Jews You Can Use

Young Benji Shapiro can't understand why Jews don't love the Republican Party. After all, says Ben, F.D.R.'s dead and Robert Byrd was in the Klan about the same time F.D.R. died. Here's an excerpt of Benji's Harvardworthy argument to persuade his coreligionists to "open their eyes":

Though it was Jerry Falwell who powerfully defended America's pro-Israel policy the night of Sept. 11 on national television, American Jews largely fear the idea that, according to some Christians, Jews will go to hell for their rejection of Jesus.

I've got four possible reasons some Jews don't love the Republican party as much as Benjy.

One:

Other times, he was more explicit (calling supporter Robert Vesco, who later fled the country to escape criminal charges, "a cheap kike"). Sometimes he chalked up nefarious behavior to Jews ("The IRS is full of Jews," he told Haldeman, when the IRS commenced an audit of the Rev. Billy Graham. "I think that's the reason they're after Graham, is the rich Jews").

At least once the anti-Semitism appears to have had hard consequences. As As Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein first reported in The Final Days, and as White House memos later confirmed, Nixon feared that a "Jewish cabal" at the Bureau of Labor Statistics was skewing data to make him look bad, and he instructed his aide Fred Malek to tally up the Jewish employees at the bureau -- a count that probably resulted in the demotion of two Jews. (It later forced Malek's own resignation from George Bush's 1988 presidential campaign.) [source]

Two:

Ronald Reagan used to alarm other constituencies by speaking freely about the "End Times" foreshadowed in the Bible. In the Oval Office, Ronald Reagan told Yitzhak Shamir and Simon Wiesenthal, on two separate occasions, that he himself had assisted personally at the liberation of the Nazi death camps. [source]

On April 11, the White House announced that Reagan would be visiting the Bitburg military cemetery, to lay a wreath in honor of German soldiers who died in both World Wars. This became controversial when it came to public attention that a small number (variously reported as 49 or 56) of gravesites contained remains of soldiers who had served in Waffen-SS units. Despite protests from various quarters, most notably Elie Wiesel, Reagan proceeded with the visit on the grounds that it would promote reconciliation between the former adversaries. [source]

Three:

Once, during a 1991 White House press conference, Bush Sr. complained about the strength of the Jewish lobby on Capitol Hill -- the implication being that "Jews work insidiously behind the scenes," as David J. Forman wrote in the Jerusalem Post. On another occasion, Bush reminded his critics that the United States gives "Israel the equivalent of $1,000 for every Israeli citizen," a remark that detractors took as an allusion to the stereotype of Jews as money-obsessed and greedy.

And then there was Secretary of State James Baker's infamous "fuck the Jews" remark. In a private conversation with a colleague about Israel, Baker reportedly uttered the vulgarity, noting that Jews "didn't vote for us anyway." [source]

Four:

Turning to God, however, has also created its own problems, none more controversial for Bush than in 1993 after he told a Jewish reporter for the Austin American-Statesman that, according to his faith, nonbelievers in Christ, including Jews, go to hell. His statements were picked up by the Jewish press, and when he first ran for Texas governor in 1994, were revived by his opponent, then-Gov. Ann Richards, in ads her campaign took out in Jewish newspapers.

"Bush was giving the Orthodox biblical answer," says Marvin Olasky, a senior fellow of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, a born-again Christian and advisor to Bush on compassionate conservatism. "On the face of it, you have to believe in Christ to go to heaven; Jews don't believe in Christ; therefore, Jews don't go to heaven. So of course there was an uproar."

The story lay dormant until 1998 when, right before Bush left for a trip to Israel, the same Austin American-Statesman reporter asked Bush what he would say to the Israelis upon arrival. "Go to hell," Bush joked. [source]

The Congressman's reference on this issue was to taped messages and phone calls by Christian Coalition founder and Bush supporter, Rev. Pat Robertson, and others, in which Warren Rudman, Sen. McCain's campaign co-chair, was referred to as a "vicious bigot."

Mr. Rudman, who is of the Jewish faith, told a newspaper reporter regarding the phone campaign to voters in Michigan that "There's no question in my mind it's anti-Semitism."

Last Sunday on Meet the Press, Rudman commented on other calls by Bush supporters, saying, "I know of phone calls that were made referring to me by my faith, with pronunciations of my name that were inaccurate." [source]

Better luck next time, Ben.