In the article “Is the GOP the pro-Israel Party?” (WJW, July 24), Republican Jewish Committee executive director Matt Brooks laments that “If support for Israel ceases to be bipartisan, the U.S.-Israel relationship… will suffer.”
Was this intended as a joke? It is like CNN founder Ted Turner complaining about the emergence of the 24-hour news cycle.
Fact: while, traditionally, U.S. political support for Israel has been bipartisan, during the Bush and Obama presidencies, the RJC has deliberately sought to turn it into a wedge issue, hoping to lure American Jews away from their long-time allegiance to the Democratic Party.
STAS COHEN
Newark, Del.
Here is full, original text of my letter:
In the July 24 article “Is the GOP the pro-Israel Party?”, Republican Jewish Committee (RJC) executive director Matt Brooks laments that “If support for Israel ceases to be bipartisan, the U.S. – Israel relationship… will suffer.”
Was this intended as a joke? It is like CNN founder Ted Turner complaining about the emergence of the 24-hour news cycle.
FACT: while, traditionally, U.S. political support for Israel has been bipartisan, during the Bush and Obama presidencies, the RJC has deliberately sought to turn it into a wedge issue, hoping to lure American Jews away from their long-time allegiance to the Democratic Party. And in at least one case, this self-serving tactic has succeeded (July 30 Neil Keller letter).
Let’s be clear: In the acronym RJC, the initials came first, and the words later fleshed out. Actually, RJC is an anagram of its true pedigree, Jews for the Christian Right.
For, according to none other than veteran Republican consultant and (GOP insider) Arthur J. Finkelstein, “The political center has disappeared, and the Republican Party has become the party of the Christian right more so than in any other period in modern history” (November 11, 2004, NYT) .
And who, you might ask, is Mr. Finkelstein, and why does his opinion matter? Because he is the individual whom no less estimable a source than the Washington Jewish Week itself (David Holzel piece, November 14, 2012, “Is 70 percent enough?”) identified as the RJC’s exit survey pollster in 2012.
As to his conservative bona-fides, Finkelstein has served as a pollster for both Ronald Reagan and Benjamin Netanyahu. Most recently, according to Ha-aretz (October 12, 2012), it was Finkelstein who “masterminded the political merger between Benjamin Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman” in the most recent Knesset election.
Mr. Finkelstein knows.