Are Democrats losing touch with Jewish voters?

How did a little-known Republican businessman from Queens, channeling voter discontent with President Obama, win a Congressional seat in a heavily Democratic district in New York City?

On Sept. 13, Bob Turner defeated well-known Democrat David Weprin in a special election to fill the seat vacated by disgraced Congressman Anthony Wiener. Turner is a successful small businessman, but has little political experience. He told voters to call him “Citizen Bob” because as a native of the 9th Congressional District, he understands their frustrations.

When you review the statistics pertaining to the election and the 9th District, it is truly shocking that Turner was able to pull out a victory. The district has been in the hands of Democrats since the 1920s. It has the highest population of Jewish people in the country; Weprin is Orthodox. Democrats in the district outnumber Republicans 3 to 1, yet Turner was still able to win, 54 to 46 percent.

Many of you have posted to my Facebook page and asked my opinion on why the seat turned Republican. Well, first I must give credit where credit is due, and that goes to my good friend, the great political mastermind, Mayor Ed Koch.

In late July, Koch triumphantly announced that he was going to turn this special election into a public referendum on President Obama’s policies on Israel. Koch, a registered Democrat, advised Jewish voters to support Turner.

Koch’s resentment was in response to Obama’s statements that peace talks between Israel and Palestine should be based on Israel’s pre-1967 borders, with mutually agreed-upon land swaps. The president never mentioned that Hamas must renounce terrorist activity against Israel and recognize Israel’s rights as a nation.

After Turner’s victory, Koch declared that the election was “a message to President Obama that he cannot throw Israel under a bus with impunity.” Brooklyn Assemblyman Dov Hikind, an influential Orthodox Jew, categorized the stunning election as “an earthquake, an absolute earthquake.”