182	The Story of the Jewish Defense League

bthan a majority as his two opponents split the moderate and bconservative vote. Even so, the beating Lindsay had gotten bfrom us helped turn large numbers of former knee-jerk bJewish liberals into thinking voters and also aided in his bdefeat in his campaign in 1972 for the Democratic Party’s bnomination for the presidency.

bThere we had come out early on behalf of Senator Henry bJackson for the nomination, again consistent with our b“what-is-good-for-the-Jews” approach and being totally bconvinced that there was no better man in that respect than bthe Washington Senator. I hasten to add, too, that here was ba man whom no one came close to in honest, hard-headed bunderstanding of the interests of the country. On January 3, b1972, we organized a Jewish political action committee to bfight Lindsay’s presidential bid, and at a press conference bwe stated we would follow Lindsay into primary campaign bstates and bring out “the true story of New York and John bLindsay” for fear that “that which he did here will be re- bpeated on a national scale.” We followed Lindsay into Wis- bconsin, Massachussets, and Florida—I myself flew to Miami bto open the anti-Lindsay campaign—and spoke to Jews babout the Jewish interest involved in defeating the New bYork City mayor. At the same time, as Senator Jackson bappeared in New York City on January 11 to announce his bintention to run in the local primary, I and some twenty-five bother members of the JDL attended his press conference at bthe National Democratic Club and told The New York Times bthat we supported him. Both in Florida and in an article in bthe Jewish Press (January 28) I called upon Jews to under- bstand why it was important to vote for Jackson, saying:

b“There is no other candidate who has so strongly em- bphasized the need for almost total support of Israel’s posi- btion. More important, however, is the fact that Jackson’s bviews on this have not been suddenly uttered in the wake of ban election, nor were they born in the labor of a campaign. bHis strong views—and they come from a man who never bhad any need for a Jewish vote, which is rather small in the bstate of Washington—go back a long way and stem happily benough from a position on foreign policy that transcends bIsrael.