Contrary to popular opinion, Jewish American's are big time in the Obama camp. I am comforted to know that the Lieberman's, Kristols and Black Hats of this world make up a minority voice in my tribe. - From today's Haaretz:
A new poll released by the Gallup organization on Thursday shows Jewish voters favor Barack Obama over John McCain by more than 3 to 1, with 74% saying they will vote for Obama over 22% for McCain.
The poll, which has interviewed over 650 Jewish registered voters each month since June, shows American Jews growing increasingly comfortable with Obama since July, when the Illinois Senator tied up the Democratic Party nomination. The poll shows support for McCain among Jews stood at a high of 34% in June, before beginning its downward turn in July after Obama's nomination.
The highest level of support for Obama according to the poll is among Jews over the age of 55, 74% of which have said they're voting for Obama over 67% of Jews 18 to 34. The Gallup organization says the disparity could be based on a greater inclination among Jews 18 to 34 to call themselves Conservative, but says a similar inclination isn't apparent among Jews aged 35 to 54, 68% of which polled by Gallup have said they're voting Obama.
The poll's findings show that in spite of a certain measure of trepidation among some Jewish voters towards Obama early in his campaign, he is set to receive the same percentage of the Jewish vote (74%) as John Kerry in 2004, and only slightly less than the 80% of the Jewish vote that Al Gore received in 2000 when he had a Jewish running mate in Joe Lieberman.
Earlier in October, a poll commissioned by researchers at New York University revealed that American Jews favor Obama over McCain by a 67 - 33 percent margin.
The survey, which sampled the opinions of over 3,000 respondents - half of them being Jewish - also found that Jews as an ethnic group will support Obama by almost 30 percent more than other white, non-Hispanic voters.
The poll sought to gauge the importance Jewish voters attach to Israel as a consideration in whom they would vote for, with some surprising results. Of all the Jews surveyed who said that Israel is of "high" importance, 63 percent said they would vote for Obama. In contrast, only 42 percent of Jews who said Israel has "very high" importance said they planned to vote for Obama.
Not surprisingly, the Jewish vote swings heavily in McCain's favor among the Orthodox. According to the survey, the Arizona senator can count on support from 75 percent of Orthodox Jewish voters.
Hit a Jew Day
Oct 24, 5:18 AM (ET)
By JIM SALTER
ST. LOUIS (AP) - At least four students from a suburban St. Louis middle school face punishment for allegedly hitting Jewish classmates during what they called "Hit a Jew Day."
The incident happened last week at Parkway West Middle School in Chesterfield.
District officials said Thursday they believe that fewer than 10 children of the district's 35 Jewish students were struck.
District spokesman Paul Tandy said that in most cases, the students were hit on the back of their shoulders but one student was slapped in the face.
It began with an unofficial "Spirit Week" among sixth-graders that started harmlessly enough with a "Hug a Friend Day." Then there was "High Five Day."
Soon, though, the days moved from friendly to silly. Next there was "Hit a Tall Person Day" and, finally, "Hit a Jew Day."
District officials believe a handful of children were directly involved. Those who actually struck classmates could face suspension and required counseling, Tandy said. Others who weren't directly involved but taunted Jewish students or egged on classmates could face lesser penalties.
"There is a mix of sadness and outrage," Tandy said. "The concern is a lot of kids knew about it and they didn't take action or say anything."
Karen Aroesty, St. Louis regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, said this was more than a case of bullying. Officials from the group will meet Friday with district leaders to discuss the matter.
By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL, JPOST CORRESPONDENT IN BERLIN
"He was a remarkable person" and one should "pay tribute to him," was how Social Democratic Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer described right-wing extremist politician Joerg Haider at Haider's funeral ceremony in Klagenfurt, Austria on Saturday.
While local Austrian authorities declared an inebriated Haider to have died as the result a high-speed car crash last week, Karlheinz Klement, a former member of Haider's ex-party, the Freedom Party, asserted that the Mossad had assassinated him. Klement's conspiracy thesis is circulating among Austrian neo-Nazi and right-wing internet forums.
In the mid 1990s, Haider proclaimed the Freedom Party "to be the PLO of Austria" at a party event. He split from the Freedom Party in 2005 and formed the Alliance for the Future of Austria, a hard-line, reactionary and anti-foreigner party based in the Federal State of Carinthia, where he served as governor.
Haider was notorious for his praise of Nazi employment policies and the Waffen SS, an organization devoted to exterminating European Jewry.
The Waffen SS are "decent individuals with character, who stick to their beliefs despite strong opposition and remain true to them today as well. That is a good basis, my dear friends, for us younger people to inherit," said Haider at meeting of the Veterans of the Waffen SS in Carinthia, Austria.
Haider's funeral turned into a day of national mourning and 30,000 Austrians flocked to the Carinthian capital of Klagenfurt to attend the service, which was covered live by Austria's national broadcaster, ORF.
Widow Claudia Haider, center, and her daughters walk in a procession that makes its way towards the cathedral during the funeral of Austria's late far-right politician Joerg Haider.
Given Haider's anti-Semitic and xenophobic views, and taking into account that he represents a rallying point for Europe's radical right, it was an astonishing show of political solidarity as Austria's heads of state and political parties paid tribute to him. Chancellor Gusenbauer said Haider had had "an excellent feeling for what needs to be changed" in Austrian politics.
Heinz Fischer, the Social Democratic president, said Haider's death was a "human tragedy," and that he had been a "politician with great talents."
The ex-head of the Austrian Green Party, Alexander Van der Bellen, said Haider had been "an exceptional politician, highly qualified to inspire people and win [them] over."
The conservative People's Party vice chancellor Wilhelm Molterer said Haider hadn't minced his words, and therefore "deserves great respect."
The Social Democratic president of the Austrian parliament, Barbara Prammer, recognized the great political and life achievements of Haider, who helped shaped Austria's political landscape over the decades.
The praise for Haider contradicts the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) statement issued to The Jerusalem Post shortly before the national election in late September. In response to the Post's question about whether Austria had a "special responsibility" toward Israel due to Austrian complicity with Germany during the Holocaust, Andreas Schieder, the SPÖ State Secretary in the Chancellery, wrote: "That is also the basis for the commitment: prevent the beginnings. Never forget - no more fascism.
"However, we are painfully aware of what the chancellor at the time, Franz Vranitzky, noted in a speech before the Knesset in 1991. Austrians were not only victims, but also perpetrators. The SPÖ will continue to fight anti-Semitism, racism, xenophobia and any form of National Socialist ideology."
Heribert Schiedel, an expert on right-wing extremism at the Documentation Center of Austrian Resistance, a prominent think-tank in Vienna, told the Post that political statements from Austrian parties regarding Israel are "insignificant, ineffective and meaningless."
When asked about the across-party-lines praise for Haider, Schiedel told the Post that "it is an expression of an underdeveloped Democracy and political culture" in Austria that Haider helped to shape.
Haider and his party epitomized an aggressive anti-Israeli agenda, with a foreign policy supporting alliances with the Iranian Mullah regime, Iraq under the rule of former tyrant Saddam Hussein, who Haider visited several times in Baghdad, and the Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi.
Haider had welcomed an Iranian economic delegation to Carinthia in July 2007 at a time when both the European Union and the US sought to discourage trade with Iran due to its uranium enrichment program, which could be used to make nuclear weapons.
He demanded that the "responsible warmongers" in Israel during the Second Lebanon War in 2006 be summoned before a war crimes tribunal, and that Austria evict the Israeli Ambassador in Vienna. Israel's right to self-defense against Hamas rocket attacks and Hizbullah terror activity played no role in Haider's foreign policy views.
He fanned the flames of Austrian anti-Semitism, blasting the head of the Austrian Jewish Community, Ariel Muzicant, as a "Zionist provocateur in the West" who wanted to silence criticism of Israel with the "club of Anti-Semitism."
Haider also criticized Muzicant for seeking to end flight connections with the Iran.
Some Austrians felt that the major media in Austria had watered down their criticism of Haider and employed flimsy excuses to justify his anti-Democratic and anti-Israeli statements as well as his crude defenses of the Hitler movement.
Columnist Gudrun Harrer wrote a controversial analysis in the left-liberal daily Der Standard entitled: "Many Arabs considered Haider 'the Lion.'"
She argued that "This 'attitude,' Haider's view of the Arab and Islamic world and his sympathy for its undemocratic regimes, is complex: One might see his anti-Americanism and his recourse to political incorrectness as coming from his questionable interpretation of European history or as a reaction to his own rejection, especially by Israel, which called its ambassador back from Vienna in 2000 because of the FPO's participation in the government. In addition, Haider was probably simply also seeking a way to gain international prominence, and nobody else wanted him."
Schiedel, from the Documentation Center of Austrian Resistance, considers Harrer's commentary to be "highly problematic" because it shifts the "guilt to the Israelis and Jews" for Haider's views and plays down his distorted understanding of Nazi history.
"He was a remarkable person" and one should "pay tribute to him," was how Social Democratic Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer described right-wing extremist politician Joerg Haider at Haider's funeral ceremony in Klagenfurt, Austria on Saturday.
While local Austrian authorities declared an inebriated Haider to have died as the result a high-speed car crash last week, Karlheinz Klement, a former member of Haider's ex-party, the Freedom Party, asserted that the Mossad had assassinated him. Klement's conspiracy thesis is circulating among Austrian neo-Nazi and right-wing internet forums.
In the mid 1990s, Haider proclaimed the Freedom Party "to be the PLO of Austria" at a party event. He split from the Freedom Party in 2005 and formed the Alliance for the Future of Austria, a hard-line, reactionary and anti-foreigner party based in the Federal State of Carinthia, where he served as governor.
Haider was notorious for his praise of Nazi employment policies and the Waffen SS, an organization devoted to exterminating European Jewry.
The Waffen SS are "decent individuals with character, who stick to their beliefs despite strong opposition and remain true to them today as well. That is a good basis, my dear friends, for us younger people to inherit," said Haider at meeting of the Veterans of the Waffen SS in Carinthia, Austria.
Haider's funeral turned into a day of national mourning and 30,000 Austrians flocked to the Carinthian capital of Klagenfurt to attend the service, which was covered live by Austria's national broadcaster, ORF.
Widow Claudia Haider, center, and her daughters walk in a procession that makes its way towards the cathedral during the funeral of Austria's late far-right politician Joerg Haider.
Given Haider's anti-Semitic and xenophobic views, and taking into account that he represents a rallying point for Europe's radical right, it was an astonishing show of political solidarity as Austria's heads of state and political parties paid tribute to him. Chancellor Gusenbauer said Haider had had "an excellent feeling for what needs to be changed" in Austrian politics.
Heinz Fischer, the Social Democratic president, said Haider's death was a "human tragedy," and that he had been a "politician with great talents."
The ex-head of the Austrian Green Party, Alexander Van der Bellen, said Haider had been "an exceptional politician, highly qualified to inspire people and win [them] over."
The conservative People's Party vice chancellor Wilhelm Molterer said Haider hadn't minced his words, and therefore "deserves great respect."
The Social Democratic president of the Austrian parliament, Barbara Prammer, recognized the great political and life achievements of Haider, who helped shaped Austria's political landscape over the decades.
The praise for Haider contradicts the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) statement issued to The Jerusalem Post shortly before the national election in late September. In response to the Post's question about whether Austria had a "special responsibility" toward Israel due to Austrian complicity with Germany during the Holocaust, Andreas Schieder, the SPÖ State Secretary in the Chancellery, wrote: "That is also the basis for the commitment: prevent the beginnings. Never forget - no more fascism.
"However, we are painfully aware of what the chancellor at the time, Franz Vranitzky, noted in a speech before the Knesset in 1991. Austrians were not only victims, but also perpetrators. The SPÖ will continue to fight anti-Semitism, racism, xenophobia and any form of National Socialist ideology."
Heribert Schiedel, an expert on right-wing extremism at the Documentation Center of Austrian Resistance, a prominent think-tank in Vienna, told the Post that political statements from Austrian parties regarding Israel are "insignificant, ineffective and meaningless."
When asked about the across-party-lines praise for Haider, Schiedel told the Post that "it is an expression of an underdeveloped Democracy and political culture" in Austria that Haider helped to shape.
Haider and his party epitomized an aggressive anti-Israeli agenda, with a foreign policy supporting alliances with the Iranian Mullah regime, Iraq under the rule of former tyrant Saddam Hussein, who Haider visited several times in Baghdad, and the Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi.
Haider had welcomed an Iranian economic delegation to Carinthia in July 2007 at a time when both the European Union and the US sought to discourage trade with Iran due to its uranium enrichment program, which could be used to make nuclear weapons.
He demanded that the "responsible warmongers" in Israel during the Second Lebanon War in 2006 be summoned before a war crimes tribunal, and that Austria evict the Israeli Ambassador in Vienna. Israel's right to self-defense against Hamas rocket attacks and Hizbullah terror activity played no role in Haider's foreign policy views.
He fanned the flames of Austrian anti-Semitism, blasting the head of the Austrian Jewish Community, Ariel Muzicant, as a "Zionist provocateur in the West" who wanted to silence criticism of Israel with the "club of Anti-Semitism."
Haider also criticized Muzicant for seeking to end flight connections with the Iran.
Some Austrians felt that the major media in Austria had watered down their criticism of Haider and employed flimsy excuses to justify his anti-Democratic and anti-Israeli statements as well as his crude defenses of the Hitler movement.
Columnist Gudrun Harrer wrote a controversial analysis in the left-liberal daily Der Standard entitled: "Many Arabs considered Haider 'the Lion.'"
She argued that "This 'attitude,' Haider's view of the Arab and Islamic world and his sympathy for its undemocratic regimes, is complex: One might see his anti-Americanism and his recourse to political incorrectness as coming from his questionable interpretation of European history or as a reaction to his own rejection, especially by Israel, which called its ambassador back from Vienna in 2000 because of the FPO's participation in the government. In addition, Haider was probably simply also seeking a way to gain international prominence, and nobody else wanted him."
Schiedel, from the Documentation Center of Austrian Resistance, considers Harrer's commentary to be "highly problematic" because it shifts the "guilt to the Israelis and Jews" for Haider's views and plays down his distorted understanding of Nazi history.
More info on the deceased leader -
Sweet NazisHaider is gay, says German report
* Kate Connolly in Vienna
* The Guardian,
* Friday March 24 2000
Jörg Haider, the de facto leader of the far-right Freedom party in Austria, has been "outed" by German and Austrian newspapers who claim he is a homosexual.
A report in the leftwing Berlin Tageszeitung, or Taz, headlined "Jörg simply wants a cuddle", and repeated in the Austrian daily Der Standard yesterday, says that the gay community in Austria has had evidence that Mr Haider is gay for some time.
But, say the newspapers, it has been reluctant to release the evidence, fearing an outburst of hate towards the gay community "that would overtake the hatred towards foreigners", according to the owner of one of Vienna's well-known gay bars.
Mr Haider threw Europe into turmoil after the Freedom party entered government with the conservative People's party under the leadership of Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel almost two months ago.
Political analysts have largely viewed his resignation as head of the party last month as a tactical move, but some now claim he wanted to withdraw from the limelight, fearing that his outing was imminent.
According to Taz, many members of Vienna's gay scene are ready to confirm the reports. They claim he regularly has sex with young men below the age of consent - 18 for homosexuals.
As a result, says Taz: "These days he prefers to meet with boys from nearby Slovakia" (where the age of consent is 15). The paper also refers to Mr Haider's alleged cocaine habit.
Following yesterday's reports, the Freedom party's parliamentary leader, Peter Westenthaler, said: "I refuse to comment on such absurdities and sleaze-mongering." Mr Haider has made no comment, though it is expected that he will now be forced to break his longstanding silence on the issue.
According to Taz, Haider's current partner is a youthful member of the Freedom party who has worked as his private secretary.
Hosi, or Homosexual Initiative, the biggest gay pressure group in Austria, said: "We've known about Haider's homosexuality for about 10 years. On the one hand we think it's positive that the rumours are no longer capable of ruining a political career, on the other hand an earlier outing of Haider would have been justified."
The Jews have never been ashamed of being Jews, whereas homosexuals have been stupid enough to be ashamed of their homosexuality.
Rainer W. Fassbinder
On Thursday the Pennsylvania GOP sent out an email to 75,000 Jewish voters in the state warning that electing Obama could lead to a second Holocaust, the AP reports:
"Jewish Americans cannot afford to make the wrong decision on Tuesday, November 4th, 2008," the e-mail reads. "Many of our ancestors ignored the warning signs in the 1930s and 1940s and made a tragic mistake. Let's not make a similar one this year!"
A copy of the e-mail, provided by Democratic officials, says it was "Paid for by the Republican Federal Committee of PA - Victory 2008."
It warns "Fellow Jewish Voters" of the danger of a second Holocaust due to the threats to Israel from its neighbors and touts Republican presidential candidate John McCain's qualifications over those of Obama.
2 comments:
remember my friend robert. Jews were fooled by another notorius smooth talker named Hitler. love you babe.
Actually, the jews were never fooled by Hitler. They were extremely worried about him way back in the early thirties. It is true that there was animosity in the jewish community towards the german jews because they felt that they were indispensable to German society and would not be touched. But no one was fooled...
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