Friday, March 31, 2006

Is the newly elected Chilean government the most Jewish in the world?


THE CHOSEN PEOPLE



The newly elected Chilean government is the most Jewish government in the world, with three Jewish ministers and one deputy minister serving in the cabinet, Israel’s leading newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported Tuesday.

The three Jewish Chilean ministers are: Minister of Public Works Eduardo Bitran, Minister of Planning and Cooperation Clarissa Hardy, and Minister of Mining and Energy Karen Poniachik. They are joined by Deputy Foreign Minister Alberto Van Klavren.

The president of the Chilean Jewish community hosted a party last weekend in his home in honor of the Jewish cabinet members. The Israeli ambassador to Chile David Cohen also participated.

As reported previously by Yedioth Ahronoth, a study conducted by a major Jewish organization in the United States revealed that the Jewish nation has a significant number of representatives in parliaments across the globe considering it is only 13 million strong. The study shows that 214 Jews are currently serving as lawmakers and parliamentarians in countries around the world.

Source

The names of Jews mentioned in the report have been concealed for fear they might reach hostile elements. The country which has the largest number of Jewish elected officials is Britain, where 61 legislative posts are occupied by Jews: 7 Barons, 37 Lords and 17 MPs.

The United States ranks second with 37 Jewish lawmakers, 11 Senators and 26 Congressmen. France and Ukraine are third with 15 Jewish members of parliament each. Brazil has 11 members of parliament and a Jew occupies a seat in the parliament of the Dominican Republic.

A convention of Jewish members of parliament from all over the world will take place in Jerusalem next week where Jewish lawmakers from 28 countries will discuss ways to fight anti-Semitism...

Source

COHEN'S COMMENTARY


The claim that the Chilean government is the most Jewish in the world is...well, a little disingenuous. In my humble opinion, the authors had the best of intentions. However, the study does not take into consideration the remarkable success of American Jews in the political spectrum.

According to the CIA factbook, the population of Chile is 15,980,912, as estimated for July 2005. Its ethnic population is 95% White (this figure includes pure White people as well as those Whites who mixed with Amerindian), 3% Amerindian, and 2% other. By religion, Chile is 89% Roman Catholic and 11% Protestant. What is the Jewish population of Chile? Jews would fall into the enthic catagory of "other." In America, for instance, the New York Weekly Forward, a very prestigious Jewish magazine, published an editorial entitled Some Other Race, which urges Jews to list themselves on the U.S. Government census form as a race. It goes on to suggest: “… On question eight [of the form, which asks about race], you might consider doing what more than one member of our redaktzia [editorial staff] has done: checking the box ’some other race’ and writing in the word ‘Jew’.” That Jews identify themselves as Jewish and not White is consistent with Rabbi Stephen Wise's view that Jews are a race:
I am not an American of the Jewish faith. I am a Jew. I am an American. I have been an American for sixty-three sixty-fourths of my life, but I have been a Jew for 4000 years. Hitler was right in one thing. He calls the Jewish people a race and we are a race. -- Stephen S. Wise, Pres American Jewish Congress, World Jewish Congress (1938) New York Herald Tribune June 13, 1938, pg 12

By race, Jews could be no more than 2% of the population of Chile. Using religion as a factor, however, narrows this number down to below 1%. Because Jews have changed their names and conceal their Jewishness among Gentiles, we will assume that Jews make up 1% of the population of Chile. This is consistent with other Jewish sources.

The study identifies only 3 Jewish ministers. Constrast the Jewish occupation of Chile to the Jewish occupation of America. At approximately 2% of the American population, Jews hold a profoundly higher number of important governmental positions in the Clinton and Bush administrations, as well as congress and senate.



Clinton Administration



1. Madeliene Albright - Secretary of State

2. William Cohen - Secretary of Defense

3. Robert Rubin - Secretary of the Treasury

4. Robert Reich - Secretary of Labor

5. Daniel Glickman - Secretary of Agriculture

6. Sameul Berger - Deputy Head of National Security

7. Leon Perth - National Security Advisor to the Vice President

8. Mickey Cantor - US Trade Rep

9. Allen Greenspan - Chairman-Federal Reserve

10. Alan Binder - Federal Reserve Board

11. Richard Holbrook - Ambassador to the UN

12. Martin Indyk - Ambassador to Israel

13. Dan Shifter - Senior Director-Western Europe

14. Don Steinburg - Senior Director-Africa

15. Richard Feinberg - Senior Director-Latin America

16. Stanly Ross - Senior Director-Asia

17. Ricki Seidman - Deputy Chief of Staff

18. Phil Leida - Economic Advisor

19. Robert Rubin - Media Director

20. David Heiser - Staff Director

21. Bernard Nussbaum - White House Counsel

22. Abner Mikva - White House Counsel

23. Roger Altman - Deputy to the Secretary of the Treasury

24. Stuart Eisenstadt - Assistant Secretary of State for Security

25. Rehm Emmanuel - Senior Advisor to the President

26. Tom Epstein - Special Assistant to the President

27. Madeline Kunin - Assistant Secretary of Education

28. Robert Boorstin - Spokesman on Health Care

29. Judit Feder - Advisor to Secretary of Health

30. Richard Feinberg - National Security Council

31. Hershel Gober - Assistant Secretary for Veteran's Affairs

32. Morton Halperin - Assistant Secretary of Defense

33. Steve Kessler - Food and Drug Administration

34. Ron Klain - Third White House Counsel

35. Stanley Greenberg - President's Pollster

36. Margaret Hamburg - Deputy Head of AIDS Dept.

37. Mandy Grunwald - Press Conferences Consultant

38. Karen Adler - Presidential Liaison to the Jewish Community

39. Zoe Baird (Gewirtz) - Assistant National Security Advisor

40. Samuel Lewis - Director of State Dept. Policy

41. Yehuda Mirska - State Department

42. David Mixner - Special Liaison to Gay Lesbian Community

43. Ira Magaziner - Director in charge of the Health Program



Bush Administration



Ari Fleischer (2001-2003) White House Press Secretary
Josh Bolten Deputy Chief of Staff
Ken Melman White House Political Director
David Frum (2001-2002) Speechwriter
Brad Blakeman White House Director of Scheduling
Dov Zakheim (2001-2004) Undersecretary of Defense (Controller)
Paul Wolfowitz (2001-2005) Deputy Secretary of Defense
I. Lewis Libby (2001-2005) Chief of Staff to the Vice President
Adam Goldman (2001-2003) White House Liaison to the Jewish Community
Tevi Troy (2003-2004) White House Liaison to the Jewish Community
Jay Zeidman (2006- ) White House Liaison to the Jewish Community
Jeffrey Berkowitz (2005- ) White House Liaison to the Jewish Community and then office of presidential scheduling
Noam Neusner (2004-2005) White House Liaison to the Jewish Community
Chris Gersten Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Administration for Children and Families at HHS
Elliott Abrams Director of the National Security Council's Office for Democracy, Human Rights and International Operations
Mark D. Weinberg Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for Public Affairs
Douglas Feith (2001-2005 ) Under Secretary of Defense for Policy
Michael Chertoff Head of the Justice Department's criminal division
Daniel Kurtzer Ambassador to Israel
Cliff Sobel Ambassador to the Netherlands
Stuart Bernstein Ambassador to Denmark
Nancy Brinker Ambassador to Hungary
Frank Lavin Ambassador to Singapore
Ron Weiser Ambassador to Slovakia
Mel Sembler Ambassador to Italy
Martin Silverstein Ambassador to Uruguay
Jay Lefkowitz (2001-2004) Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of the Domestic Policy Council
Blake Gottesman President's personal aide
John Miller Director, State Departement Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons

Jews in the 109th Senate
(11— 2 Republicans, 9 Democrats)

Barbara Boxer (D-CA)

Norm Coleman (R-MN)

Russ Feingold (D-WI)

Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)

Herb Kohl (D-WI)

Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)

Joseph Lieberman (D-CT)

Carl Levin (D-MI)

Charles Schumer (D-NY)

Arlen Specter (R-PA)

Ron Wyden (D-OR)


Jews in the 109th House
(26— 1 Republican, 24 Democrats, 1 Independent)

Gary Ackerman (D-NY)

Shelley Berkley (D-NV)

Howard Berman (D-CA)

Eric Cantor (R-VA)

Ben Cardin (D-MD)

Susan Davis (D-CA)

Rahm Emanuel (D-IL)

Eliot Engel (D-NY)

Bob Filner (D-CA)

Barney Frank (D-MA)

Jane Harman (D-CA)

Steve Israel D-NY)

Tom Lantos (D-CA)

Sander Levin (D-MI)

Nita Lowey (D-NY)

Jerrold Nadler (D-NY)

Steve Rothman (D-NJ)

Bernie Sanders (I-VT)

Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)

Allyson Schwartz (D-PA)*

Adam Schiff (D-CA)

Brad Sherman (D-CA)

Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL)*

Henry Waxman (D-CA)

Anthony Weiner (D-NY)

Robert Wexler (D-FL)

Chile is not the most Jewish government in the world. Let's face it: America is. This is certainly consistent with an article I read in the Jewish newspaper, Maariv:
"The U.S. has no longer a government of Goyim [Gentiles], but an administration in which the Jews are full partners in the decision making at all levels. Perhaps the aspects of the Jewish religious law connected with the term 'government of goyim' should be reexamined."---Bar Yosef, Avinoam. (1994). The Jews Who Run Clinton's Court. Maariv.