support for Israel is universal in Washington, the new test is how tough the candidates are on Iran, and whether they favor Israel taking pre-emptive action."
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The John Edwards presidential campaign has a problem. Set to announce the appointment of former Rep. David Bonior as campaign manager in a few days, Edwards' strategists began to realize that the Michigan Democrat's strong support for Palestinians while Bonior was in Congress could hurt Edwards among American Jews.
And if Jewish voters started to get nervous about the former senator from North Carolina, a lot of dollars could be at stake.
Therefore Bonior has started making calls to influential American Jewish leaders, including some members of Congress, and to political donors. Bonior assured the leaders he would not be involved in Middle East policy, and said his appointment did not suggest any changes in Edwards's positions on Israel. But many Jewish leaders were still angry that their input was sought only after the decision had been made.
The move added Edwards to the Jewish list of Democratic presidential candidates whose support for Israel, while strong, has blemishes. Some of the leading White House candidates don't have long congressional voting records with which to assess their support for Israel, so Jewish voters use other indicators to gauge candidates, such as whom the candidates are associating with, and how often the candidates talk about Middle East issues when they aren't speaking in front of Jews.
Thus far, many Jewish Democrats have rallied behind Hillary Clinton. And although Jews love Giuliani because of his support for Israel, many influential Jewish Republicans have not taken sides in what they view as a wide-open GOP race.
A higher percentage of Jews vote than the general public, and many are active political donors. This time around, Jews could play an even larger role in both the primary and general elections.
Historically, Jews have lent most of their support to Democrats and to liberal causes. But as more Republicans have embraced Israel, the GOP has been gaining in the Jewish community in recent years. Bush garnered about 25 percent of the Jewish vote in 2004, up from 19 percent in 2000. Jewish support was seen as helpful in winning electoral votes for Bush in Ohio and Florida.
In 2008, Jewish votes could help in the primaries, because several states with large Jewish populations -- including California, Florida, and New York -- will vote on or before February 5. That's why Democrats have been actively pursuing Jewish supporters and donors.
Many Jewish leaders see the Clinton campaign as the most organized and the most pro-israel, and a lot of support has already coalesced around her.
"The Jewish perception is that Hillary’s going to win," said a Jewish official who spoke on condition of anonymity. "So Jews want to be with the winning team, and want to be there early."
Advisers in the Jewish community say Clinton has said and done the right things since being elected to the Senate in 2000, including leading the effort in Congress to have the International Red Cross recognize the Israeli branch known as Magen David Adom. "She has built a relationship with the Jewish community in New York that shows how she has evolved," a Jewish official said.
Barack Obama has made inroads with Jews that are opposed to the Iraq war, but Jews are not happy that Obama aligned himself with Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Carter's national security adviser, who defended the Mearschiemer-Walt book The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy.
Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the umbrella organization for American Jewish groups (including AIPAC), said Brzezinski is a concern to many in the Jewish community because of his positions on Israel.
"If a candidate doesn't have a track record of supporting Israel, then we focus on who's advising him," a Jewish official said. "Who are the voices that influence them? Who has access to the candidate's ear?"
Obama and Edwards have surrounded themselves with Jewish community leaders and supporters in an attempt to offset Jewish concerns. Obama advisers also stress that Brzezinski will not be advising Obama on Israeli affairs.
On the Republican side, Giuliani has attracted early support from Republican Jews. It helps that Giuliani was mayor in a city with a large Jewish population, and Giuliani is well known for his strong ties to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Giuliani also scored points for kicking Arafat out of a concert for world leaders in 1995.
"The Orthodox community in New York is obviously not the only Orthodox community in the country, but it's the largest," said one Jewish leader, speaking of the more conservative strand of Judaism. "And so far, they are going with what they know, and that's Rudy."
Elsewhere in the country, Jews are concerned about Giuliani’s and McCain’s electability. "It's disconcerting," said Fred Zeidman, a Republican fundraiser in Houston and the chairman of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, who has been raising money for McCain. "None of us are making serious headway in the Jewish community."
Some analysts said Jewish donors may be more likely to give once the candidates discuss their Middle East policies. Positions may become clearer on October 16, when the GOP contenders gather in Washington to address the Republican Jewish Coalition. At that meeting, most of the candidates will address an audience interested primarily in the Middle East, and some campaigns will use the forum to discuss where they stand on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and their views on dealing with Iran.
Indeed, Iran has become the new bellwether for the Jewish community. Historically, Jewish voters were most concerned about whether candidates supported Israel. Now that support for Israel is a universal policy position in Washington, the new test is how tough the candidates will be against Iran, and whether they would favor Israel taking pre-emptive action.
Source:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21266470/
