Posted October 13 2008 by Marc Lerman
The issues
In the upcoming election, we have two very qualified choices for President. John McCain has been a government servant for 26 years, and nobody can deny his heroism in Vietnam. Barack Obama is an inspiring speaker and has many people believing that government can do good for the people of this country and that he is the man to lead us. They have different opinions on a variety of issues. However, the only one coming up again and again in the Jewish community is Israel.
It seems that the only issue the Jewish community cares about is Israel. Rabbis speak during the and discuss how McCain and Obama feel about Israel, and what they are going to do about Israel and how their policies will impact Israel. Is this really what everyone cares about? Do Jews only care about Israel and don’t care about taxes, health care, education, or the global financial crisis? And if that is the case, that Jews do not care about taxes, health care, education, or the global financial crisis, why is that?
I think people need to explore all of the issues being discussed in this campaign. If John McCain is great for Israel but he’s going to tax your health benefits, withdraw funding for an education system already struggling, and leave Wall Street alone to fend for itself, does that really make your life better? If Barack Obama raises your taxes or forces you to take health care you do not want, does that make your life better? I would imagine that whomever is elected President, they will not be spending all of their time and energy on Israel. The issues relating to Israel, while undeniably important, are but one part of the Presidency. I urge people to vote with their hearts after knowing all of the issues, or at least what is important to them. And if it turns out that Israel is the only issue important to you, and that you do not care about anything else, then I can respect that. But if people blindly follow the pro-Israel candidate without knowing anything else about anything, then in my mind that is one ignorant voter.
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2 Comments currently posted. 
Isaac says:
Jonathan Kamens says:
I blogged about this very subject almost a year ago, in an article entitled, “Voting the ’straight Israel ticket’”. See http://blog.kamens.brookline.ma.us/~jik/wordpress/2008/01/23/voting-the-straight-israel-ticket/ .
I agree with you that there are other issues that American Jews should care about besides Israel. In addition, I’d point out that anyone who thinks they can predict a) what a candidate’s Israel-related policies will be, b) what actions the candidate will actually [be able to] take to further those policies, and c) what effects those actions will have on Israel; is fooling themselves. Nobody knows what the future of geopolitics will bring, and that future is going to nearly dictate every foreign policy position and implementation that the next president will adopt. The Israel piece of it is likely to be affected by everything else (Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Russia, China) rather than the other way around.
That said, I’d like to suggest the one US policy theme that I think is most likely to have a predictably positive impact on Israel’s security: alternative energy technology. Israel’s enemies are mostly petro-dictatorships or are funded by them. The higher the price of oil goes, the more money they have to buy weapons and recruit and train soldiers and terrorists, and the more diplomatic clout they have on the world stage.
The US’s ability to impact the price of oil and therefore the wealth of Israel’s enemies lies chiefly in reducing oil consumption. The US consumes 25% of the worlds oil but produces only 9% of it, and regardless of whether we hand power tools to infants, the reserves just aren’t there to increase the US’s share of global production all that much. However, improvements in transportation and energy technology could make a huge dent in US consumption. In addition, technological innovations, unlike extracted oil, can be copied or licensed by other oil-consuming countries, such as China, thus multiplying the effect on the price of oil.
Of course, no one is going to base their energy innovation policy on what’s good for Israel. They’re much more likely to be swayed by the US’s energy independence concerns, environmental arguments, and their relationships with energy companies. But I think that by looking at the candidates’ emphases during the campaign and their parties’ respective predilections toward government spending for science and innovation, we can make an educated guess about which candidate is likely to do more to spur innovation and strike a real blow at our enemies’ swollen bank accounts.