FInally Something from Cross-Currents to cheer!

Of course it's a comment, not a post, but I didn't write it:

On Israel, President Bush has been very, very good, [ed note: snort] at least until he announced that there shouldn't be new building in Maaleh Adumim. But supporting President Bush is not the same thing as supporting "the right." The first President Bush was no friend of Israel, and it's not an anwer to say that he also wasn't very Conservative.

Your post devotes more space to an explanation of the reasons we should not join the left than it does on reasons to join the right. We ought to support people or issues; I'm a bit hesitant when we are asked to support movements, because they tend to bring along lots of baggage. There are lots of right-wing issues that don't make much sense for our community --gun control is a prominnet one that comes to mind. Another issue concerns public benefits programs – should we attempt to ascertain the impact of budget cuts or programmatic changes to our community? I don’t know, but I suspect that there is more angst... in Orthodox homes when some programs are cut than when a parental notification prior to abortion bill is defeated.

Since you rightly criticize the recent and current policies of the left, while recognizing that movements prior appeal, you ought to learn an important lesson from that experience. Jews supported the left, because of their candidates and because of the rabid anti-semitisim on the right. Then, we forgot the reasons for our support, and supported the left because that’s what good Jews did. Now, we support candidates on the right, often for good reason. [ed note: again snort] But when we support the right because that’s what good Jews do, we are being as foolish as our predecessors who supported the left.