Will God punish the world’s Jews because American Jews worship a false idol?

I had lunch today with two friends, both conservative, neither Jewish.  Since we were talking politics, both asked me a question I hear repeatedly from non-Jewish conservatives — How can Jews support Obama?

It occurred to me — and this is a very depressing though — that Jews are repeating an old pattern.  American Jews are Jews in name only, insofar as theirs is, at best, a superficial association with the religion.  I’m a bit of an anomaly, in that I don’t practice the religion, but believe absolutely in its conservative strictures.

If I remember my Bible correctly (and with my memory, that’s a big “if”), the Bible is very clear:  when Jews start worshiping false idols, they are punished and they are punished horrifically.

The most false of all false idols, of course, is the type of assimilation that sees Jews claiming to be Jewish while rejecting the Jewish God.  This is a type of assimilation that sees them losing all the way around.  They never fully integrate with their neighbors, even though that’s their primary goal, and they also break their covenant with God.

American Jews, by worshiping Obama as a false idol have set themselves up for another round of punishment.  Even worse, the consequences of their actions will fall most heavily, not on them, but on Jews in Europe and the Middle East.  While most Americans (outside of Ivy League colleges) are not antisemitic, the antisemites in the rest of the world are smart enough to know that Obama gave them a free pass.  As has always been the case, from the Bible through to the Holocaust, a core of true-believers will survive, and the rest are in for a hell of a time.

As you can see, Obama’s actions, not to mention rising anti-semitism around the world, make me nervous.

Whew!  I just depressed myself.