08 December 2011 | Chasing the Jewish Vote

So it now is that we must endure the spectacle of Republican presidential candidates swearing their loyalty oaths to Israel and deriding the Obama Administration as no friend of the Jewish state.

I don't know what amuses me more: watching these asses fall over themselves to declare they are Israel's bestest friend, or the squirming that American Jewish voters must go through as the stereotypes of "the Jewish voting bloc" are brought to the fore.

Because American voters on the whole are rather limited in their knowledge of the Middle East, let me categorically state that the Obama White House can't have been more accommodating to Israel than any other. The fact that Benjamin Netanyahu isn't Obama's best bud doesn't mean anything: this president has done little to advance anything remotely looking like a peace process and certainly hasn't stopped any more colonization of Palestinian land.

Bring that to the attention of Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich and you'd get declarations of undying love and promises to visit Israel along with moving the American Embassy to Jerusalem (it's in Tel Aviv since all American administrations do not recognize Jerusalem as the capital). I suppose these people think that such talk could never, ever be interpreted as a call to continue the status quo. I'd like to ask any of these GOP assholes if they have ever experienced going from one district to another in their home states and having that trip last hours and hours because of checkpoints. I sincerely doubt that any of these people has any conception of exactly how Israeli occupation works.

But it doesn't matter because when America is in its presidential cycle, facts are not allowed to get in the way, so here we are with the "I love Israel" speeches and American Jewish voters getting lumped together. (Contrast that with the never uttered "I love Mexico" phrase and yet get the idea that some minorities are far more important than others, but I digress). Broadly put, it's unfair all the way around and a little more than embarrassing. American Jews, whose opinion matters greatly to Israel, can not be counted on to push on Israel to stop taking Palestinian land and start some real moves towards a peace settlement, partly because presidential nominees need to genuflect to the East and whip up everyone's emotions. (And please, don't accuse me of antisemitism or repeating supremacist views by using that phraseology because pandering is pandering.) So now we're back to the tired, endless cycle or pledging support for Israel while nothing remains for Palestinians, who are, remember, not so free to move around and have no say in their long term future. It's a farce that's become a tragedy that is now an obscenity.

But at least we know Mitt, Newt and company care so much about Israel.