Post by POA on Mar 31, 2004 16:29:36 GMT -5
Jewish defections irk Dems
By Alexander Bolton
Senate Democrats are seeking to counter defections by some major Jewish donors to the Republicans by stressing their party’s pro-Israel stance.
The lawmakers met privately last Thursday with nearly 80 Jewish interest groups to make their case.
patrick g. ryan
Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.)
Although Jews make up slightly more than 2 percent of all Americans, they have played a wider political role for both demographic and financial reasons.
Jews are concentrated in such battleground states as Florida and Ohio. In the era of soft money, an estimated 50 to 70 percent of large contributions to the Democratic Party and allied political units came from Jewish donors.
While President Bush won only 19 percent of the Jewish vote in 2000, Republican candidates garnered 35 percent of the Jewish vote in 2002, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
The growing allegiance between the GOP and leaders in the Jewish community is due largely to Bush’s strong support of Israel and refusal to negotiate with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Republican aides and Jewish lobbyists say.
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, hasn’t helped his party on that front by recently issuing statements that were widely interpreted as waffling on the controversial security fence the Israeli government is building at the edge of the West Bank.
Meanwhile, Republicans on Capitol Hill, led by Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa.) in the Senate and Deputy Majority Whip Eric Cantor (Va.) in the House, are aggressively courting Jewish interest groups, citing their own and President Bush’s strong support of Israel’s security policies.
Sen. Jon Corzine (D-N.J.), chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), surprised members of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America during remarks at a luncheon when he acknowledged there is a perception among many Jews that Democrats are not strong enough on the issue of Israeli security.
However, he insisted the perception is not true.
“A lot of us were quite struck that he would say that,” said a high-ranking official with the group.
At another meeting earlier that day with leaders from different Jewish groups, such Democrats as Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (S.D.), Sen. Hillary Clinton (N.Y.) and Sen. Edward Kennedy (Mass.) were told that many Jews view the party as a weaker ally of Israel compared to the GOP.
Members of the audience told the Democratic politicians that “what they said was different from the impression” many Jews had of Democrats, said Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, who attended the meeting. “They agreed they have to do a better job of communicating their position,” Hoenlein added. “They acknowledged it and said it was the crux of their frustration.”<br>
One participant said nearly 20 Democratic lawmakers attended at least a portion of the morning meeting.
Later in the day, the Jewish interest groups met with Republican senators in a
meeting chaired by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Santorum.
“Both sides are clearly jockeying for political advantage,” said a lobbyist for a prominent Jewish interest group.
The Conference, a coordinating body that represents 52 Jewish organizations such as the American Jewish Congress and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, organized twin meetings.
For their part, the Democratic lawmakers vigorously asserted their support for Israel, mixing their message with stern criticism of Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia.
They voiced support for the security fence being erected to stymie Palestinian attacks from the West Bank. Kerry seemed to trip over the issue a month ago when he told Jewish leaders the fence was a legitimate act of self defense after telling an Arab American group in October that the fence was “provocative” and a “barrier to peace.”<br>
Clinton, who is an important liaison to the Jewish community as head of the Senate Democratic Steering Committee, pleased the groups by saying that foreign aid to the Palestinian government should be contingent on its effort to combat anti-Semitic and anti-American propaganda. Her stance was new to many of the groups, said Hoenlein and Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America.
Democrats also hammered on the need for Saudi Arabia to clamp down on fundamentalist Islamic charities that fund terrorist organizations, on the need for tougher sanctions against Syria, and the need to halt Iranian efforts to develop a nuclear weapon.
An official at one Jewish group speculated that Democrats may be nervous about the defection of high-profile Jewish donors to the Republicans, noting that Corzine, who confronted the party’s image problem, is chairman of the DSCC.
Jack Rosen, a frequent past contributor to the Democratic Party, and president of the liberal-leaning American Jewish Congress, has given $100,000 to Republicans since Bush took office.
And California businessman Ronald Arnall and wife Dawn, who in the past have given close to $1.5 million to Democratic candidates and party committees since 2000, raised $1 million for Bush at a fundraiser last August. In addition, Dawn Arnall gave $1 million at the end of 2002 to the Republican National Committee.
“On the GOP side they’ve been very aggressive in courting the community,” said Nathan Diament, director of public policy at the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations. “The point person on the Senate side is Rick Santorum. Over the past two or three years they’ve been working the community and having a lot of meetings.”<br>
Diament said Barbara Ledeen, the director of coalitions for the Senate Republican Conference, initiated the efforts.
Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), who is Jewish, has also been active. He has traveled around the country “stumping in Jewish venues trying to convey a sense of why Republicans are more deserving of support,” said Diament.
On the House side, Cantor, the only Jewish Republican in the House, has led the GOP outreach effort.
“Democrats do not speak with a unified voice on Israel anymore,” said Cantor. “The Democrats want to re-inject the United States into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a neutral arbiter and neutral voice.”
