Quick Hits

Some things are simply too difficult to believe. Various sites online have reported the results of a CBS poll taken 2/1 and 2/2/17. When asked if Islam encourages an equal amount of violence as other religions, 66% of Democrats agreed! Only 14% saw Islam as encouraging more violence than other religions. On the other hand, 63% of Republicans saw Islam as encouraging more violence than other religions, with only 2% saying Islam is less violent, and 25% seeing an equal level of violence with other religions. I cannot think of a better example in support of my generalization that "liberals let their beliefs dictate their reality, whereas conservatives let reality dictate their beliefs."

Speaking of hard to believe...Nancy Pelosi was at a townhall recently, when a woman told her about her son who had been tortured and murdered by an illegal alien. After saying that she prays for the woman, Pelosi said this: "But I do want to say to you that in our sanctuary cities our people are not disobeying the laws." I think I'll just leave it at that.

The latest Pew Research poll continues to reflect the ever-declining support for Israel in the Democratic Party. This is not surprising as the left has never supported Israel, and today's Democratic Party is a party of the left. The poll shows only 33% of Democrats are more sympathetic to Israel than they are to the Palestinians. The Republicans? 74% are more sympathetic to Israel. How my fellow Jews can continue to vote Democrat is a source of both bewilderment and dismay.

One letter writer to the LA Times, said that "...as a Jew I am embarrassed by the refusal of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to recognize the human rights of the Palestinians." I would love to ask this letter writer if he ever wrote a letter to the Times complaining about all the rockets launched from Gaza into Israel, or about the murder of innocent Jews at bus stops or in cafes, or if he ever complained about Palestinians naming schools and parks in honor of people who have killed many Jews. I am afraid, however, that his answer would leave me bewildered and dismayed - and quite angry.

I would also like to ask this Jew if he has the same concern about the Kurds. As Bret Stephens pointed out in his 1/10/17 column in the WSJ, "Kurdish national claims stretch for centuries, not decades," as with the Palestinians. Has the letter writer expressed his support for the Tibetans? Or for any of the other numerous groups who claim a right to their own state?

As Stephens so astutely points out: "In theory, Israel would be well-served living alongside a sovereign Palestinian state that lived in peace with its neighbors...But Israelis don't live in theory. They live in a world where mistakes are mortal. In 2000 and 2007 Israeli prime ministers made good-faith offers of Palestinian statehood. They were met on both occasions with rejection, then violence. In 2005 Israel vacated the Gaza Strip. It became an enclave of terror...The ideal of a Jewish and faultlessly democratic state is a noble one. Not at the risk of the existence of the state itself."

In a post-election editorial of 11/30/16, the WSJ presented some interesting data. Black and Hispanic caucuses are estimated to "make up an estimated 70 of the 194 Democrats seats next year," while "the centrist Blue Dog coalition has lost three-fourths of its members since 2010." So, the question is, are these minority caucus members taking the party in a further leftward direction? The Journal continued: "House Democrats are now largely a coastal party with nearly a third hailing from California, New York and Massachusetts. Since 2010 half of the Democrats from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan have been wiped out." And while Hillary won the the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes, the Journal says that "House Republicans won three million more votes than Democrats this year."

Here are some more numbers. In a 1/29/17 op-ed in the LA Times, Doyle McManus wrote this: "Two weeks ago (a Quinnipiac poll) found that 76% of Republicans approved of the job Trump was doing; now that number is 81%. Among Democrats, his rating sank from 10% to a barely measurable 4%." Anybody out there unclear as to just how divided this country is?

David Myers is a Professor of Jewish History at UCLA. He wrote an article that was published in the 12/23-29/16 Los Angeles Jewish Journal entitled "The Function of the University in the Age of Trump." (Professor Myers and this writer have exchanged emails in the past, although I cannot recall if I posted those exchanges.) As you can imagine from the title, the Professor is a man of the left. The Professor wrote: "University officials must articulate clearly that their institutions will not only remain sites of free and open discourse, but that all students, regardless of their origins and legal status, will be protected on campus."

That is quite an interesting concern of the Professor - "free and open discourse." Would that include a concern about all the conservative speakers who get invited to speak at college campuses, but then get uninvited at the first sign of protest from leftist students? Would that concern also include the various Israeli or pro-Israel speakers who get shouted down by students who belong to the Muslim Student Association or to Students for Justice in Palestine? Or, does the Professor believe that the university functioned just fine, but with Trump in office G-d knows what may happen. To put it another way, does he fret more about what might happen than about what actually has happened? This unreasonable fear of all things Trump is yet another reflection of the deep divide in our country.