|
Profile: Pro-Israel Stance Helping to Link American Jews, The Republican Party and Conservative Christians Politically
All Things Considered: May 16, 2002
 Jewish - Christian Conservative Alliance
JOHN YDSTIE, host:
Foreign policy sometimes creates strange political bedfellows, and that is certainly the case with the current crisis in the Mideast. American Jews are among the most reliable voting bloc for the Democratic Party. Eighty percent of the Jewish vote went to Al Gore in the 2000 election. But after the latest round of suicide bombings in Israel and President Bush's response to them, Jewish voters are taking a new look at their Republican president and liking what they see. They're also finding an unlikely new ally in their support for Israel: religious conservatives, the same voters who consistently back the Republican Party. NPR's Mara Liasson reports.
MARA LIASSON reporting:
The evidence of growing support for President Bush among American Jews is anecdotal, but it's easy to find. Take the recent trip to south Florida of Ari Fleischer, President Bush's press secretary. Fleischer spoke at synagogues in Boca Raton and Aventura, two communities filled with the kinds of liberal Democratic Jewish voters that made south Florida one of the strongest bases of support for the Lieberman-Gore ticket. Fleischer says that's why he wasn't prepared for the response he got.
Mr. ARI FLEISCHER (White House Press Secretary): I could just feel it. It was unbelievable in those synagogues, how there was a warmth toward President Bush. And Jewish voters on Florida's east coast are not where you expect to feel that type of support for President Bush, but it's out there now.
LIASSON: According to Rabbi Richard Agler, who leads the congregation of B'nai Israel in Boca Raton, the reason is simple: President Bush's staunch support for Israel.
Rabbi RICHARD AGLER (B'nai Israel): There's a great openness and there's great delight, actually, and approval in the president's policies towards Israel. At the same time, this has been a cause that's been very vocally taken up by, again, the political and media right wing. And it's a very new and interesting thing for Jews to feel so affirmative and supportive of this section of the political spectrum.
LIASSON: Some of Rabbi Agler's congregants are surprised at the changes in their own thinking.
Rabbi AGLER: People are saying, `You know, my God, I'm thinking I may vote Republican.' Then people say just like that, `I can't believe I'm saying this, but.' People have come up to me and said things like, `Rabbi, did you see Alan Keyes on television last night? Isn't he wonderful?' And this is something that I hadn't heard before, I'll tell you that much.
LIASSON: Here's another snapshot of shifting attitudes in the Jewish community. Earlier this month, readers of The New York Times and Washington Post found a half-page ad reprinting a column by Ralph Reed, the former head of the Christian Coalition. The title was `We People of Faith Stand Firmly with Israel(ph).' The ad was paid for by the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith. In the past, the ADL has issued reports excoriating the religious right as a danger. Abraham Foxman, the national director of the ADL, says his group will continue to disagree with Christian fundamentalists on school prayer and other church-state issues. But now, Foxman says, it's a moment of crisis for Israel.
Mr. ABRAHAM FOXMAN (Anti-Defamation League): And a time of crisis is when people who are friends stand up. And people have said to me, you know, `You published Reverend Reed.' I said, `Well, give me an op-ed written by a liberal minister on the left, and I would be delighted to publish it and promote it.' The Jewish community today feels more vulnerable than it's felt in 50 years, since World War II. Any voice that stands up clearly, loudly and says, `I support you. I am with you,' will get a standing ovation.
LIASSON: Speaking of standing ovations, listen to the rapturous reception that Tom DeLay, the conservative Republican whip of the House, received last month when he appeared before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the leading pro-Israel lobbying group in Washington.
Unidentified Man: Ladies and gentlemen, a friend of Israel, a friend of democracy all over the world and a real mensch, Tom DeLay.
SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE
LIASSON: Tom DeLay has become Israel's fiercest ally in Congress even though he represents Sugar Land, Texas, a suburb of Houston and hardly a hotbed of Jewish voters. But it is a hotbed of support for Israel because so many of DeLay's constituents are evangelical Christians. For many Christian conservatives, the survival of Israel has become a hot-button issue second only to abortion. Gary Bauer is a Christian conservative leader in Washington.
Mr. GARY BAUER (Christian Conservative Leader): If you look at research on the American public, it tends to be pro-Israel. Republicans are more pro-Israel than the general public, and conservative Republicans and religious Republicans are even more pro-Israel than Republicans and conservatives, generally. So it's an important issue, and I think it's generated quite a bit of mail and e-mails to the White House in recent weeks.
LIASSON: Of course, those e-mails didn't appear spontaneously. Gary Bauer wrote the letter to the White House, along with several other Christian conservative leaders, demanding that the administration end pressure on Ariel Sharon to withdraw from the West Bank. But Bauer himself said he was surprised at how easy it was to generate a dramatic response to the letter from the religious conservative rank-and-file.
Why are evangelical Christians so committed to Israel? Marshall Whitman, a Jewish conservative who had the unusual distinction of serving as the legislative director of the Christian Coalition, says the roots of the commitment are theological.
Mr. MARSHALL WHITMAN (Jewish Conservative): The religious right and religious conservatives have always felt a very significant tie towards Israel. It goes back before the Balfour Declaration to a document called the Bible. They take it very seriously that the Jewish people are God's chosen people and they were given the land of Israel.
LIASSON: As the religious conservative movement matured and became more fervently embedded in the Republican Party, it also supported Israel for ideological reasons: because it was a democracy and a strong ally of the US in the war against terrorism. At the big pro-Israel rally in Washington last month, two of the most prominent speakers were conservative commentator Bill Bennett, a devout Catholic, and Gary Bauer; two people, says Marshall Whitman, you would not normally see at Jewish gatherings.
Mr. WHITMAN: At this time when Israel's survival is perceived as being under attack, these types of allies are looked to in ways that the Jewish community has not viewed them in the past. I'm not saying that there's going to be a sea change transformation politically, but what this is, is a new courting process for the Jewish community and conservative politicians and, indeed, religious conservatives.
LIASSON: The courting occurs at many levels. ADL head Abraham Foxman visits with President Bush at the White House frequently. Foxman says the Republicans have succeeded in opening a door to Jewish voters. But he points out that door began to open even before the current crisis in the Middle East. George W. Bush got 20 percent of the Jewish vote in 2000, a small number indeed, but a lot more than the 9 percent his father received in 1992.
Mr. FOXMAN: At a time when Joe Lieberman, you know, made history by being the first Jew on a national ticket, and many thought or believed that Republicans would get nothing--5 percent--and yet the governor received more than twice than his father received, that indicates to me that there is a slow shift in terms of Jewish voters and the Republican Party.
LIASSON: Although traditionally most Jews vote Democratic because of their commitment to social justice and civil rights, the crisis in the Middle East is increasing the number of Jewish voters who consider Israel the most important issue, and that's where the Republicans have the best opening. How big an opening isn't clear, but even a small increase in the number of Jewish votes could make a huge difference for Republican candidates in key states like Florida. Mara Liasson, NPR News, Washington.
Copyright ©2002 National Public Radio®. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to National Public Radio. This transcript may not be reproduced in whole or in part without prior written permission. For further information, please contact NPR's Permissions Coordinator at (202) 513-2000.
This transcript was created by a contractor for NPR, and NPR has not verified its accuracy. For all NPR programs, the broadcast audio should be considered the authoritative
version.
|
