The September Knock Out!

No not the upcoming vote creating another Arab charity state.  But the September 13th elections for the seat vacated by Anthony D. Weiner of New York's 9th Congressional District.

When an Orthodox Jewish, kippa-wearing Democratic candidate might lose a congressional election in the most Jewish (and 75% Democratic) congressional district in America – a seat occupied by Democrats for nearly a century – to a non-Jewish Republican, something significant is going on. And Golda Koppelman knows what that something is.

New York’s 9th Congressional District (Brooklyn and Queens) is gearing up for the September 13, 2011 special election to fill the seat vacated by disgraced Democrat Anthony Weiner. Koppelman, a Holocaust survivor who has lived her American life in the district, is a devout Jewish mother and grandmother, with family in both Israel and America. Like many of her generation, she’s also a devout Democrat. Until now.

“I have never voted for a Republican in my life” she says. But in this election, “I don’t even care who the Democrat is; I am voting Republican to show Obama I am upset with his policy on Israel.”

Koppelman is not alone. That attitude toward President Obama accounts in large part for the surprising emergence of Israel policy as a key issue between two pro-Israel candidates, Democrat David Weprin and Republican Bob Turner. They’re statistically tied in recent polls.

Turner, a no-nonsense businessman, Zionist and deficit hawk, is not only endorsed by pro-Israel stalwarts Rudy Giuliani and Rep. Peter King; he recently received a major endorsement from Democratic former mayor and outspoken Zionist Ed Koch.

Koch recently blasted Obama for “tying Israel’s hands by demanding that negotiations on borders begin with the 1967 armistice lines…. The President made no demands upon the Palestinian Authority. He did not demand that they recognize Israel as a Jewish state, if negotiations end successfully. Nor did he demand that Hamas, now part of the Palestinian Authority, forswear violence and agree to accept the Jewish state of Israel if negotiations conclude successfully. Nor did he demand that the PA state it will engage in land swaps. The President… has ended, in effect, the special relationship which began with president Harry S Truman.”

Koch argues that if the staunchly pro- Israel, heavily Jewish and reliably Democratic NY-9th elects a Republican, it will be a “political shot heard around the nation.” With Obama’s 2012 reelection at stake, a Republican win “will certainly get [Obama’s] attention” and possibly prompt a reassessment of his disturbingly harsh treatment of Israel.

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Obama's supporters point to the fact that some Jews are supporting him, are donating to him.  But this race is telling more than the Obama donors.  If this feeling continues Obama and the Democrats will no longer be able to count on the Jewish vote or the Jewish money.