[(Continued from p.10)]
piece by Daniel Pipes puts a new and very interesting spin on election politics and the Middle East. In fact, Pipes presents a version of the ubiquitous "good news and bad news" jokes.Good news first: Pipes discloses that a study by pollster John Zogby (brother of James Zogby, a leading Arab-American political operative and president of the Arab American Institute), reveals "a significant partisan split" on Middle Eastern issues. Republicans, it appears, are more "hard line and pro-Israel" than Democrats by three to one. This very substantial difference rises among born-again Christians.
Apparently, the presidential candidates also reflect this. On the issue of the "peace process," Al Gore and Bill Bradley reflect the Clinton administration's efforts to treat both sides equally. In what Pipes calls "stark"
According to a new poll, Republicans are more pro-Israel than Democrats by three to one. This very substantial difference rises among born-again Christians.
On the question of Jerusalem and the U.S. embassy, Zogby discloses that "every Republican candidate (this would ostensibly include those such as Hatch, Bauer, and Keyes) has promised to make the embassy move a priority for his administration." Gore and Bradley are rather wishy-washy on the subject. And with respect to Iraq, Zogby states that the Republicans take a "characteristically tougher approach."
As Pipes points out, the implication is clear. Despite the growing number of Muslims and Arab lobbies, support for Israel remains high. Further good news is the fact that this feeling is independent of the majority of Jewish organizations, where hard-line support for Israel is disappearing.
And now the bad news: Jewish voters will still continue to favor the Democrats by overwhelming margins. They have shifted their focus to such "gut" issues as gun control, tobacco and endangered larvae.
Newtown, Connecticut is a bucolic town in upper Fairfield County. On checking a map, I came upon a section of this village with the interesting name of "Palestine." Furthermore, the town's only synagogue is almost smack in the center of "Palestine." About a year ago, an issue of the town's newspaper The Newtown Bee was devoted to a photographic "tour" of Newtown's now land-marked one room schoolhouses. The one in "Palestine" had almost exclusively Jewish students, and one of the "alumni"of the class of 1931 told me how the area came to be known as "Palestine."
Apparently, a philanthropist in New York, at the onset of the last century, became alarmed by the threat of tuberculosis in the lower East side, and funded the relocation of many Jews to "the country." A group of about twenty families settled in Newtown, naming their area "Palestine" in recognition of the Jewish people and their religious and historical ties to Israel, then known as Palestine. The name stuck and the gentleman reminded me that Jews have always been the original "Palestinians."
When, why, and how the term Palestinian was co-opted by the Arabs is a subject for a tome. Why the Jews gave up their claim is a subject for psychiatrists.
Ruth King is a member of the executive committee of Americans For a Safe Israel.
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