October 29, 2004/Cheshvan 14 5765, Vol. 57, No. 9
Jewish voters weigh options
MICHAEL MIKLOFSKY
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Who will vote for Sen. John Kerry and who for incumbent President George Bush?
Shemtov Benros sat alone inside Segal's Kosher Foods in Phoenix waiting for his lunch to be served. The registered Democrat said that he plans to support Bush for re-election.
"(Bush is) supporting the cause that we've been fighting for many, many years," Benros said. "He's sending a lot of money also (to Israel), a lot of help to the Army, so that's an important thing to us."
David Segal, co-owner of Segal's, took time off from his backroom work to speak with a reporter. Segal, a registered Republican, also plans to vote for Bush, explaining that his personality leads him to embrace the status quo rather than the uncertainty of a new president.
Segal said Bush has shown strong support for Israel. Segal said he remembers Bush standing on the White House lawn with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon during Passover last spring and saying "Israel has a right to defend itself, Israel has a right to secure its border, Israel has a right to protect its citizens - men, women and children - at any length. For (Bush) to publicly state that, I support him."
Next door at King Solomon's Pizza, storeowner Allen Fink pointed to a bleak outlook for the U.S. economy as one reason he'll support Kerry.
"I think John Kerry speaks more to handling the domestic problems in the country ... the economy, the financial situation, the country is in debt," said Fink, a registered Democrat.
As customers strolled through the aisles at Imperial Kosher Market in Phoenix, Zvi Meirov, son of storeowners Tamara and Yaakov Meirov, and a registered Independent, said he'll vote to give Bush another four years. He cited Bush's Middle East stance as the base of his support for the incumbent. He pointed out that Bush has met at Camp David with former Israel prime ministers Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak, while never inviting Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.
"In his term, for example, building the (security) wall, killing so many Hamas leaders, blowing up cars in Syria of Hamas leaders ... that has never happened in the times of Clinton," Meirov said.
The next day, as cold lingered from the previous day's rain, an air of anxiety about the election hung in the air. At the Ina Levine Jewish Community Campus in Scottsdale, community members walked with their children, exercised and attended classes.
Patricia Beran, a registered Democrat on her way to an enameling class, said she plans to stay with her party and support Kerry.
"His stances on social issues so far outweigh and align with our Jewish value system," she said. "I don't think Bush's attitude toward the people that can't support themselves, people who need help from government and community-wide sources ... I just don't think Bush has a Jewish ethical attitude at all."
Mary Smith, also a registered Democrat, was at the JCC to attend a yoga class. She said the war on terror has influenced her decision to support Kerry.
"It kills me every time I hear another kid is getting killed over there. I'm a grandma of 14, raised five children, and I just feel that we should have taken care of the terrorists first," she said. "I didn't think we had to go to war ... that there were ways we could have gotten Osama bin Laden. We should have really concentrated on getting him."
The latest statewide KAET/ASU poll of 573 registered voters, conducted Oct. 1921, found that Arizona is "again in a statistical dead heat." Arizona has 10 electoral votes up for grabs.
The poll by KAET-TV Channel 8 and the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University shows that 47 percent of those surveyed would support Bush, 42 percent would support Kerry, 1 percent would support Libertarian Michael Badnarik, and 10 percent are undecided. The poll has a sampling error of plus or minus 4.1 percent.
In Arizona, the top vote-getters in the past two elections have become president. When President Bill Clinton was elected in 1996 to his second term, he received 46.5 percent of Arizona's vote, compared to Sen. Bob Dole's 44.3 percent. In 2000, Bush received 51 percent of the vote, compared to Vice President Al Gore's 44.7 percent.
According to Get Out The Vote 2004, a report from the Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism and the Religious Action Center, Arizona is one of 13 battle-ground states where 90 percent of the nation's Jewish population lives. Those 13 states have 280 electoral votes, more than the 270 out of 538 needed to win the general election.
So what role could the Valley Jewish community have in deciding the next president? While the "war on terror" is being conducted in the Middle East and the Israeli prime minister works to remove settlers from the Gaza Strip, campaign messages to American Jews increasingly mention the U.S.'s relationship with Israel.
In 2000, Bush received 19 percent of the Jewish vote nationwide and the campaign expects to receive around 22 percent this year. As Jews historically vote Democratic, Kerry is expected to pick up the larger percentage of the Jewish vote in the Valley as well as nationally. Still, Bush's aggressive anti-terror policy is shifting the balance for some voters.
Tzipi Koehler, an election inspector and registered Republican, said she'll support Bush because of the impact of terrorism on the U.S. economy.
"If we're not going to have a secure country, our economic (situation) will not matter, she said. "If we're not going to be free to have free marketing, that will not matter in the long run.
"Americans are so used to their freedom. If they're not going to have that, it will not be America anymore."
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