ACCORDING TO JEWISH LAW, I'M JEWISH BECAUSE MY MOM WAS-- AND LIKE MOST JEWS I OPPOSE BUSH'S WAR ON IRAQ

I was mortified when all-- not some, all-- the L.A. area Jewish Democrats voted for Bush's illegal attack on Iraq back in October, 2002. Some, particularly Howard Berman and Adam Schiff, have been consistent supporters of the Bush Regime's hideous policies there. There have been 44 roll call votes regarding Iraq in the House between October, 2002 and May, 2005. Howard Berman, an old line "liberal" hack from the San Fernando Valley who seems to believe he represents Israel's far right Likud Party rather than the thoroughly anti-war Southern California Democrats who he's supposed to be working for, has voted with the Republicans 17 times, one of the most reactionary records of any Democrat. Adam Schiff, a disgraceful Blue Dog who represents the equally safe Democratic seat in Glendale/Pasadena was nearly as bad, voting with the Republicans a dozen times. Most L.A. area Democrats voted with the Democrats and not, like Berman and Schiff, with Republican warmongers Tom DeLay, Roy Blunt, John Boehner and John Doolittle.

I was even sadder when Henry Waxman, purported to be the smartest congressional Democrat from California also tossed his lot in with the reactionaries to support Bush's war in Iraq (albeit less frequently than the 2 above; 8 times.) I thought it was a black mark against American Jews to have these representatives abandon progressives and go over to the Dark Side in the single most important issue in the past decade. It turns out the vast majority of American Jews are not putting Likud interests before America's.

How do I know? Gallup took a poll-- actually 13 polls during 2005-07 measuring religious affiliation and support for Bush's war policies. Jewish Americans came out as the most progressive. Of the course of the 13 surveys, 52% of all Americans concluded invading Iraq was a mistake (and 46% thought it was the correct thing to do). The only religious group supporting Bush's insane and catastrophic policies were, predictably, the Mormons (who are fielding their own insane candidate for president, Mitt Romney who plans to stay the course in Iraq). 72% of the Mormons support the war and only 27% realize it was a tragic mistake. Among Jews 77% realize the war was a mistake and only 21% think it was the right move. Protestants are basically evenly split and 53% of Catholics see the war as a mistake.

Among Jewish Democrats, a full 89% see the invasion as a mistake. (Among non-Jewish Democrats the war is seen as a mistake by 78% and even among Jews who are not Democrats 65% see the war as a mistake. So who exactly do Berman and Schiff think they are representing when they support Bush's policies on Iraq? Eric Cantor, one of the half dozen most reactionary members of Congress across the board on everything, is a Jewish Republican from Virginia who would probably have been not just a kapo under Hitler, but a kapo organizer.

Even many Israeli Jews have long understood that Bush, Cheney, Lieberman and the Neocons were pushing policies that put Israel in mortal danger, policies embraced only by far right, mentally unbalanced religionist cult members who think the world is coming to an end and Jesus is coming to take them away.