Why Jews don't support Israel but will vote for Obama?

Two of us with Jewish friends would like an answer as to why Jews don’t support Israel and are pro-Obama.

We were both surprised to discover that both of our friends and their families are full throtle for Obama. Each of us asked the same question: How can you be for Obama? Don’t you care what happens to Israel?. And each answered the same: Israel can take care of itself.

I’m looking at our ally being surrounded by Arabs who want all Jews off the face of the earth, and the Jews here don’t seem to care. After years of hearing Christians didn’t do enough during WWII for the Jews, how can they be so callous?

Catholics are saying “You can’t be a Catholic and vote Democratic.” Why aren’t Jews saying same? Do they really want to see this coming slaughter?

  1. Israel is less an ally than a client.

  2. I have Jewish cousins. They are Obama supporters and feel as has been reported to you - Israel can take of itself. You can be an American or other Jew without having any allegiance to Israel. Also, there are no Arab countries that could defeat Israel, so a Holocaust is not a possibility.

  3. Being Catholic is a religious identity. Being Jewish is not necessarily the same. There are religious Jews and there are those for whom being Jewish is an ethnic consideration only.

  4. There are a lot of reasons why Jews, the rich and the poor, remain loyal to the Democratic Party that go back to at least the beginning of the 20th century.

One of my Jewish attorney colleagues told me his priorities were Supreme Court appointments and Israel. SCOTUS was his first priority, so he remains an Obama supporter. Somewhat reluctantly, I might add. All my other Jewish attorney friends remain with Obama based on his domestic policy agenda. They seem to believe that, when push comes to shove, the US will bail out Israel if hostilities commence.

I think there are many people who need to realize that Israel is a nation-state and that no Jew has any obligation to support it. Unfortunately though there are many who would label those who don’t support Israel as anti-Semetic (sorry, beside the point). I know or know of many Jewish people who think no differently towards Israel than they do the U.S. or any other country, some are completely indifferent.

The thread premise and other comments are correct.

However, it should be remembered as well that President Obama’s administration has suffered a marked decline from American Jews. Any number of news articles reflects this. It seems I heard on the radio too, Obama’s support from Jews has dropped from 80% to 69% (figure not in the following article).


All the same, those parts at the Democrat National Convention surely can not help Obama’s campaign. Still, the Jewish vote is a long time bloc Democrats in general can count on.

Bottom line again, there has still been a noticeable decline in support.

My friend/owner of the company is a Jew and he fully supports Obama. As far as Israel goes, he thinks they should go back to the '67 borders. He thinks they can take care of themselves.

He does not like religious Jews. For him Jewish is cultural, at best.

He is third generation born in USA and has no particular allegiance to Israel. His great grandparents came from Prussia before WW1. He is not a practicing jew; actually he is agnostic/atheist. He is interested/curious about world religions. He was at work on Rosh Hashana.

I have a better question since this is a Catholic forum. Why are Catholics so supportive of a political party which has as part of it’s platform…support for and encouragement of abortion…on demand.:shrug:

Ummm… there are plenty of threads about this already and you need to search them out or make a new thread. Your post adds nothing to this thread’s subject discussion.

It adds something, I never thought of it as an analogy but I think it’s a valid one.

Or adding on,. does merit consideration and reflection. It does seem similar in ways.

This said, if I am not mistaken, conservative Jewish radio host Michael Medved I believe has said, and I add an important condition here, should not have to support Israel or any other country in the world. I think that’s the way he put it.

When war breaks out in the Middle East though, the US often probably bridles Israel as much as helps it.

On the board is another post…Islam, the misunderstood story…or something like that. Look at the left column of titles. Please read the poster’s rant against Jews…and the rest of us too. It is unbelievable.

1967…wasn’t that the Sixth Day War? I was working and all had on their radios. We couldn’t believe Israel won. The office broke into cheers and the majority were Christians. The Raid on Entebbe was another unbelievable moment.

I couldn’t get the link in that discussion up. I must be in a different time zone or something.

It has been pulled.

No. It was taken down. I asked that it stay up so all could read what we’re dealing with but down it went.

One allegation was that the makers of the infamous film supposedly causing the murders and riots were Jews. How do they know this and what difference does it make?

A film was made that does not give anyone the right to go out and kill and then blame that killing on the makers of the film. Take responsiblity for your own actions.

Our God does not require us to go kill for Him so who is the Muslim god? He’s suppose to be the God of Abraham. How can He, our God, have such a different nature than their god? Bizarre.

Not true regarding some incidents in the Old Testament where He did give such orders.

Just read it. It is back up. Try again.

I’m not making value judgments here; just presenting data/poll results:

2012 Survey of American Jewish Opinion Highlights


US Jews strongly support Israel, new poll shows


Trends in Party Identification of Religious Groups: Jewish Support for GOP Rises

It’s almost 11 pm here in Israel, so I bid you all adieu.

Why, indeed…

Because Catholics are one issue voters?

It seems odd that any thread in World News that supports President Obama but has no link to a news story is closed by mods within seconds, but that these anti-President Obama threads are allowed to stay up…

I’m surely glad this is an apolitical forum that doesn’t take sides in secular politics…

I think I’ll come back to the forums after the election and see if it becomes a Catholic site again instead of a Republican site…

God bless
