Of course the most interesting part of this column will be the letters to the editor in a couple of days. It's too easy to predict what they will say so perhaps one should try to guess how many "It's the Joooos fault" or "Who cares - what about the Palestinians?" or, or, or. Same damn dance we'll see, just to perhaps a different tune.

Let the nuts come out of the woodwork for this one and expose their bigotry. If the D's don't come to grip with this problem it will only benefit the R's. I don't pretend to understand why there has been such loyalty to the Democratic party. Maybe someone can clue me in.

I think it would be more interesting to see the letters that the Seattle Times doesn't print.

The loyalty of american Jews to Dems reminds me of the uncanny loyalty of Jews to communist party. At least the communist faithful could claim that communism defeated nazis and saved many Jews. What's the rationale for following the Dems? What have Dems done that Reps haven't?

As this relates to kerry, here is my spin. First off, we all know that kerry waffles - unlike clinton, who was a congenital liar out of a sense of low self esteem (hardly explicable given his abilies), kerry is not so much a liar, as wanting to hear himself be heard, and be commented on - i actually think that once kerry got in office, he would not waffle as much - he would be the center of attention, but when you are just one of100 senators - you say in 1998 that we must go after saddam, even ahead of the curve of clinton, solely for the purpose of being heard. When the position is untenable, he retracts - and actually, one can attribute waffling to changes in circumstances.

In any event, i dont really mind his waffling, except as it relates to israel. He spoke before the arabs and condemned the wall quite hardball. then he had a come to jesus talk with aipac and said the wall is fine - now the wall is not about sharon, it is supported by a large majority of the israeli public even if it is placed beyond the green line.

so now, come january 2005, and kerry is president - he decides to make nice to europe by selling off israel - a la bush 1 in the 1990s, except this time it is not money for loan guarantees, but rather by abandoning any attempts at "selective restabilitzation" of the arab world. simply, kerry, will waffle and sell out israel - and he will be leading the charge of the moderate left and further left democratic/UN party - there will be no real brake on him - at least when bush 1 did it, the dems sort of took him on - and shamir had to be the sacrificial PM who lost his job.

But now imagine kerry going hard on israel - who will stick up for israel - the republicans? They are in congress and really have no power - plus, the political margin is low - cause how much jewish vote can you move. The democrats such as lieberman? They will be silenced - it is a bad scene my friends.

So although I really have to say that Bush is not a good president in terms of reliance on his advisors a bit too much and his sort of ADD on his whole strategy, i can predict, with 90% certainty, what position he will take on the ME.

With kerry, given his lack of ability not to waffle, and his stated aim, i really do not see how a pro-israel jew can vote for kerry, unless he does a sista souljah shaming of moore, mckinney, sharpton, moran, hollings, maxine waters, jesse jackson jr. - the list is simply too long for a weak person like kerry.

Stefan, do you happen to have the full-length version of Professor Alexander's op-ed? I imagine that he had a longer version that was pared down to fit in the Times.

Life on campus at the UW and in academia exposes a person to the undistilled agenda of the anti-Semitic extreme left. For this reason, I would imagine that most Jews, if they were in Professor Alexander's shoes, from his unique vantage point, would see the Democratic party for what it is (and not vote Democratic even if the candidate were Yasser Arafat). I realize, of course, that he was exaggerating on purpose, to force (Democratic Jewish) readers to reassess where they would draw the proverbial line in the sand and opt to abandon the party when it becomes openly hostile to them.

I can understand why many Jews have remained loyal to the Democratic party. Pat Buchanan is merely a visible representative of a deeper (but shrinking) undercurrent of anti-Semitism on the extreme right, but as Alexander writes, the political right has been far more introspective on this issue than the political left, which has a conversely growing streak of anti-Semitism of its own. For this reason, I predict that more Jews will vote for Bush in 2004 than in 2000.

Tim B, that is a given. No question jews will vote for him in greater numbers. Among the orthodox, no one can even say john kerry without cracking a sardonic smile. Again, the democratic party has to have a "come to jesus" talk with the hate israel/blame america first crowd. Kerry has zero back bone to do it - clinton shocked me when he did it to sista soulja, and clinton has about as much fortitude as elmer fudd, it is scary what a glass jaw kerry is.

Here are some of the letters to the editor. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2002002905_thulets12.html

So opposing s racist occupation is anti-semitism?

Gee, I wonder how the occupation really started?

Was it that Jordan attacked Israel in 1967 and lost control of the West Bank and the eastern sector of Jerusalem? This begs the question of whether there really is a "Palestinian" identity at all if this was previously Jordanian "occupied land".

Would you try to convince me that the Jordanian occupation was racist? Would you try to convince me that the Jordanians are no better than the Israeli's because prior to 1967 the Jordanian's "occupied" the West Bank? Did the so-called "Palestinians" ever do suicide bombings against innocent Jordanian civilians to free the occupied West Bank?

This piece of land has been fought over for thousands of years. It has belonged to many different people. If you learn your history, you will know that it is not a "racist occupation," the Jewish people have always been there. Playing the race card is just rhetoric used by anti-semites.

You can also check out some helpful info dedicated to... Thanks!!!