On being taken of granted for too long...

Democrats awoke Wednesday to a disturbing new political reality — a world in which the Jewish vote couldn’t be taken for granted anymore. And in the wake of a New York City special election where a Republican won in the heart of urban Jewish Democratic power, the stunning outcome has set off alarms that President Barack Obama’s chilly relationship with Israel could jeopardize the party’s hammerlock on a key constituency.

With the issue threatening to erupt again next week when Palestinians seek recognition of statehood at the United Nations—something the Obama administration is vigorously working to stop—Democratic lawmakers are demanding that the White House rework the sales pitch of its Israel policy.

“He has to be very clear that whatever his Middle East policies are, it’s in the context of strong, robust support for the State of Israel and its security,” said Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), who represents a seat in suburban Washington, D.C. “He’s allowed that to be a little fuzzy.”

“He has created some of the problems he’s now having, in terms of the way he’s been clumsy in some of the events that he’s handled, particularly his remarks,” said Rep. Henry Waxman, a Jewish Democrat from California who recently met with Vice President Joe Biden about the administration’s Israel policy. “That’s difficult to overcome, but I have confidence he’ll be able to overcome it.”

Before the results in New York began rolling in, veteran Rep. Elliot Engel (D-N.Y.) said the race got close because “people have not been happy with the president’s Israel policy.”

“We have all had some difficulties with things coming out of the administration vis a vis Israel,” Engel said. “We have, and we’ve been telling [the administration] this: They’ve done a lot of good things with Israel – the iron dome, the defense to help Israel ward off the rocket attack – but we’ve been telling them, maybe this will be a little bit of a wake-up call for the administration, too.”

Engel said Wednesday that the election should serve as a “big alarm” for a party accustomed to relying on Jews as a voting bloc.

The issue also promises to play out next year in numerous congressional districts with sizable Jewish populations, especially in south Florida, California, Pennsylvania, New York and Illinois.

“Clearly the president has severe problems with Jewish voters, and the president’s record on the U.S.-Israel relationship has helped caused those problems for him,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, the only Jewish Republican in the House, told POLITICO.

Freshman Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.), who unseated a Jewish Democratic incumbent last year in a district that includes parts of Boca Raton and Fort Lauderdale, thinks Jewish voters are starting to break the GOP’s way.