HolyCoast: Have Jewish Voters Finally Had Enough of Obama?
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Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Have Jewish Voters Finally Had Enough of Obama?

They've been a pretty reliable vote for Democrats but that could be changing:
If several dozen interviews with POLITICO are any indication, a similar conversation is taking place in Jewish communities across the country. Obama’s speech last month seems to have crystallized the doubts many pro-Israel Democrats had about Obama in 2008 in a way that could, on the margins, cost the president votes and money in 2012 and will not be easy to repair.

“It’s less something specific than that these incidents keep on coming,” said Ainsman.

The immediate controversy sparked by the speech was Obama’s statement that Israel should embrace the country’s 1967 borders, with “land swaps,” as a basis for peace talks. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seized on the first half of that phrase and the threat of a return to what Israelis sometimes refer to as “Auschwitz borders.”

Obama’s Jewish allies stressed the second half: that land swaps would — as American negotiators have long contemplated — give Israel security in its narrow middle, and the deal would give the country international legitimacy and normalcy.

But the noisy fray after the speech mirrored any number of smaller controversies. Politically hawkish Jews and groups such as the Republican Jewish Coalition and the Emergency Committee for Israel pounded Obama in news releases. White House surrogates and staffers defended him, as did the plentiful American Jews who have long wanted the White House to lean harder on Israel’s conservative government.

Based on the conversations with POLITICO, it’s hard to resist the conclusion that some kind of tipping point has been reached.
What will be interesting in the next few days is now Obama responds to the Gaza Flotilla, the fleet of terrorist sympathizers (and some Obama supporters like the Code Pink founder) who are planning to try and run the Israeli naval blockade. If Obama doesn't strongly condemn the provocation by these people he may finish of his relationship with the Jewish community altogether.

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