Jewish Obama buyers beware

Sitting at the Purim Spiel (an annual Jewish fundraiser where Broadway stars perform to raise money for the Birthright Israel Foundation) and waiting for the stage lights to dim, I began chatting with a friend about how exciting it is to see a resurgence of young Jewish conservatives in New York.

An elderly Jewish couple sitting directly behind me overheard our conversation and just as the lights began to fade the wife learned forward in her chair, tapped me on the shoulder and informed me, “There is no such thing as a Jewish Republican.”

As I sat back in my seat—listening to the shtick of Israeli comedian Modi Rosenfeld—I began to think to myself, it’s this type of attitude that explains why so many Jews voted for President Barack Obama in the first place. Because despite his staunchly pro-Israel stance, it was under the direction of George W. Bush that the hegemonic power of the United States fundamentally waned. And a lessening of power in the U.S. has an equally adverse affect upon the ability of Israel to project the necessary power to sustain it own existence.

Although Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) had a much clearer vision for Israel during the election (and a far more impressive resume in regards to the Jewish state), many American Jewish voters saw Obama as a departure from the Republican Party rather then a candidate in and of himself. And regardless of his vague stance on the Israel, many American Jews believed that Obama would continue the basic policies prescriptions of his predecessors towards the Jewish state, but without the negative connotations a new Republican President might have impressed upon the international community. A majority of Jewish voters feared McCain would pursue a continuation of hard power politics, as defined by the Bush doctrine, that might in the long term prove more detrimental to Israeli affairs then a kinder or more passive Obama might.