"I apologize for the Jewish vote for Obama"

It may well be too late... but....


"I apologize for the Jewish vote for Obama"

The Jewish Journal

SOURCE

Dear Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin:

This is my public apology to John McCain, Sarah Palin, Republican
voters, Christian evangelicals, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Mike
Gallagher and everyone else in the non-Jewish universe who stands
four-square behind the State of Israel.

While you have written, spoken and, yes, even prayed in strong
opposition to any retrofitting of American policy on behalf of the
Jewish state, nearly eight out of every 10 American Jews failed to
demonstrate similar resolve on Election Day.

Those dancing along with the Democratic faithful in Grant Park
included Jews from almost all sectors of American life: young and
old, Reconstructionist and Orthodox, wealthy and poor. So enamored
were the revelers of the symbolism of electing a man of color to the
Oval Office that they fatefully overlooked what he stands for
and,worse, what he will not stand against.

Who would have ever imagined that it would fall to our non-Jewish
neighbors to take up the cause of Israel's survival and the necessity
to be ever vigilant against the gathering clouds of Holocaust II?

In the wake of such Jewish philistinism, how am I to respond to my
non-Jewish friends who wonder, with increasingly vocal and
justifiable irritation, why Protestants and Catholics and Mormons
recognize the threat that electing Barack Obama poses to Israel's
existence, yet the vast majority of American Jews won't?

All that I can say, really, is "I am profoundly sorry."

And, please, let me be very clear for what sin I beg forgiveness.

For generations, the Jewish people craved legitimacy and community.
Only in America, since the establishment of the State of Israel, have
the Jews found a country and a vast portion of its non-Jewish
populace to stand side by side with us as true friends and allies.

And how do we repay this miracle? By leaving those who stand with us
standing alone.

It is not that I wish my non-Jewish friends to be understanding of
the 78 percent of American Jewish voters who cast their ballots for
Obama, even when they were well aware of his proclivities to
associate with anti-Jewish, anti-Israel friends and preachers. I do
not forgive such willful callowness.

Nor do I make apologies for those American Jewish leaders, such as
Marc Stanley of the National Democratic Jewish Council, who sought to
minimize Obama's close personal ties to Jew haters, such as Rashid
Khalidi, by touting all the good Hamas has provided to downtrodden
Palestinians. Indeed, on Election Day, Stanley actually told
conservative talk show host Gallagher that in Gaza, Hamas "is the
United Way." (If I were the United Way, I'd sue for slander.)

I wish no forgiveness and make no apologies for the Marc Stanleys of
our community. For them, I must draw deep upon my Jewish neshamah
(breath) to feel anything but scorn.

No, it is on behalf of the 22 percent of American Jewry — including
myself — who had the reasoned sense and maturity not to vote for the
feel-good candidate, that I offer my humblest apologies to our non-
Jewish countrymen.

We have not been good shepherds of our brothers and sisters. We have
forgotten both our biblical and modern history — wherein a minority
of Jews has always been required to exercise true leadership. We
failed to act soon enough and forcefully enough to prevent nearly
four out of every five of our kin from wandering off in the political
desert.

While the political pundits speak of this being the first post-baby
boom American election, we should have measured the significance for
Jewish people differently.

The Jews in the world today are in a transitional period. We are the
conduit generations — bridging the pre-Israel, pre-Holocaust world of
our people with a future that will not be ours. Our role, the
responsibility of our lifetimes, is to always act and behave on
behalf of all who perished at the hands of evil and to be guardians
for those still unborn who will inherit the fortune and folly of our
deeds.

To our past and our future, I also apologize for our insufficient
leadership.

For now, we must leave the Lost Tribes of Obama on their own. If
their ears could not hear and their eyes could not see all the pre-
election warnings that a President Obama may cost Israel its very
survival, and in a domino effect destabilize the Western world and
America, I have yet to discover the magic words that would wake them
from their trance.

Instead, I believe the immediate focus and the tasks ahead must fall
to those of us in the politically incorrect minority — just 22 out of
every 100 American Jewish voters.

What do we do now?

I don't yet know the answer. I do know that we can no longer count on
sensibility to save the day. I do know that the people, countries and
way of life we hold most dear are under serious assault, and we are
summoned to disrupt the calmness of our pre-election lives to
acknowledge as much. And I do know that we can't count on non-Jewish
allegiance to have eternal patience.

This is no simple lost election where we lick our wounds and pledge
to fight on for another day. On Nov. 4, the world, especially the
Jewish world, was set on a new, frightening course, and we must
soberly acknowledge as much.

A month before the election, Anne Bayefsky, a senior fellow at the
Hudson Institute, warned that not since Hitler's time has
civilization teetered so perilously on the brink of catastrophe.

"So when you cast your ballot this election, make no mistake: You are
voting for or against a nuclear holocaust," she wrote.

Nuclear holocaust won.

Dean Rotbart, a former columnist and news editor at The Wall Street
Journal, is a Los Angeles-based publisher of media-related Internet
sites. He can be reached at dr@deanrotbart. com.
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dear_sen_mccain_ and_gov_palin_ i_apologize_ for_the_jewish_ vote_for_ obama_200/