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American Jews on War
and Peace:
What Do the Polls Tell Us and
Not Tell Us?
By James Petras
12/17/07 "ICH" --- - Once again, a
poll recently released by the American Jewish Committee (AJC)
(1) has confirmed that on some questions of major
significance there are vast differences between the opinion of
the Presidents of the Major American Jewish Organizations and
the mass of American Jews. 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.
www.ajc.org/site/c.1J1TSPHKoG/b.36428551
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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