With just two weeks remaining until voters in Israel go to the polls to elect a new prime minister, the Likud party - led by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - currently leads in the polls and appears to be headed for victory over Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and the Kadema Party.

Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Livni suggested a Netanyahu-led administration would set Israel on a collision course with Obama, who has pledged swift efforts to try to achieve Palestinian statehood and a wide Israeli-Arab peace.

I don’t think there can be any doubt that Israel is on a collision course with President Obama, who is clearly sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. It is no longer a secret that the Democrat Party is openly hostile to Israel and the interests of the Jewish state.

This had always puzzled me with regard to the Jewish component of the American electorate: how could American Jews vote overwhelmingly for Democrat legislators and Presidents whose agenda, taken to its logical conclusion, would result in the isolation and eventual destruction of their own homeland? It seemed to make no sense until I eventually realized that American Jews - much like American Christians or any other American group - are divided into conservatives and liberals.

The former believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and strive to conduct themselves according to the Torah.

The latter, for all practical purposes, are secularists, and if they can be said to worship anything at all, it would be the State. Politics is their religion and Washington, DC is their Temple of Jerusalem. Barack Obama is Moshiach. All else contrary is foreign and heretical - including Israel.

My conservative Jewish friend (and occasional DRW commenter) Mike J weighed in on this in a recent e-mail to me:

I know a fairly significant number of observant Jews in my synagogue who care deeply about Israel but vote only for liberal Democrats.  This absolutely baffles me.  For the most part these are strictly intellectual types, who truly believe that peace with the terrorists is possible if we can just discuss our differences!  The reason I make this point is that not all conservative Jews feel aligned with the GOP as far as Israel is concerned.  Orthodox Jews, on the other hand, are much more conservative GOP leaning voters.  Israel means everything to them, and they are more practical in their political views.  One of these days I’ll figure out why American Jews are so stupid when it comes to voting for those who represent their interests.

By the way, I don’t think that Bibi will win this election outright, meaning that he will most likely not have enough seats (61) to form a coalition government with only his Likud party.  I’m confident that when the election is finally over he’ll have the most seats of any other party but will need to either turn to the far right religious parties (which I’m in favor of) or the so-called centrist Kadima party to join him in a partnership government. Don’t ask me how this works…the Israeli political system is crazy.  Having Bibi at the helm will at least be a counter weight against the left in Israel who otherwise would continues the failed policy of the past (even more so with Obama) by giving more land away and freeing more terrorists without anything in return.

There are fearful times for the Israeli people as well as for Americans who love their country and seek to preserve the republic. We can only hope and pray the Israeli people demonstrate greater wisdom in choosing their next leader than Americans demonstrated choosing ours.