Why Is Norman Podhoretz a Conservative? He's not.
Norman Podhoretz is essentially the founder of neoconservatism and he just doesn't understand why a movement he started to lead the Jews out of the bankrupt desert of liberalism has essentially no Jewish followers. In fact he has just written a whole book about his deep disappointment with American Jews.
Of course, Norman is not all alone. He still has the big name Jewish neocons like Doug Feith, Elliot Abrams (his step-son-in-law), Bill Kristol, Charles Krauthammer, Scooter Libby, Jonah Goldberg and a dozen other Iraq war cheerleaders (now moved on to Iran).
But the Jewish populace has stayed as liberal as ever with 78% voting for Barack Obama. Plus, Jews -- after African-Americans --are the segment of the population that most opposed the Iraq war and now opposes war with Iran.
Why are Jews liberals? Because they understand, what Podhoretz once did, that racists and those who put the almighty dollar above the interests of the American people invariably turn on the Jews. Jews are liberals out of enlightened self-interest combined with a genuine interest in their fellow Americans.
So what happened to Podhoretz. It starts with Israel. Back in the late 1960's, the occasional liberal started thinking critically of the occupation. Podhoretz and company read the handwriting on the wall and realized that liberals(by which I mean the kind of people who venerate Eleanor Roosevelt) would ultimately let their concern for human rights stop them from full-throated support for everything Israel does.
He was right, of course.
Today the occupation and the lobby's strongest supporters are on the far right. And liberals, including younger Jewish liberals, oppose both the lobby and the occupation -- among the dozens of issues on their agendas.
Fortunately for Podhoretz, neither he nor his acolytes care about any issue other than Israel's retention of the occupied territories (with the associated interest in war with Iran and Iraq).
But there really is no place on the right for people who only care about the Middle East. To be a FOX man, you also have to subscribe to the whole rightwing agenda, all of it.
And that is what Poddy and his acolytes do. Is Podhoretz really against raising taxes to help the poor?. No way. But he has to say he is to legitimize his voice on Israel with his new allies (who, he knows in his heart, may not be all that friendly to Jews).
So that is why Norman is a conservative. Except he isn't. He just pretends he is to win support for the occupation. He once said that the American civil war holds as much interest for him as the War of the Roses . That indifference now extends to this whole country. The good news is that he is a prophet without honor among his own people. If 5% of American Jews view this country the way he does, it would be a lot.
And it won't change. Ever. Poor Norman.
Gore Vidal did an outstanding job of eviscerating the Podhoertzs from stem to stern in a brilliant essay in the 1980s. And I doubt much has changed since then.
One could almost feel sorry for them. Almost.
September 12, 2009 1:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Leon Weiseltier dismantles Podhoretz's book on the cover of tomorrow's NYT Book Review. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/books/review/Wieseltier-t.html?_r=1&ref=books
Of course, it's about far more than Israel. But as to that story, here is what he has to say:
September 12, 2009 2:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
"But the Jewish populace has stayed as liberal as ever with 78% voting for Barack Obama. Plus, Jews -- after African-Americans --are the segment of the population that most opposed the Iraq war and now opposes war with Iran. "
I'm just not buying this Jews are the most liberal crowd. OK, you want to blame the not so liberals for Iraq [ Defence of The Realm ] Are these grassroots Jewish organisations that are lobbying right now for sanctions and war on Iran, what you call, liberal ?
http://mondoweiss.net/2009/09/bermans-iran-drumbeat-to-jewish-leaders-sure-sounds-a-lot-like-iraq-drumbeat.html
Jeffrey Blankfort September 11, 2009 at 2:42 am
"I am actually NOT afraid it will be blamed on the Jews. If there is such an attack on Iran that blame will certainly not be misplaced because the American Jewish establishment is the only segment of American society that has been openly and consistently advocating for a hostile confrontation if not an outright attack on Iran since the fall of Saddam and BEFORE the election of Ahmadinejad. It has become, in fact, their obsession.
I and others, most notably Mearsheimer and Walt, have made the argument that the war in Iraq was the first in a series of wars designed to eliminate Israel’s enemies, one by one, with the cost both in treasure and lives to be paid by the United States (and primarily by the Iraqis, then Iranians, and finally Syrians).
Others have argued with this, claiming Iraq was a war for oil, but they have had a hard time making the case. If and when an attack is launched on Iran, however, there will be no argument as to who is responsible. This meeting held today is an obscenity. That it can take place at all is due to the total lack of attention that what passes for an antiwar movement has paid to the real warmongers."
September 12, 2009 2:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Jews....oppose war with Iran."
Really. Then I would strongly urge US Jews to get in touch with AIPAC and forcefully make their anti-war sentiments known. AIPAC is pushing hard for a US attack on Iran.
September 12, 2009 2:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
September 12, 2009 3:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
By the way, "Star" is typical example of the mainstream Left attitude to Jews.
September 12, 2009 3:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
So... Are you equating conservatives, de facto, with racists? American conservatives have "turned on the Jews?" What? They've driven them out of the county? Engineered pogroms? Here? When was that? Are you suggesting there is a unique political faction within American society that puts the interests of the American people above the almighty dollar? If there were laws against self-aggrandizing delusion, you'd draw a fine and jail time! Anyone above the age of eight realizes the almighty dollar (Euro, tomorrow, perhaps) is the great equalizer; greed, like hate, is a universal human flaw. For all of us.
I agree that the neoconservatives are mostly single-issue partisans, and that the single issue is Israel. But I don't think they're otherwise day-jobbing liberals secretly yearning to let their humanist lights shine. I think they're cold, calculating political opportunists - common charlatans who rode a political bandwagon as long as it brought them strategic success - and personal enrichment.
Traditional American conservatives have been wary of foreign entanglements, and solidly against making war. No... Norman Podhoretz is no more a conservative than you're a judge of human nature.
September 12, 2009 3:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
For fear of being accused of anti Semitism, no one in this country dared speak out about the lobby's push to war post 9/11. Does Anna really think we should be too cowed again by subtle accusations of anti Semitism [if subtle doesn't do it, it gets full on] to stop the next war ? Despite us being on the ropes with Iraq and Afghanistan, few if any non-Jewish journalist dare investigate and report on what happened back then even though it's happening again right now apropos the same people pushing for Iran to be sanctioned [starved] just as they lobbied for sanctions on Iraq before the 2003 war.
American boys are still coming home in body bags from wars which were not in our interests, they've actually damaged our national interests. What about our boys and girls coming home in body bags, Anna ? What about the health care we don't have ? What about our country which is broke ? What about teh jobs people don't have while the federal reserve is a law unto itself ? What about innocent Iranians who we can still save if enough of us speak up now ?
Those who devised these wars should be held to account, we absolutely need make sure such things can never happen again in everyones best interests.
"The war in Iraq was conceived by 25 neoconservative intellectuals, most of them Jewish, who are pushing President Bush to change the course of history. Two of them, journalists William Kristol and Charles Krauthammer, say it's possible. But another journalist, Thomas Friedman (not part of the group), is skeptical "
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=280279&contrassID=2&subContrassID=14&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y
September 12, 2009 4:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
RE: "If 5% of American Jews view this country the way he does, it would be a lot. And it won't change. Ever. Poor Norman."
MY COMMENT: Yes, indeed. Poor, poor Norman!
Norman Bates: "Oh, we have 12 vacancies. 12 cabins, 12 vacancies."
Norman Bates: "You-you eat like a bird."
Marion Crane: [Looking around at the stuffed birds while eating] "And you'd know, of course."
Norman Bates: "No, not really. Anyway, I hear the expression 'eats like a bird' - it-it's really a [stammers]"
Norman Bates: "...fals-fals-fals-falsity. Because birds really eat a tremendous lot. But -I-I don't really know anything about birds. My hobby is stuffing things. You know - taxidermy."
SOURCE - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054215/quotes
September 12, 2009 11:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Jonah Goldberg is not Jewish, btw. Neocon I suppose, to the extent he has any coherent political philosophy beyond Luciannism, but he's not Jewish.
September 14, 2009 5:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
So he's like Whoopi
September 14, 2009 7:54 AM | Reply | Permalink