Jonathan S. Tobin
March 20, 2008
Months after the hopefuls and the journalists following them ceased tramping through the snow-covered fields of Iowa, another state is about to get the same experience. The unforeseen Democratic deadlock between Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama means that rather than folding up its tents until 2012, the nominating circus is coming to Pennsylvania.
Via a quirk of the primary schedule, the Democratic calendar is empty from March 11 until the Pennsylvania primary scheduled for April 22. And that means that for the next five weeks, the Keystone State will get the Iowa treatment.
This is a windfall for Pennsylvania’s political junkies and journalists. It is also an opportunity for important constituencies of a state that is far larger and more representative of the nation to exert their influence on the two people who are left in the Democratic race.
One of these constituencies is a Jewish community that is heavily Democratic and turns out to vote at a disproportionately higher rate than the general population and many other interest groups.
Like Iowans who make the candidates do everything but shovel their driveways during the endless weeks before the caucus, this is what may well be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Jewish Pennsylvanians to help set the national agenda.
Pennsylvania may not have as many Jews as New York, New Jersey, Florida, or California. But unlike the residents of those states, whose primary votes were cast either just before or during the Super Tuesday crunch in early February, the nearly 300,000 Jewish Pennsylvanians can count on the undivided attention of the candidates this spring.
What issues can win Jewish votes?
Non-Jewish politicians often wrongly assume that Jews are single-issue voters on Israel. Other concerns, such as church-state separation and support for a variety of liberal social-justice causes, are far more likely to win their affection. Even if foreign policy is a factor, surveys tell us that Jews oppose the war in Iraq more heavily than virtually any other demographic group, and Israel may not influence the outcome.
But the opportunity to play a special role in this election year requires Jewish Democrats to be thinking about their responsibility.
What should they be demanding of the candidates?
We don’t need to make Obama and Clinton merely mouth more platitudes about support for an Israel that continues to suffer terrorist attacks from a foe that is uninterested in peace. Both have already aligned themselves with the pro-Israel cause.
Rather, local Dems need to use every rally, town hall meeting, and fund-raiser as a chance to have the candidates further define their stands on points like negotiating with Hamas, U.S. aid to a Palestinian Authority that foments hate against Jews and supports terror, as well as the right of Israel to defend itself against those who attack it. They need to be asked about whether they will continue to push a failed peace process, as the Clinton and Bush administrations have done. Can they offer a more prudent alternative?
Even more importantly, Democrats here must use these weeks to press Clinton and Obama on Iran and its drive for nuclear weapons. There is simply no other issue on which so many lives will hang during the next four years as this one.
We know that both favor diplomacy (as does Republican candidate Sen. John McCain and the State of Israel) to persuade the Iranians to drop their push for nukes. But if, as seems likely, Tehran gets the bomb during the next administration, we must know if these leaders are willing to do whatever it takes, including preemptive strikes, to see to it that the mullahs and their genocidal front man Mahmoud Ahmadinejad don’t have the power to unleash mass murder on Israel or any other country.
Although the overwhelming majority of Democrats want a president who will back Israeli self-defense and face down Iran, some worry that by raising Israel as an election issue, they will be disrupting the bipartisan consensus that has helped solidify the alliance. Many Democrats think trying to hold the candidates accountable on Israel issues is just a way for the Republicans to create a wedge issue.
No doubt, that’s exactly what the GOP wants. But given the rock-solid loyalty of most Jewish Democrats to their party, their chances of doing so are not great.
Instead of being concerned about the Republicans making hay, what Jewish Dems should think about is their chance to have Obama and Clinton prove that they cannot be outflanked by John McCain on either Iran or Israel. Taking Israel or even Iran off the table, which some insist is in the community’s interest, will certainly cost the Democrats Jewish votes — especially if a failure to raise these issues gives either Clinton or Obama the idea that we don’t care. Accountability isn’t a GOP trick; it’s an essential part of democracy with a small “d.”
While the political circus is in town, voters need to cast caution to the winds and make sure these vital issues don’t get lost in the shuffle. When it comes to issues that are literally a matter of life and death, Pennsylvania’s Jewish Obama and Clinton fans alike need to remember that the whole world is watching what they do and say.
Jonathan S. Tobin is executive editor of the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent, where this article originally appeared.
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