When a Majority is a Minority,
Or a Minority is a Majority
by Dan Ehrlich

When is a minority a minority? That's been a question mainly plaguing liberals for years, especially when dealing with female issues. Even though women are a numerical majority in America they are still seen as an honorary minority because they have endured discrimination and male domination.

But those days are gradually fading. For the first time in US history more women than men are working. And, it’s a great time to be a male college student since women significantly outnumber men there, too. So, are women still even an honorary minority? And are men, who in fact are a numerical minority, still viewed as a majority?

During his radio rant fired CNN anchor Rick Sanchez intimated that Jews weren't a minority, or at least not a hard pressed one such as Blacks and Hispanics. Even though his comments got him fired, his point is one subscribed to by many liberals and conservatives alike. They see Jews as wealthy and powerful. They see Israel in a similar light, except that some liberals see Israel as a racist nation persecuting Arabs.

All this is based on the Christ-like liberal need to champion and save underdogs. And in western society, that mainly means persecuted minority groups. Jews, at one time, were at the top of the list. After all, they had endured more 1,500 years of uninterrupted terror, torture, murder and massacre at the hands of God fearing Christians like Sanchez's ancestors.

But America proved lucky for Jews and women. In it they would be free to advance as far as their abilities would take them. Still, success didn't happen without some hurdles to jump and time to span. In the end, many members of these minorities gained wealth, power and acceptance.

The problem for the far left is its inability to accept people with wealth power and who are accepted by the masses. The left loves losers. So, when a persecuted minority such as the Jews become winners, they lose their underdog image and appeal.

This has been vividly played out in the Arab-Israeli Conflict. When Israel was resurrected in 1948 it was the darling of the left, a social democracy made up of people who survived Hitler’s genocide. But, as Israel prevailed in war after war with the Arabs the perception changed from being a loser nation-in-waiting to a genuine winner…not the negative stuff left-wingers admire.

Yet, for ideologues Jews, or Israelis, still were officially a hard-pressed minority since a couple million at the time were up against about 250 million Arabs…terrible odds any way you look at them.

Relief for the left came in the form of Palestinian Arabs who were occupied by Israel during the 1967 and 1973 Wars. After Israel enacted peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan, the Arabs in the Gaza Strip and West Bank wound-up isolated and deserted…except for the left which had discovered a new hard pressed minority to champion as a replacement for Israel, the establishment’s winner. Israel was no longer a minority since it was bigger and stronger than the Palestinians under its control.

This was far more important to Europe, where anti-Semitism had been a way of life for nearly 2,000 years. Yet after WW2 and the Nazi Holocaust, many Europeans bore a collective guilt or shame over the fate of its most noted minority group. This feeling would be dulled by the new and ongoing Israel-Palestinian conflict…where the once lowly Jews were seen bullying poor Palestinians. The reality on this score is far more complex than such a simplistic assumption.

In a broader and more recent context, Europe in its worst economic condition since the end of WW2, is once again assigning scapegoats…This time it’s Muslims, Gypsies and, of course, Jews. But, since there are few Jews left in Europe the best place to direct anti Semitic anger is at Israel, where there are plenty of Jews, being the majority population.

So, Sanchez would have been spot on with his comments had he been on talk radio in Israel. But, in America, with less than 6 million Jews, they’re still a small minority, subject to occasional racist insults and outrages as anyone else in our homogeneous nation. As for American women it's difficult these days totsee them as an oppressed minority. But that depends on where you live and where you work, if you're lucky enough to have a job, a part of the growing male minority.