Admittedly, it’s not a scientific sampling, but in my experience (52 years old, born and raised in the Bronx, and living in southwest Ohio for the last 25 years) almost all the Jews I know who are Republicans have very strong Jewish identities and are active, involved members of the organized Jewish community. When I say Republican, I’m not just referring to people who are hawks on Israel; these individuals have also bought all the right-wing lines about the benefits of low-taxe rates, the dangers of “socialized medicine,” etc.

Of the Jews I know who are Democrats and lean left, some are active in the Jewish community (I guess I’d count myself in this group), but the majority of the Jews I know who are the most liberal, progressive, or whatever you want to call it, usually do not belong to a synagogue or participate very much at all in Jewish life. They may go to a relative’s house for a sedar or drop in on a Jewish book fair, but their time, money and energy is not directed at the Jewish community. If they are parents, they usually join a synagogue just long enough to get their kids bar or bat mitzvahed.

Anyway, I always wonder if there are any surveys that back up my observation. If I remember correctly, about half of the Jews in the US are considered unaffiliated. If my observation is more or less accurate, a large portion of liberal Jews cannot really be counted as members of the organized Jewish community. So to claim that the Jewish community has remained liberal is to basically free-load on a group of Jews who aren’t identifying very much with the Jewish community.

One additional point, with all due respect to the AJC, their questionnaire has at least one what is called “loaded question”: “Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? ‘The goal of the Arabs is not the return of occupied territories but rather the destruction of Israel.’”

Perhaps it does tell us something about perception of the polled group, but it is almost what is called a “push-pull” polling question; in fact, it is. In essence, the framing and phrasing of the question influences many of the people questioned.

In this case, by lumping all Arabs in one category, it implies a unified Hamas/Hezbollah attitude toward Israel is the common outlook of Arabs. That is prima facie disproven by reality. Israel has a peace treaty with Jordan and Egypt, as well as ambassadorial relations, which it didn’t have during the wars of the ’60s and ’70s. Few think the U.A.E. could care less about the destruction of Israel, or Morocco or Tunisia for that matter.

And you’ve got Arabs in other nations that just want to get by. On top of that, Israel claims that its number one threat right now is Iran, and guess what? Iranians are Persians not Arabs.

This is a very misleading query, because it is dishonest in its premise; that all Arabs think alike toward Israel. The Palestinians themselves are split in terms of how they view potential peace with Israel.

I don’t see how those two points are connected. (1) Iran is not Arab. And (2) even suppose Iran isn’t all just talk and wants to destroy Israel, is it necessarily the best course of action to enter into a war with them? If your interest is keeping Israel non-destroyed no matter what the cost, then you do things to keep Israel non-destroyed, which may mean going to war with Iran, but it may mean not disturbing the hornets’ nest.

It seems that if I believe that Arabs are wanting destruction of Israel I would also believe entering into a war with Iran, for example, would be desired.

To me, it seems, like the media is beginning to influence opinion right now. One instance is the interpetation of the Iranian President’s 2006 speech to the UN. The US interpreted part of it to say, that Iran wants Israel to fall into the sea or be pushed into the sea. Arab interpretations said, that Iran wants coexistence of Palistinians and Israelis. Thus the conflict centers, at this time, around language, culture and ethnocentricity in my opinion.

Will there be increasing falling away from progressive humanism here in he US among the Jewish Community at large? I am glad that there is some room for dialog building and hope the same for the Mideast.