[lbo-talk] Hypothesis: Jews Are Less Zionist and Pro-Israel than Non-Jewish Whites of the Same Income Group

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

Marvin Gandall wrote:
> Wojtek wrote:
>
> > I think certain elements of Jewish diaspora in the US belongs to the
> > second
> > category, but interestingly, this is mostly the second or third  
> generation
> > of Jewish immigrants.  The first generation was more of the expat  
> kind
> > (cf.
> > Finkelstein's comments in _The Holocaust Industry_).  I do not quite
> > understand the mechanics of that radicalization - Finkelstein  
> attributes
> > it
> > to machinations of the unholy alliance of the "Holocaust  
> Industry" and the
> > US foreign policy establishment, but I do not find that very  
> convincing.
<snip>
> I think the shift in the political culture of Western Jewry  
> corresponds pretty directly to the shift in its class position and  
> the formation of the state of Israel.
>
> The Jewish immigrant first generation was working class, lived in  
> tenements, slaved in the garment factories, and experienced the  
> effects of virulent right-wing nationalism and anti-semitism in  
> Europe. In these circumstances, it was natural Jewish workers and  
> petty traders would gravitate to the socialist movement, whose  
> traditions they carried with them into the new world. Israel had  
> not yet been created in the wake of the Holocaust to vie for their  
> political allegiance, although Zionists, mostly so-called "labour  
> Zionists", were not without influence.
>
> The children and grandchildren of the immigrants, on the other  
> hand, became middle class. They had access to education. opened  
> businesses and became professionals, acquired property, and became  
> an accepted, even admired, part of Western capitalist society. They  
> were disproportionately represented in the liberal bourgeoisie and  
> intelligensia, as was the case a century earlier in Western Europe.  
> The second and third generation grew up with Israel, and supported  
> it largely as an insurance policy "in case it (the Holocaust)  
> happens again" and vicariously identified with its military success.

If you compare opinions on Israel among Jews and non-Jewish whites of  
the same income group, though, my hypothesis is that Jews will prove  
to be less Zionist and pro-Israel than non-Jewish whites.  Maybe, I  
ought to raise money in order to hire a pollster to conduct a survey  
to test this hypothesis.

Yoshie Furuhashi
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* Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: <http://montages.blogspot.com/2005/07/mahmoud- 
ahmadinejads-face.html>;  <http://montages.blogspot.com/2005/07/chvez- 
congratulates-ahmadinejad.html>; <http://montages.blogspot.com/ 
2005/06/iranian-working-class-rejects.html>