Rosner's Domain: Why Podhoretz was hoping that Jews would vote for McCain

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Someone should tell Ron Kampeas that blog posts should not be so long. Tell him that if it takes more that 24 hours to read - it probably means that you need to shorten it. But other than investing to much time and giving to much space to this unworthy debate, Kampeas does a marvelous job (as usual) dissecting both Norman Podhoretz' Why Jews Are Liberal - the article version (I didn't read it yet, but am quite certain the book is much better) - and Glenn Greenwald's to-be-expected misrepresentation of Podhoretz' article. For those readers with shorter attention spans (or more demanding work-days) than JTA readers, here's a couple paragraphs that will give you a sense of what Kampeas is doing:

Whatever the merits of Podhoretz's argument (and clearly, I'm not convinced it has any merits), it is broadbased: He attacks every facet of Jewish liberalism, and decrying Jewish support for a president who is now in open conflict with Israel's government over its settlement policy is just one of these.

Not according to Greenwald:

Apparently, The Godfather of Neoconservatism believes that American Jews do -- and should -- base their political beliefs not on what is best for their own country, but on what is best for a foreign country (Israel).

But Podhoretz makes so such singular claim. He says the "main" reason he believed last year that Jewish voters would gravitate to John McCain was Israel, but this is because he believes what he depicts as sharp differences between the two candidates on Israel policy would finally shock Jews into understanding that they are, organically, Republicans:

What I am saying is that if anything bears eloquent testimony to the infinitely precious virtues of the traditional American system, it is the Jewish experience in this country. Surely, then, we Jews ought to be joining with its defenders against those who are blind or indifferent or antagonistic to the philosophical principles, the moral values, and the socioeconomic institutions on whose health and vitality the traditional American system depends.

In 2008, we were faced with a candidate who ran to an unprecedented degree on the premise that the American system was seriously flawed and in desperate need of radical change - not to mention a record powerfully indicating that he would pursue policies dangerous to the security of Israel. Because of all this, I hoped that my fellow Jews would finally break free of the liberalism to which they have remained in thrall long past the point where it has served either their interests or their ideals.

This is the crux of Podhoretz's argument: Arrant nonsense, to be sure, but Israel is a "not to mention" clause, not the whole argument.

So Greenwald is either infuriated into delusion or is willfully lying when he reports the following:

According to him, even though Obama shares most of their views on political matters ("on abortion, gay rights, school prayer, gun control and assisted suicide, the survey data show that Jews are by far the most liberal of any group in America"), American Jews should have nonetheless voted for McCain because of McCain's alleged "long history of sympathy with Israel."  Isn't this the "dual loyalty" argument that nobody is allowed to make upon pain of being accused of all sorts of bad things -- that the political beliefs of some American Jews are shaped primarily or even exclusively by loyalty to Israel?  Yet here we find not Walt and Mearshimer or Chas Freeman making this claim, but Norman Podhoretz.

 Is it not more than enough information?