Does it mean anything to them that in Israel, Palestinians are second-class citizens?

Pointing out such an "elephant in the room" contradiction is very honest. My hat's off to you. As far as ethnic minorities serving as surrogates for Jews to gain acceptance, it appears to a non-Jew like me, that such surrogation has availed leverage to Jews, as well; politically, there's strength in numbers. Since, as you point out, Jews are part of the American establishment now, organized Jewish ministrations in civil rights vineyards seem more habitual than impassioned or necessary, Sen. Schumer's bathos notwithstanding. Those contradictions also have become apparent: It's tough to gain traction as a liberation theologist nesting in the Hamptons.

Looking at Sotomayor's nomination head-on - let me give it to you straight - I'm ambivalent. She apparently is a wonderful jurist, but she carries with her the commitment, I think shared by many if not most ethnic-minority jurists, that America's socio-economic playing field must be leveled to correct decades of injustice and race-based manipulation. No one can rationally deny the historical reality of unfairness; however, judicial palliatives applied so far have been largely ineffective, with failure of busing to substantively improve education scores the signal failure in decades of its application.

In the case of the New Haven fire commander's test, there's suitable example of this worldview. The lower court determined the important factor was not whether the test results reflected merit as firefighters, but whether ethnic proportion of the test's successful applicants was suitably "fair". Simply, the bench of which Sotomayor was a part decided it was more important to have minority representation among fire officers than scrutinized, well-tested fire abatement professionals regardless of race or gender. Proficiency fighting fire simply wasn't really the issue - what mattered was the ethnicity of those leading such emergency responses.

Let's be honest: The court's decision that the test was "unfair" is code for "too hard". I don't have a problem with tests for fire commanders being too hard. Or tests for airline pilots, or building engineers. I want them to be rigorously tested to make sure they meet high standards. Our lives, after all, are on the line. Doctors staring down at us in operating rooms shouldn't be measured by professional criteria dumbed down in the name of fairness.

It's a narrow line, and I'm aware that our nation's past is filled with rigged machinery intended to stymie minority advancement. But I'm not sure how - now - our judicial standards can apply "across the board" repairing those outrages. In sectors that engage life-or-death issues everyday, I think the default must be, solely, merit.

First off, let's say the Jews that were active in the civil rights movement did have ulterior motives. Would the civil rights movement have been better off without their support? No! You would then ask as you're asking now regarding Israel, why aren't they speaking out? There's nothing wrong with doing the right thing and getting benefit from it: it's called enlightened self-interest.

The double standard is clearly evident. American Jews are not loyal citizens if they too staunchly support Israel, and they are not good people if they don't take it upon themselves to right the wrongs you see in Israel. But we're the mainstream as you say, we're American citizens who happen to be Jewish--why do we have a special obligation to be involved in Israel?

Most American Jews don't have anything to do with Israel. It's some place they read about in the news, they might say prayers in synagogue and they might visit once in their life. The great majority of us don't belong to organizations, give money or lobby elected officials. The pervasive and nefarious lobby that decry is a figment of your imagination that you construct when you make a big deal of so and so president of AJC that nobody has ever heard of.

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