Sternberg - Why Jews Should Not Be Liberals

Larry F Sternberg

to complete this writing

................................ 17

....................... 25

...................... 41

........................ 53

.............................. 67

....................... 77

.................................... 91

........... 99

...................................... 113

..................... 121

................... 129

........................... 139

............................. 149

................. 157

....................... 171

................................. 179

............................. 187

......................... 193

......... 199

........................................... 205

................... 213

........................... 219

................ 225

............................................ 231

........................... 239

............................. 245

Why Jews Should Not Be Liberals was introduced to the public in mid-August 2001. Within one month, the world changed with the horrendous attacks on our nation via the World Trade and Pentagon homicides on 9/11/01. For the first time in our nation's two-hundredplus-year history, aside from the brief incursion by our British friends in the War of 1812, we Americans experienced some fear that we were vulnerable in our homes from an external menace. This fear led to our president and Congress taking some precipitous actions. The Homeland Security Act passed, we changed our airport people and processes, as a nation we became more alert to potential dangers from enemies located within our borders, and we instituted an aggressive campaign to root out terrorists wherever they might be, culminating in our victorious military campaign to oust the ruthless Taliban group from Afghanistan.

Then beginning in mid-March 2003, we waged a brilliant military strike to remove the hated Saddam Hussein as dictator over the 24 million citizens of Iraq. The first phase of this lightning air and ground attack resulted in the capture of Baghdad in three weeks. What has followed is a more lengthy struggle to rid that nation of the remaining supporters of that vicious dictator, and to find the plans and programs related to Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction. It is no easy task to take a country the size of Iraq, living under the tyranny of Hussein for over twenty years, and turn it into a working democracy, but with our allies, notably Great Britain, we shall persevere until the task is completed. The capture of Hussein in December 2003 probably marked the beginning of the end of the terrorist resistance to our liberation of Iraq's people.

As our military casualties mounted during the struggle to free the Iraqi people, many of our citizens, plus those of other nations, began to question the wisdom of our war to depose the Iraqi dictator. It is only natural that we cringe as more of our brave soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen suffer death and injury. Some people even began to liken our campaign in Iraq to the ill-fated one in Vietnam during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The fact that there is truly no comparison between these two wars, as far as numbers of casualties, opposition to our forces from the native population, and the reasons for our pursuing this war, seems to get lost in the criticisms being reported daily in our media.

Also forgotten most of the time is the fact that we are now engaged in a real war against a real enemy, and that to win that war we must pursue that enemy wherever it resides, and destroy it before it can wreak more damage against us. That enemy, which truly surfaced on 9/11/01, consisting of radical Muslim terrorists, does seek to destroy our way of life. Those countries that harbor and give aid to that enemy must in turn be made to change, by either military or other means. We need to remember that when we were fighting the evil of Communism, we did not hesitate to protect those nations that seemed to be in danger of being overcome by that worldwide menace. There was then no meaningful "anti-anti-Communist" movement here. Gradually more of our citizens will come to recognize that we are today fighting a similar or even, in some ways, a more dangerous enemy.

While the campaign in Iraq slowly progresses, it occurred to me in preparing this second edition that I should ask myself some questions about the theme of this book. Have the events of recent years affected the thinking and general political attitude of American Jews'? Has there been any meaningful change in their perception of who are the true friends and enemies of the Jews? Is there any more substance to the argument that modern liberalism no longer reflects the traditions and principles of Judaism'? At this point in time, my answers would have to be a mixture of yeses and nos.

If one judges by the rhetoric coming from the leaders of the Democratic party, Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, Howard Dean, Albert Gore, and their recent presidential candidate, John Kerry, one would have to conclude that if Jews are listening to these folks and are influenced by them, there has been no change. The Democratic party line has been to degrade and disparage the efforts of President Bush to remove Saddam Hussein as a menace to his own people, his neighbors, and eventually our own nation.

The concept of removing a great evil in this world, a belief that should be foremost in the hearts of most Americans, and in particular Jews, is somehow being omitted from the Democrats' analysis of our actions. They seem only to be interested in whether we were bowing to the wishes of the principle-less French and Germans, or the ineffective United Nations, in our drive to defeat our enemies. It should be noted that the one Jew who was a Democratic contender, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, did stay with his Jewish principles of removing evil by consistently supporting President Bush and our war to end Saddam's tyranny.

American Jews appeared to support our war to liberate Iraq in as mild a manner as possible. Slightly more than a majority, according to the polls, were strongly in favor of our initial military action. As the war progressed successfully, there was an upswing in this support, but as events turned murky in the rehabilitation of that country, predictably that support again drifted back to neutral or worse. True, Senator Lieberman remained a stalwart in his support of our president, and other Jewish senators, Boxer and Dianne Feinstein of California, reluctantly came aboard with their temporary support, which in Boxer's case soon faded as our casualties increased. In no way did their actions come close to the strong and unwavering support coming from our Christian allies, Tom DeLay, Gary Bauer, Newt Gingrich, and other prominent Republicans. (As an aside, I continue to hope that Senator Lieberman, an Orthodox Jew, will one day awaken to the fact that based on his religion and some of his policies, he now finds himself in the wrong party and that he would feel much more at home among the Republicans.)