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To the Editor:

In his essay, “Jews, Muslims, and the Democrats” [January], Gabriel Schoenfeld starts with a series of ideologically rigid conclusions, which he then defends by cherry-picking facts, inflating their importance, adding half-truths, and scrupulously avoiding evidence that contradicts his thesis.

Essentially, Mr. Schoenfeld feels that Muslim political power is growing exponentially, that the Democratic party is eager to adopt an anti-Israel worldview, and that Jewish political power is largely ineffective because Jews ignorantly and slavishly vote Democratic. The exaggerations, flawed logic, and omissions here are far too many to enumerate, but some examples follow.

Mr. Schoenfeld acknowledges that there is a record number of Jews in the present Congress. But he quickly turns to a counterfact—the election of the first Muslim-American Congressman, the Democratic Keith Ellison of Minnesota, who we are told is “Louis Farrakhan’s first Congressman.” What we are not told is that Ellison has stated that “I reject and condemn the anti-Semitic statements of the Nation of Islam, Louis Farrakhan, and Khalid Muhammed.” Nor are we told that Ellison has affirmed Israel’s right to live in peace and security, and has rejected any dealings with Hamas and Hizballah until they renounce violence and accept Israel’s right to exist. Nor does Mr. Schoenfeld mention that Ellison believes that Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons must be stopped and its Holocaust-denial decried.

Mr. Schoenfeld seems to have swallowed the propaganda of Muslim organizations that have purposefully overestimated the size of the Muslim population in the United States. He could have easily looked up the single most rigorous analysis of this issue in the study done by Tom W. Smith for the American Jewish Committee. Smith concluded that there are most likely 2 to 2.8 million Muslims in the United States—not Mr. Schoenfeld’s estimate of 4 to 6 million. Moreover, Mr. Schoenfeld produces a mythical number of 55,000 Muslim voters in Virginia (no one knows what the real number is) to illustrate how Muslim votes are swinging elections.

Mr. Schoenfeld tells us that the Democratic party is becoming anti-Israel. Never mind that the conservative columnist William Kristol and the senior Republican leader Dan Burton, among others, have stated that there is essentially no difference between the two parties when it come to support for the Jewish state. Never mind that a recent analysis by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency concluded that the new Democratic-controlled 110th Congress is likely to be more pro-Israel than the Republican-controlled 109th. Mr. Schoenfeld resorts to trotting out Jimmy Carter and George Soros. He does not mention the anti-Israel rantings of Republican Congressmen like Ron Paul or Darrell Issa, or the ten GOP Senators who refused to sign a letter calling upon the European Union to add Hizballah to its list of terrorist organizations. He does not mention that Jimmy Carter’s foremost critics are Democratic leaders like Nancy Pelosi and Howard Dean.

Anyone who is familiar with how the two political parties interact with the Jewish and the Muslim communities will recognize that Mr. Schoenfeld’s analysis bears, at best, a cartoonish resemblance to reality. The comparative political clout of the two communities is not anywhere close to parity. Both the Democratic and Republican parties remain staunchly pro-Israel.

The pro-Israel community has a stake in analyzing its own political power as well as that of the growing Muslim community. But if we are to maintain American support for a strong U.S.-Israel relationship, it does us no good to substitute partisan screeds for serious analysis.

Ira N. Forman
National Jewish Democratic Council
Washington, D.C.

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To the Editor:

Gabriel Schoenfeld writes that “the [Democratic] party and the American Jewish community may be heading toward a slow-motion collision,” suggesting, in essence, that the Democrats are bad for Israel and bad for the Jews. But he misses the mark on both points, and advances a partisan agenda of his own that endangers the security and long-term health of both the state of Israel and the United States. What Israel needs most now is bipartisan support for its peace efforts. Anything that undermines such support undermines Israel.

Mr. Schoenfeld is deeply misguided if he thinks that only Republicans support Israel. He offers the 2006 congressional Palestinian Anti-Terror Act as evidence for this claim, but his facts are off. The bill was actually initiated in the House, not the Senate. More importantly, it was rejected by the Republican President and his Secretary of State. The Republican chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee concurred with the President, and joined in a bipartisan effort to include incentives for the Palestinians in the bill. (The House version would have forbidden aid to the Palestinians that Israel itself allows.) Ultimately, the more moderate bill that Israel Policy Forum and other Israel advocacy groups supported was passed by both houses of Congress. Thus, the act is an excellent example of the pro-Israel bipartisanship that Mr. Schoenfeld seems to denigrate. At any rate, time after time, the overwhelming majority of Democrats and Republicans in Congress have voted for aid to Israel, the most tangible evidence of support the legislative branch can offer.

Unlike Mr. Schoenfeld, true supporters of Israel understand that Israel should not be a partisan issue. Knowing that administrations change, our goal is to find ways to serve as a broker on Israel’s behalf with whoever is in power. Most Americans, including Jews, want to know that our government, Republican or Democrat, is doing everything possible to protect Israel and bring peace to it. Turning the Israel-Palestinian conflict into a football for polarizing political ends is bad policy.

Mr. Schoenfeld’s views are also out of whack with the emerging consensus that seeking a negotiated two-state solution is the real pro-Israel stance. This position is held by an overwhelming majority of American and Israeli Jews, has been endorsed by the last five governments of Israel, and was the stated policy of the Clinton administration, as it is now of the Bush administration. Throwing the Iraq war into the pot, as Mr. Schoenfeld does, is inappropriate. Does he really want to demean Congressman Gary Ackerman, one of Israel’s consistent allies, by placing quotation marks around his “pro-Israel” position because he opposes the Bush administration’s policy on Iraq?

At the close of his article, Mr. Schoenfeld criticizes our view that support for Israel has been consistently bipartisan as “so much eyewash.” Well, to adopt his metaphor, eyewash cleanses the eye and allows one to see clearly. The reality in Israel and the Palestinian territories is sometimes frustrating and disappointing, but it is no longer ambiguous: those of us who love America and Israel know that an independent Palestinian state at peace with Israel is the only option that will provide for a secure Israel.

David M. Elcott
Seymour D. Reich
Israel Policy Forum
New York City

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To the Editor:

About the U.S. Muslim population, Gabriel Schoenfeld writes: “Although the numbers are hotly disputed . . . a middle-range estimate tells us there are 4 to 6 million Muslims in the country.” Indeed, these numbers are hotly disputed, but there were two authoritative studies done in 2001, including one by Tom W. Smith, who wrote that the

best, adjusted, survey-based estimates put the . . . total Muslim population at 1,886,000. Even if high-side estimates based on local surveys, figures from mosques, and ancestry and immigration statistics are given more weight than the survey-based numbers, it is hard to accept estimates that Muslims are greater than 1 percent of the population (2,090,000 adults or 2,814,000 total).

Numbers have power, and the ones we use should be as accurate as possible.

Gloria Lewit

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