Battlegrounders
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MICHIGAN: JEWS FOR GEORGE [Henry Payne 10/28 07:34 AM]
The Iraq War may have soured Michigan’s Arab community on George Bush after it overwhelmingly endorsed him in 2000, but the president’s aggressive Mideast policy has brought growing support from another important minority constituency – Michigan Jews.
Inspired by Bush’s War on Terror and his strong support for Israel (Bush is often referred to here as “the best friend Israel ever had”), Jews may be poised to vote Republican in numbers not seen since Reagan won 40 percent of the Jewish vote in 1980.
In Michigan, this enthusiasm is evidenced by “Jews for George,” the first Michigan Jewish PAC devoted to getting out the vote for a Republican president.
"Jews for George was born in order to appeal specifically to reach out to the Jewish community in Michigan," says 29-year old co-founder Moe Freedman. "We continue to hear from new people every day, and are overwhelmed by the positive feelings within our community for President Bush and his policies."
In 2000, just 19 percent of Jews went for Bush (Joe Lieberman - the first Jew ever on a presidential ticket - was Al Gore’s running mate), but Freedman says the mood is quite different this time. "Right now, our community is evenly divided between the candidates, which is a huge improvement over 2000."
Evidence of Jewish support for Bush/Cheney is not hard to find.
Freedman’s father, the Rabbi Bunny Freedman, gave the invocation for Bush’s visit to Metro Detroit earlier this month. And Ed Koch recently visited Detroit as part of his nationwide campaign to rally Jews to Bush. Aware of this momentum shift, Democrats like Bill Clinton have been trying to shore up Jewish support in key states like Florida.
With 100 volunteers, Jews for George has organized a phone bank to reach as many of Detroit’s 100,000-strong Jewish community as it can before Nov. 3.
Freedman says Jews traditionally have voted for Democratic candidates on civil rights and social program grounds. But the War on Terror has changed that.
"Jews get it," Freedman said. "They saw what happened in Israel with terrorism, and they understand that the only way to fight this very real threat is to take the fight to the terrorists, as President Bush is doing.” |
