Yeah, that's a big honking Star of David around her neck. How many other presidential candidates (or non-candidate political figures) will be seen showing that type of solidarity with the Jewish people? Even better - how many Jews these days display their own heritage so proudly? I can tell you, even living and working in the heart of American Jew-dom, I can say...very, very few.
Were it any other type of religious or ethnic symbol, that group would swoon, and even if they did not support her political positions, would openly appreciate the show of respect and love.
Not us Jews, though. We are too damn smart. You see, we know someone who loves us so must be not just firmly rejected, but hated, with an outspoken vigor to match that of the most liberal Democrat and/or anti-Semite (as if there is a difference).
Jennifer Rubin, in her waning days at Commentary back in early 2010, wrote at length about the Palin/Jew disconnect: Some highlights:
For her detractors, both conservative and liberal, she is uncouth, unschooled, a hick, anti-science and anti-intellectual, an upstart, and a religious fanatic. There is no group so firmly in the latter camp as American Jews....
Palin calls herself a “hockey mom” and brags aloud about the athletic prowess of her children, while Jews are more likely to sport “My child Is an Honor Student” bumper stickers. Palin’s oldest, Track, has joined the military, while many Jews lack a family military tradition. Not for the Palins the quiet pride in good grades and good boards; the family’s esteem is tied up more in Sarah’s husband Todd Palin’s “iron dog” snowmobile racing skills.
And, of course, there is Palin’s youngest. Pro-life Americans saw Palin’s son Trig, born with Down syndrome in April 2008, as an affirmation of Palin’s deeply held beliefs, a rare instance in which a politician did more than mouth platitudes about a “culture of life.” But in affluent communities with large Jewish populations, Down-syndrome children are now largely absent due to the widespread use of diagnostic testing and “genetics counseling.” Trig was not a selling point with many Jewish women who couldn’t imagine making a similar choice—indeed, many have, in fact, made the opposite one.
And there is the matter of social class. As she recounts in Going Rogue, Palin and her husband had labored at jobs most professional and upper-middle-class Jews would never dream of holding—waitressing, picking “strawberries in the mud and mosquitoes?.?.?.?for five cents flat,” sweeping parking lots, and many “messy, obscure seafood jobs, including long shifts on a stinky shore-based crab-processing vessel.” Her populist appeal and identification with working-class voters are rooted in a life experience that is removed by one or two generations from the lives of most American Jews. Her life is what they were expected to rise above....
But despite Sarah's own "disconnect" from Jewish life, and the land of Israel, she staunchly supports them both, because it is the right thing to do - the Jews are in danger of being engulfed in a virulent anti-Semitism like nothing seen since the 1930's, and that same perfect storm is hell-bent on handing over Israel to barbarians who have vowed to push every last Jewish man, women, and child into the sea.
The Jews are in a foxhole right now, even though we delude ourselves, like we did in the 1930's, that it is all just talk, that nothing will come of it, even as our hero Barack Hussein Obama demands that we start their negotiations with the Palestinians with their heels in the Mediterranean.
And when a voice rises in the wilderness to defend us, we spit in her general direction, because she is so dissimilar to us, and we can't be troubled to take the time to think thru the differences. Better to be in the foxhole to face the charging hordes alone. Better to react with hatred, so that Palin's enemies - and they are legion - perhaps will see that the Jews are on their side after all! Too bad, of course, that the mass of the Palin-haters could also slide easily into the Jew-haters camp without even a change of their hats...
And what the Jews don't realize is that when others see us ripping one of our staunchest defenders, it inhibits them from defending us, silencing perhaps astute voices that might rise to our cause. And it gives courage to our enemies, when they see that we are as willing to be led to our own self-immolation as they are to lead us there. How can one argue that Jews deserve to live in peace when we fight to silence the voices that speak for us the loudest?
Should there be a Second Holocaust - and that's a 50/50 proposition at least, if not better - Jews cannot wail to the sky and ask why God has brought such vengeance upon them.
By siding with their enemies, they have brought it upon themselves.
And for the critics calling Sarah Palin a suck-up and a show-off, be aware that this is not the first time she's worn the Star of David proudly:
She's with us. Are we?
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