My inner Israeli is rather relieved that Bush won. We don't need the message sent to terrorists that they can accomplish regime change, and we don't need the U.S. in flux when all this craziness is going on with Arafat. We also don't need a new U.S. president as an excuse for foot-dragging on the Gaza withdrawal, and my gut feeling is that Sharon will only dare to make concessions and take risks when he feels that there is an American president who's got his back.

My inner American (the one who voted for Kerry) is concerned and worried regarding what's in store over the next four years, particularly when it comes to the Supreme Court and especially regarding abortion.

There are so many parallels between recent U.S. elections and recent Israeli elections. The fear factor, the need to pick a guy who appears tough to deal with the bad scary terrorists. The way that the religious right might not be a majority, but they are sure well-organized and effective. And the way that the left seems lost and searching for an identity -- knowing what it is against, but not quite sure what it is for.

Other Israelis react to the election.

The Jewish press is full of post-mortems on Bush's re-election, and how the Jewish community is reacting to it. These reasons for voting Bush or Kerry are familiar in my experience; most of the Jews I know voted for Kerry, placing them firmly within the New York mainstream:

According to exit polls published by major news organizations, Jews in New York State went overwhelmingly for Kerry by a margin of 80-18 percent, though interviews with Jews exiting the polls suggested that in Jewish neighborhoods Bush fared better. Jews made up 8 percent of the vote in the state.

The Jews I know think Kerry is good enough on Israel and terror, they are really scared of Bush's evangelical constituency (and have stereotyped ideas about Christians in general), and some of them even think that by openly fighting terrorist groups, Bush has exacerbated the problem by alienating more Muslims. (Anyone who reads this blog knows that I think Kerry's support for Israel and pursuit of the war on terror is obviated by his conciliatory attitude toward the EU and UN and his ambivalence about american power, that I consider Islamofascists who fly planes into buildings and blow themselves up in restaurants are a much greater danger, and much more numerous, than Christians whose love of Israel is based on eschatology, and that you don't defeat a militant ideology by trying to appease it.)

Then there are the ancient racial memories of the first Bush regime.

�Based on his family history and not having to face voters again, you have to have questions,� he said, referring to former President George H.W. Bush�s sometimes testy relations with Israel and its supporters, and the current president�s status as a lame duck. Silver pondered whether James A. Baker, the elder Bush�s chief of staff and later secretary of state � a non-favorite in the pro-Israel world � would now take a place in the younger Bush�s cabinet. �He played a role in the campaign, as the negotiator on the debates,� said Silver. �You also have to wonder about the relationship with Saudi oil.�

Um, Baker was floated as an envoy by Kerry, not Bush, and Bush's foreign policy has certainly been different from his father's. This sounds like the bogus draft scare. "I've always voted Democrat, and I'm going to displace Kerry's positions onto Bush so I can feel comfortable doing that again."

Yesterday I thanked Ed Koch (somewhat tongue-in-cheek) for delivering Florida, because I hoped the big Florida turnout for Bush was partly due to the Jewish vote. Turns out it was more the Cubans and rednecks. Cathy Siepp's friend Lewis:

He got annoyed about the results from certain Florida counties, especially before Florida was called for Bush and we started to relax. "Bush could convert to Judaism, then complain about his colonoscopy over diet soda and knishes, and those old Jews still wouldn't vote for him."

Apparently, the Bush people in Florida didn't follow up on the Koch speeches with visits to the condos, and the Kerry people did. The Cincinnati Jewish community may have made more of a difference.

But Bush's small increase in Jewish votes was enough to give the Jewish community agita about becoming "divided" (in this case, along religious and secular lines, more observant Jews voting mostly for Bush and secular Jews mostly for Kerry). Like we weren't already divided about all sorts of issues, from intermarriage to gay marriage, and usually along religious and secular lines as well.

But when more than a trickle leave the plantation, some benefits result:

�The Jewish vote, as we had hoped, was very much in play this year,� Harris said. �Both major parties devoted a great deal of attention and resources to winning it. That�s good news; it�s good when the community is on the radar screens of both parties.� Too often, other Jewish leaders said, the Democrats took the Jewish community�s allegiance for granted, and the Republicans, convinced they had no chance with Jewish voters, mostly ignored Jewish voters while courting Jewish campaign contributors.

�For the first time in a long time, both parties are taking the Jewish community more seriously,� said Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League. �That�s a major change. The Democrats have made a serious effort to keep the Jewish community, and the Republicans made a serious effort to win votes.�

Both candidates presented themselves as strong supporters of Israel, although their differences were marked:

�Strong support for Israel and fighting terrorists were part of the Republican strategy that saw them able to link Jews, Evangelicals and hawks into a kind of unified strategy that made sense to the Republicans� and their anti-terrorism strategy, Sarna said. To help woo Jewish votes, the Bush campaign published a glossy booklet stressing not only Bush�s support for Israel but also his actions against anti-Semitism and for religious freedom. And they quoted Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as saying that Bush was the best president ever for Israel.

The Democrats pointed to Kerry�s 100 percent voting record from AIPAC. They also trotted out Kerry�s younger brother, Cameron, who converted to Judaism 21 years ago when he married a Jewish woman, Kathy Weinman, and later raised two Jewish daughters.

To me there's no question which credentials are more compelling (especially since the senator with the perfect AIPAC record never shows up, and having a Jewish brother has nothing to do with foreign policy or leadership qualities)

[Pollster Frank] Luntz said the responses to his telephone survey suggested a new "sophistication" among Jewish voters and had ramifications for how candidates would appeal to the American Jewish community. "It's not 'Israel, Israel, Israel,'" he said of the Middle East issue. "They see a direct link between terror, America and Israel. People who pander with 'Israel, Israel Israel' will not do as well in the Jewish community."

I agree that my fellow American Jews are making these connections, but most of them favor an approach to fighting terror - here or in Israel - which I think is misguided. Fortunately, 51% of the American people agreed with me.

A Jewish conservative is grateful for the liberal Jewish vote.

So who are the Jews in Congress now?

UPDATE: Too late for this election, but here is a contemporary brocha for voting. You know, I get really peeved at the hypocrisy and crunchiness and political cluelessness of the Jewish Renewal movement, but they are really good at stuff like this (also great chants). Since Arthur Waskow had a hand in it, the brocha is way too long, but customize it as you see fit for 2006.

UPDATE: Serious Bush gains in Beverly Hills, which cannot all be accounted for by the large Iranian Jewish population there. Perhaps we are misunderestimating the exit poll results for the Jewish Bush vote?

UPDATE: Another Jewish Bush voter muses on estrangement from the Jewish majority who voted for Kerry.

UPDATE: Encino too.