Although it claims not to understand the reasons for this anomaly, Gallup reports, after two years of intense polling, that Jewish Americans—both Democrats and Republicans—oppose the war in Iraq at a much higher rate than Americans in general:

An analysis of Gallup Poll data collected since the beginning of 2005 finds that among the major religious groups in the United States, Jewish Americans are the most strongly opposed to the Iraq war. Catholics and Protestants are more or less divided in their views on the war, while Mormons are the most likely to favor it. Those with no religious affiliation also oppose the war, but not to the same extent that Jewish people do. The greater opposition to the war is not simply a result of high Democratic identification among U.S. Jews, as Jews of all political persuasions are more likely to oppose the war than non-Jews who share the same political leanings.

Gallup goes on to cite the specifics.

Across the time period these 13 surveys covered, an average of 52% of Americans opposed the war by saying the United States made a mistake to invade Iraq, and 46% favored the war by saying it did not make a mistake. …

Of … major religious groups, three show more opposition than support for the war:

• Jewish people oppose the Iraq war by a better than 3-to-1 margin, 77% to 21%.
• Americans without a religious preference are twice as likely to oppose (66%) as to support (33%) the war.
• Catholics are somewhat more likely to oppose (53%) than to support the war (46%).

On the other hand, Mormons and Protestants show more support than opposition to the war. Mormons are strongly in favor, as just 27% term the war “a mistake.” Overall, Protestants are divided, with 48% opposed and 49% in favor. But black Protestants and non-black Protestants diverge in their views. Black Protestants — who are overwhelmingly Democratic — show strong opposition to the war, while among non-black Protestants, support for the Iraq war surpasses the majority level (55% say the war was not a mistake).

And Gallup concludes thus:

It is unclear why Jewish Americans show such strong opposition to the war. One possibility is that U.S. Jews may hold more liberal outlooks than members of other religious groups on a variety of issues, such as abortion, civil rights, and matters of war and peace. As such, Jews may be less likely than others to favor U.S. military action in general — regardless of where it takes place.

It’s unclear why? Because everything since 9/11 has been bad for the Jews and they don’t want any trouble, that’s why … see?

Don’t believe me? Suit yourself.

Here’s an old report from CNN I just stumbled on. The question for you, dear readers, is: how old is the report?

[X] also stated that, while other countries also had weapons of mass destruction, Hussein is in a different category because he has used such weapons against his own people and against his neighbors. …

“Along with Prime Minister (Tony) Blair of Great Britain, I made it equally clear that if Saddam failed to cooperate fully we would be prepared to act without delay, diplomacy or warning,”

Time’s up! Did you guess?
Well, the report is from 1998. The quote is from President Bill Clinton. Here’s some more:

Clinton said he made the decision to strike Wednesday with the unanimous agreement of his security advisors.

Timing was important, said the president, because without a strong inspection system in place, Iraq could rebuild its chemical, biological and nuclear programs in a matter of months, not years.

“If Saddam can cripple the weapons inspections system and get away with it, he would conclude the international community, led by the United States, has simply lost its will,” said Clinton. “He would surmise that he has free rein to rebuild his arsenal of destruction.”

Clinton also called Hussein a threat to his people and to the security of the world.

“The best way to end that threat once and for all is with a new Iraqi government — a government ready to live in peace with its neighbors, a government that respects the rights of its people,” Clinton said.

Such a change in Baghdad would take time and effort, Clinton said, adding that his administration would work with Iraqi opposition forces.

Fascinating, no?

Let us also remember the backdrop, and at least one of the reasons we weren’t paying attention (hint: her initials are M.L.):

Clinton also addressed the ongoing impeachment crisis in the White House.

“Saddam Hussein and the other enemies of peace may have thought that the serious debate currently before the House of Representatives would distract Americans or weaken our resolve to face him down,” he said.

“But once more, the United States has proven that although we are never eager to use force, when we must act in America’s vital interests, we will do so.”

That’s from a CNN report on December 16, 1998.

This is, of course, old ground for some of us. Those of us who weren’t Born Yesterday (TM), that is.

We’re going to have a neighbors’ meeting to discuss the future of Iraq?
I have only one question: Will there be cocktails?

I knew I should have gone to London last week. Drat! I missed this:

No Laughing Matter
Martin Amis in conversation with Christopher Hitchens

Martin Amis talks to Christopher Hitchens about Saul Bellow with whom he developed an intimate friendship, about the role of the writer as intellectual, the threat of political correctness to the comic novel, Islam, Israel and “horrorism”.

Had I not missed this event, I might have resisted writing this. But maybe not.

Nikki Finke claims she was the first to say that Jerry Seinfeld was auditioning for next year’s Oscar-hosting.

Just remember, you heard it here first: I predict Jerry Seinfeld will be next year’s Oscar host, and he’ll have the gig for several years. His memorable appearance on the 79th Academy Awards was tantamount to an audition — not just to see if the show liked him, but to see if he liked the show.

Hmmm. Her timestamp indicates she posted at 3:13 p.m. yesterday. Was that West Coast time or East Coast time?

Because I posted more or less the same thing, at 3:01 p.m. yesterday:

Ellen Degeneres by Jerry Seinfeld, with one sharp comment about all those “incredibly depressing” documentaries—he hit just the right note and stole the show from her. If he was auditioning for next year, I think he got the job.

Here’s proof  from my WordPress dashboard:

1540	2007-02-26 3:01:24 pm	upstaged

Credit where credit is due. Even if it’s only about the Oscars.

The Sandmonkey went to see a talk by Sy Hersh and was a tad …how shall I say? … disappointed:

What was slightly surprising was how pro-Shia the man was (the man apparently could see no harm coming from Iran, syria or hezbollah), which was later on explained to me in the context that this man is a member of the new Left, and the new left believes that any enemy of the USA is a good person and needs to be supported, because the USA is a very bad and naughty country. But the dude was stretching thing a little bit. I mean when he decribed the March 14th movement as “The US backed Sunni dominated Seniora government” I started heaving, but when he described  Hezbollah as “a member of an opposition coalition with Christian catholics” I knew I was in the presence of greatness. This is a man who could distort shit so well that he could disprove gravity. And just so you know, the US is backing a “Fitnah” amongst muslims that is trying to get sunnis to fight the Shias, who apparently before the US moved into Iraq never fought before. Oh yeah, and it’s all the saudis fault. If you removed the Saudis and the americans, the region would be peacefull with rainbows, butterflies and choclate springs sprouting all over. It’s not like the Iranians are equiping shia militias in Iraq, financing Hezbollah in Lebanon,  trying to detsabalize the government of Bahrain and occupies part of the UAE. Not gonna mention that, no way. The Iranians are cool after all, because they hate the US.

Sandmonkey has a short message for Hersh and his fans:

Dude, this is the middle east. The devil’s asshole. Everybody here is guilty. We all have blood on our hands. Sunnis and Shia. Christians and Jews. Arabs and Persians. It’s just how things are around here, and it’s not gonna change if the Saudis ran out of Oil or the US lost its power and status. Sorry.

He seems to have been alone with his dark thoughts, however. His fellow attendees

had the same blank happy look on their faces that they had after watching Fehrenheit 9/11. They didn’t come up with anything new, just everything they have believed and heard a thousand times before just rehashed and repackaged and told to them by an anti-Israeli jew. And, after all, in a country like Egypt, the moral authority of anti-israeli jew is absolute. …

[I[f you are not a critical thinker, you left this place with the satisfied face and shit-eating grin of someone who just got exactly what he wanted and expected, faith rewarded. Good for you. Keep it up. Your world will always be a simple one.

Lucky you! 

Amen, brother.

It’s hard to watch and read the news. Every day there are a dozen signs that the Enlightened West’s desire to avoid confrontation with the totalitarian menace of Islamism is manifesting itself as an uncontrollable urge to give in to the forces of darkness.

The West is humiliating Iran, says Hans Blix, and we need to get out of our “neo-colonial” attitude, stop issuing military threats (which are “dangerous”), and get down to negotiating successfully with Iran (just like we did with North Korea, which clearly is no longer a threat—right?).

“British court affirms order to deport cleric to Jordan,” reports the NYT. Human Rights Watch objects, because he might be tortured in Jordan. Never mind that he is among 10 clerics named by British authorities as responsible for spreading the scourge of extremist Islamism in Britain. This freak’s human rights are obviously more important than our public safety—right?

There is nothing for us to learn from a movie about resistance to totalitarianism. We should ignore it, because it “whitewashes” Germany’s past.

I could add three dozen news items to this post, but I won’t. Instead, I will point to the most hideously depressing trend of all—the one that makes me want to unplug from the news, stop blogging, and retreat into the considerable comforts of my life.

The thing that might send me into internal exile is the betrayal and abandonment of everything we believe in by European public intellectuals such as Ian Buruma and Timothy Garton Ash, for whom the freedom to condemn and warn against Islamism in the starkest terms is “fundamentalism”—and anathema.

Because “Enlightenment fundamentalism” is just as bad Islamism. Right?

I’ll probably take a short break from blogging. But I’ll tell you all something: my personal freedom to retreat into the considerable comforts of my life was paid for by the blood, tears, and enormous sacrifices of my family. I think about those sacrifices every day. And if my intellectual peers think that I will leave my children to live in a world with fewer freedoms than the ones my family sacrificed to give me, they are dead wrong.

They don’t want to fight? Never mind. I will fight.