Could Israel Save Lieberman?That's the question raised
by this article.
But when she was asked about how she would vote in the Democratic primary next month, Ms. Korzennik, 46, who says she strongly supports Israel, sighed. “Given all that’s going on in Israel right now,” she said, “I am not going to let Lieberman go.”
Ms. Korzennik expresses the mixed sentiments a significant number of Jewish Democrats feel about Mr. Lieberman, who is facing the toughest race in his three-term Senate career, just six years after he was Al Gore’s running mate.Ned Lamont has been careful to claim that there is no substantive difference between him and Lieberman on Israel; the question is whether that's really credible given Lamont's stated opposition to the Iraq War.
Some of Mr. Lieberman’s supporters say there is a strain of anti-Semitism in the antiwar left that could make Jewish voters uneasy about supporting Mr. Lamont.
“There’s a small but vocal pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel and perhaps anti-Semitic faction of the Democratic Party,’’ said Dan Gerstein, a former Lieberman aide and informal adviser to the campaign. “It is a small minority but it is getting bolder, and even worse. There is a growing tolerance of it in the progressive community.”The only part I'd disagree with is the word "small". I suspect that it's large and growing. As a former Leftist myself (Ronald Reagan converted me), I can tell you that the Left tends to view conflicts in terms of oppressor and oppressed, and they have chosen the Israelis as the oppressors. Hence we hear quite often kooky stuff like that the Israelis are no better than the Nazis. Disgusting and historically wildly inaccurate, but compelling to a fair amount of people on the Left.
