Hoyer strives to keep Jewish vote for Dems

[Freddie Stubbs]

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer’s (D-Md.) speech Monday to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) will cap a yearlong strategy aimed at preventing an exodus of Jewish voters from Democratic ranks.

In response to renewed Republican efforts to capture Jewish voters and donors from the Democrats’ traditional base, Hoyer has implemented a multiprong plan to make support for Israel a touchstone of Democratic policy, say lawmakers, aides and party operatives.

In addition to leading a 29-member congressional delegation to Israel last August, Hoyer has urged non-Jewish Democrats to voice support for Israel. At the same time, he has sought to dissuade lawmakers — mostly members of the Congressional Black Caucus — from casting “protest votes” on nonbinding, but nevertheless highly symbolic votes critical of Israel.

Hoyer, along with many Democrats, privately worried that last December’s House vote on solidarity with Israel in the fight against terrorism — along with President Bush’s vocal support for Israel — might trigger a realignment of Jewish voting loyalties.

more: http://www.thehill.com/news/121003/vote.aspx

[La_Serpiente]

1. Oh, that ever so wonderful AIPAC

why don't they talk to APN sometimes.

Tom Delay's belief:

“Tom DeLay believes that Israel represents a clear-cut case of good versus evil, of democracy and standing up against oppressive regimes, and let the political chips fall where they may,” said DeLay spokesman Stuart Roy.

The Last time I checked, Delay wanted to put the entire Palestinian region under Martial Law and implement a Marshall plan. That would really piss off the world and make the US number one on the terrorists' hit list. He also has a "religious" connection with Israel, that is why he supports it. I wonder what that "religious" connection is.

[Freddie Stubbs]

3. What is APN?

Asia-Pacific Network? That is the first link that came up on a gooble search for APN.

[La_Serpiente]

5. Americans for Peace Now

http://www.peacenow.org/

More Jews identify with APN then they do with AIPAC (or so I have been told). AIPAC blindly and unhesitantly supports Israel. I would say more, but that would be a discussion for the I/P room since some people may disagree with me.

[Freddie Stubbs]

7. How many members do they have?

I have never heard of this organization. One would think that an organization with this much support would get more support on Capitol Hill.

[La_Serpiente]

10. Here is what I think

I think AIPAC cut off the other voices within the Jewish community from the Democratic and Republican leadership. The Anti-Defamation league is another one too.

Those are the ones with the money. These are the ones that most of the Democratic Jewish party leadership identify with.

Overall, I think "most" American Jews do no really know about Americans for Peace Now, but support their platform overwhelmingly.

Here are some polls:

http://my.core.com/~fccnaper/AlternateVoice/information/polls.htm

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

8. Thanks for this link!

I know that many many many Jews aren't in lockstep with what Sharon is doing in Israel (about half the Sufi folks I hang around with are Jewish!), and I'm glad to get a link to an organization that expresses their point of view.

[pistoff democrat]

2. I hope this works!

Jews historically have voted 80% democratic...we've got to keep it that way.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. If Jews as a group

vote Republican, I see the Democrats moving away from immediate approval of whatever AIPAC wants, especially if they capture the Muslim vote in this country (Muslim-Americans have tended to vote GOP in the past, but their treatment after 911 has caused many, if not most, to say they'll vote Dem-according to an NPR report I heard a while back).

Does anyone have statistics on the number of Jewish voters in this country and the number of Muslim voters? Also, which voter base is growing the fastest? This may also be a factor in what happens after 2004 and what groups the parties court.

[La_Serpiente]

6. I saw them somewhere

brb

[eyesroll]

9. Jews are not a monolith re: Israel!

:argh::argh::argh:

I was born and raised Jewish. Although I'm not religious, I still identify strongly as a cultural Jew. And you know where I rank Israel on my voting-issues list? Pretty damn low, barring extremes. (And I am probably not alone as a Gen X Jew who believes both Israeli and Palestinian interests just need to stop the cycle of bomb-retaliate-bomb-retaliate and stop blaming each other sit down and figure this thing out once and for all, with a credible, dare I even say evenhanded, negotiator. )

I know of no Jews who are single-issue voters regarding Israel.

Perhaps once we've figured out war and poverty and bigotry and democracy and health care and all of that, I'll think about Israel. I can't imagine anyone saying, "well, the Democrats are right on everything, but some of the CBC criticized Israel, so I'll have to go over to the Republican side." If they do, they were just waiting for an excuse anyway.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

11. Thanks for the insight

I didn't know how strong/weak the tie was with Jewish voters and Israel. I have many Catholic friends who will vote for or against someone strictly on their abortion stance, and I didn't know if it was the same for Jews and Israel.

[eyesroll]

12. Most of the Jews I know are reform or secular

I don't have a lot of exposure to orthodox Jews, though, so perhaps their outlook is different, although I don't think they vote monolithically either.

I suppose Israel could be a deal-breaker for me or someone in my family, but only at the extremes. Meaning: I won't vote for someone who thinks Israel should just get nuked into oblivion. I won't vote for someone who thinks we need genocide for the Palestinians. For most anything else in between, it's less of an issue.

[Hawkeye-X]

13. Good to find a fellow Jew

who ranks Israel the same way I feel about it. I just think a theocratic state is a completely bad idea. Yes, I support Israel, but only to an extent that it exists, but not just for Jewish people only. The only way to do this is just sit down, shut up, and talk and figure out a way to co-exist peacefully and remove terrorists from Israel.

My parents and I disagree about Israel, and we're all of the same party (my dad is a conservative Democrat though, not Zell-Miller like, but likes Lieberman, but will be disappointed when Lieberman drops out in a couple of weeks)

Hawkeye-X