An Israeli diplomat once remarked famously that the Palestinians \”never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity\” to make peace. Much the same, it appears, is true in the efforts of the Republican Party, particularly here in California, to reach out to the Jewish community.
The current war with Iraq marks a defining moment in the lives of American Jews and their lives in this country. For generations, Jews have lived, for the most part, on the left-wing edge of the American commonwealth.
They have been — in Hollywood, in the political world, academia and the media — generally hostile to the idea of the projection of American power and the idea of a new American empire.
This may soon be changing. Although initially somewhat less supportive of the Iraq invasion than other Americans, Jews are far more behind the projection of American power, arguably, than at any time since World War II. Over half of Jews strongly supported the Bush policy before the outbreak of hostility, according to the Pew Research Center; that percentage has likely increased more recently, as has occurred in the rest of the population.
\”When I left Baghdad in 1951,\” Naji Harkham recalled of the day he left for Israel, \”I left with tears in my eyes. To me, Baghdad was good. I had so many Muslim friends who didn\’t want me to leave.\”
Conventional wisdom holds that the well-heeled population is spearheading this out-migration and that this sprawling out is continuing, particularly among the better-heeled population. By rights, Jews should be joining them; they are considerably wealthier, better educated and more likely to be homeowners than most Angelenos.
Yet, unlike most white Angelenos, or middle-class minorities, for that matter, Jews are sticking to their turf, not only in Los Angeles but in other key urban centers. Today\’s Jewish population in L.A. County, unlike the white population, which dropped by over a million, actually grew slightly from 503,000 to around 520,000.
The conflict over Valley secession reflects the growing gap between rabbis and the actual reality their flocks experience.
The Hahn administration, whose tenure has been marked by an often unnecessarily divisive campaign against secession, now faces a far more important decision: the choice of a new police chief.
It has become something of a cliché among Jews here in America, and in Israel as well, that Europe is now experiencing a virulent new wave of anti-Semitism.
On a drizzly morning, with the city just opening its eyes, Bob Hertzberg is sitting at Solley\’s Delicatessen in Sherman Oaks. Even before having his coffee, he seems animated, even agitated, by his great new project: how to save Los Angeles.
For generations, Jews have viewed religious conservatives with a combination of fear and disdain. Yet the recent events in the Middle East — and the steadfast support given Israel by religious conservatives — has gone a long way to correcting many often exaggerated, if not misplaced, assumptions about this large, and politically significant, group.
Jews aren\’t the only Angelenos dissatisfied with the Los Angeles Times. Indeed, for the first time in a generation, that dissatisfaction may actually produce something akin to competition for the most dominant newspaper west of Chicago.
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