A crisis with US public or actually record high support for Israel?

...The American public's support is increasing also due to the global war on terror, as Israel and the US stand together in the Western civilization's defense, and as Europe is being washed by Islam. The American public is aware of this very special alliance, which is not only built on interests but also on a shared goal to advance democracy and freedom in the world, in the spirit of Israel's prophets. Both Israel and the US are built on this noble purpose, which is exclusively unique to these two countries. The Obama administration may not share this goal, but the Obama administration will come to an end in about a year and a half from now.

Guy Bechor..
Israel Opinion..
26 February '15..

For several weeks now, we have been hearing in the media that Israel's relationship with the United States is ruined. "It's irreversible," one commentator prattled. "America has completely turned its back on us," another commented. "The relations have never been so bad," a third one added, and a fourth one concluded that "it's hopeless and finished."

The perplexed citizen asks himself how is it possible that one speech in the parliament, a place where the entire essence is to listen to speeches, managed to destroy our relationship with our great and historic friend. Can a decades-long alliance be erased in one moment?

Well, nothing of the kind has happened. America is not turning its back on us, and there have already been conflicts in the past, even greater ones, with the American administration on critical issues.

Fortunately, the prestigious Gallup research institute this week published its annual index, which at how the American public perceives Israel. The index has been published regularly for a quarter of a century now, since 1989, and includes a surprise for our commentators: A record high support for Israel. Seventy percent of Americans view Israel favorably.

A look at the Gallup ranking of the Americans' attitude towards Israel over the years points to a rise in this public's support: In 1992, the overall American level of support for Israel was 47%, in 2000 it was 54%, and since then it has continued to climb to its current level. In other words, this is a demonstrated, strong friendship.

The survey was conducted after the alleged clashes with US President Barack Obama and after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's intention to address the Congress was already made public. So it seems that the commentators misled the Israeli public into thinking that we are in a crisis with the broad American public.

It really isn't about Israel losing support.

Barry Rubin..
The Region/JPost..
06 January '13..

There’s been a strange phenomenon building in the past few weeks that’s been puzzling me. But I’ve just figured it out. Various people – there are many examples so you can insert your own – have been writing that Israel is making some big mistake. It is losing support, especially liberal and American Jewish support, they explain, because of the way it’s been behaving.

What’s puzzling about this is that nothing has actually happened to imply that any great opportunity is being missed that might justify this attitude. There has been no recent turn toward peace by the Palestinian Authority; no great new idea promising a breakthrough; no change in personalities that offers some shocking new opportunity.

The regional picture has been getting worse for reasons having nothing to do with Israel, Hamas has been getting stronger and the PA remaining intransigent.

Equally, Israel hasn’t done anything new or startling. The most important thing that can be said about Jewish settlements is that Israel hasn’t created any new ones in almost 20 years. True, there has been construction in existing settlements, but that’s been going on since 1993 on a fairly regular basis. If anything, I think it has declined in pace and mostly in Jerusalem rather than farther out in the West Bank. And, of course, all the settlements in the Gaza Strip have been dismantled.

ONE FACTOR that might be mentioned is that the critics are far out of date. They describe the situation as it existed, say, in the 1980s, when many Israelis believed a negotiated deal with the PLO was possible and claimed that rightists were blocking this great opportunity because they were so suspicious of the Palestinians and so fond of settlements.

Since then, that proposition was tested and found wanting in the 1993-2000 peace process era. Yet many American Jews and others simply haven’t noticed that things didn’t turn out the way the doves had hoped. To their credit, many of them (and I might as well say “us”) rethought their assumptions.

Yet that was a dozen years ago. The behavior of the PA since then and the rise of revolutionary Islamism, among other factors, have underlined the skepticism engendered by the terrible peace process experience. If you claim the right to determine Israel’s fate and put its people’s lives at risk, you might be expected to go to the trouble of doing a little research and putting some serious thought into these matters.

A Mistake, Mistaking Tom Friedman for America

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary/Contentions..
07 August '12..

If Israel were to lose mainstream support in the United States, it would be a grievous blow to the nation and place the wisdom of its political leaders in question. But the problem for the Israeli left and their supporters in the United States is that while they may think Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government deserve to lose American support, there is no evidence this is taking place. Indeed, every indication, including the desperate attempts of the Obama administration to pander to pro-Israel opinion as part of its election year Jewish charm offensive, indicates that there is no reason to believe most Americans think ill of the Jewish state or view its policies as being responsible for the failure of the peace process.

But that didn’t stop Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the immediate past head of the Reform movement in the United States, from writing in Haaretz today that “Israel is losing the battle for public opinion in America.” What does Yoffie, a dedicated liberal as well as a stalwart believer in Zionism and Israel, have to back up this startling assertion? Believe it or not, he thinks a typically nasty column about Israel by Tom Friedman in the New York Times (whose purpose was to denigrate Mitt Romney and bolster support for President Obama) is reason for Israelis to start soul searching. Even Yoffie concedes that “the poisonous nature of Palestinian politics makes clear that the failure to achieve peace cannot be placed primarily at Israel’s door.” If that is so, then why should Israel seek to appease Palestinians who have demonstrated no interest in peace by making more concessions in the absence of a sea change in their political culture that might make peace possible?

Glick - Let us embrace our friends

Caroline Glick..
carolineglick.com..
18 May '12..




Two weeks ago, US Congressman Joe Walsh published an op-ed in the The Washington Times in which he called for the US and Israel to abandon the two-state solution.

After running through the record of Palestinian duplicity, failed governance, terrorism and bad faith, he called for Israel to apply its sovereignty to Judea and Samaria. In his words, Israel should "adopt the only solution that will bring true peace to the Middle East: a single Israeli state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. Israel is the only country in the region dedicated to peace and the only power capable of stable, just and democratic government in the region."

The evidence that the two-state paradigm has failed is overwhelming. The Palestinians' decision to reject statehood at Camp David in 2000 and launch a terror war against Israel made clear that they had not abandoned their refusal from 1947 to accept partition of the Land of Israel with the Jews.

So, too, the Palestinians' election of Hamas in the 2006 elections, and their missile war against Israel from Gaza in the aftermath of Israel's complete withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, all made clear that they are not interested in a Palestinian state. Rather, their chief desire is Israel's annihilation.

Consequentially, there is no chance whatsoever that the two state paradigm can work.

Blind Sided

Marc Prowisor
Yesha Views
12 November '10

It is always important to make observations from all angles, from all views. To understand a situation we must sometimes look from the inside out and vice-versa. The point being, two dimensions are not enough, even 3D doesn’t cut it all the time.

For the past three weeks I have been in the US speaking and meeting people from all walks of life, from all religions, creeds, races, whatever you want, but a well colored spectrum. We discussed Israel, the situation, the chances of peace, loyalty oaths, you name it…we discussed it.

Over all, these were not political discussions, although obviously politics did come up, these were open dialogues between people, held in a civil manner in order to understand the situation in Israel better, to hear another side and to reach an in depth connection to a land and people we share in in our hearts, (however, not with everybody I met).

This was not a “tour” of “preachin’ to the choir” as I met with many that do not share my views at all, and there were even those that tried to keep me from speaking, even though they never met me or heard me. You see, in their eyes, I am a criminal… I live in Shilo, which is in Samaria, which in their eyes exists in the “occupied Territories” (forgive my using that term).

A common denominator that I discovered was that most, and I mean both sides politically, if you will, are very ignorant regarding what is really going on.

(Read full post)

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.

Israel after the congressional elections

Isi Leibler
Candidly Speaking from Jerusalem
11 November '10

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will face pressure to renew the settlement freeze when he meets Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after addressing the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America in New Orleans.

His meeting will take place following one of the greatest electoral defeats the Democratic Party has ever suffered. But the election was an expression of “no confidence” in the Obama administration rather than an endorsement of Republican policies.

From what I have learned over the past few days in meetings with American Jewish leaders, far more Jews than anticipated had defected from the Democratic camp. I encountered numerous Jewish activists expressing remorse for ever having supported Obama in the presidential election, some sadly informing me that this was the first time in their lives that they had voted against the Democratic Party. Needless to say, unless they opposed Obama’s economic policies, the majority of Jews not engaged in Jewish activities, and for whom the fate of Israel is of little consequence, continued voting disproportionately Democrat.

(Read full post)

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.

Support for Israel Continues High in the United States, Gallup Polls Say

Daphne Anson
07 November '10

This is a Guest Blog by Wales-based historian Professor William Rubinstein:


Supporters of Israel who are worried that the bad press and media which its actions vis-à-vis the Palestinians and other Arabs often receive will impact negatively on public opinion might be relieved to learn of some recent Gallup Polls in the United States which show that the opposite appears to be the case.

The Gallup Polling Agency is the world’s oldest and perhaps most widely respected, and has a useful website reporting its findings. Gallup Polls relate to many subjects and questions apart from American elections, among them the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The two most recent surveys it did on this issue were posted in March 2009 and February 2010. In both polls – and in similar polls going back many years – it asked a random sample of American respondents, “Are your sympathies with the Israelis or the Palestinians?” and has asked this same question annually over many years. In 2009, it found that 59 per cent of Americans said their sympathies were with Israel, 18 per cent with the Palestinians, and 23 per cent with neither. A year later, support for Israel had actually risen, despite all the negative media reporting – support for Israel was recorded at 63 per cent, compared with an unchanged 23 per cent for the Palestinians.

(Read full post)

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.

Who Are Israel’s Friends?

Jennifer Rubin
Contentions/Commentary
10 October '10

On Friday, I looked at the results of a new poll surveying voters’ opinions on Israel and, more generally, the Middle East. While Americans remain overwhelmingly pro-Israel and are troubled by Obama’s approach to the Middle East, there are significant differences between sub-groups of Americans. In this post, I’ll focus on the cross-tabs that highlight the differences in attitudes toward Israel among religious groups and those self-described atheists. The full cross-tabs can be found here.

I’ll begin with a general observation: almost all the support for Israel statistically comes from non-Jews. This is simply a mathematical reality. The poll sampled 1,000 voters, only 1.6 percent of whom were Jewish (slightly below the commonly used 2 percent figure). Fifty-eight percent were Protestant, and 25 percent were Catholic. That means the overwhelming number of those who support Israel, as is the case in the general population, are non-Jews.

However, this doesn’t mean religion is irrelevant. Take the question as to whether voters favor Israel using military force against Iran if sanctions don’t derail its nuclear program. Overall, 58 percent would approve. That number is 72 percent for Jews but nearly as high for born again Christians (67 percent). Among atheists? It drops to 40 percent. This pattern repeats itself throughout the poll.

On the question of how concerned we should be about Israel’s security, 100 percent of Jews said “very” or “somewhat.” The lowest/worst response was 88 percent (still high) from atheists, and the second highest/best response again came from born again Christians, with 94 percent.

(Read full post)

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.

Why the Death of Israel Wouldn't Slow Anti-U.S. Terrorism

IPT News
12 July '10

A fairly dishonest discussion about the root causes of Islamist terrorism is being pushed with renewed vigor. It is based on the false claim that American support for Israel fuels the terrorism targeting us.

At best, this is academically dishonest, ignoring a laundry list of grievances that has been used to justify terrorism.

Yet, as Americans celebrated Independence Day, Thaddeus Russell took to the pages of the Daily Beast to argue just that. In an article titled, "Does Israel Make Us Safer?," Russell puts the issue bluntly:

"There was not a single act of Arab terrorism against Americans before 1968, when the U.S. became the chief supplier of military equipment and economic aid to Israel. In light of this fact, it's difficult to credibly sustain the argument that Arab terrorism is spawned by Islam's alleged promotion of violence and antipathy toward American culture or by a 'natural Arab anti-Semitism.'"

That's not exactly true, as others have pointed out. And it ignores the words terrorists themselves have used to explain their motivation.

A look at recent terror attempts finds American support for Israel nowhere in the picture. Instead, terrorists describe their belief that America is at war with Islam. They want to strike back, or to stop Americans from fighting Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq, or to punish them for having done so.

That's what would-be Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad said in his defiant guilty plea in federal court last month. "It's a war," he told the court. "I'm going to plead guilty a hundred times over because until the hour the U.S. pulls its forces from Iraq and Afghanistan and stops the drone strikes ... we will be attacking the U.S. And I plead guilty to that."

(Read full article)

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.

Shoring up the (Jewish?) Base

JINSA
Report #: 989
21 May '10

Laura Rozen of Politico named names: "Rahm Emanuel has met twice with a group of rabbis, the NSC's Dennis Ross has gone up to the Hill to talk to House Democrats and Senate Dems in recent weeks, the NSC's Dan Shapiro and Ross both spoke at the ADL conference last week, Hillary Clinton keynoted the AJC conference earlier this month, National Security Advisor Jim Jones addressed the Washington Institute for Near East Policy last month, Defense Secretary Robert Gates held an honor guard for visiting Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and Obama hosted Elie Wiesel... Later this month, Obama and the First Lady host a Jewish Heritage event for the first time at the White House... (and) Obama met with some 37 House and Senate Jewish Democrats at the Old Executive Office Building yesterday."

Why?

In parts deliberate and ideological, and in parts amateurish and unintended, friends of Israel have reason to believe the Obama Administration's push for "reformed" relations with Arab and Muslim-dominated countries bodes ill for Israeli security and for the advancement of tolerance and democratic norms in the Middle East. Under the policies of the Obama Administration:

Palestinian-Israeli relations have regressed 17 years back to "proximity talks";

Iran has advanced on multiple fronts;

Turkey has moved away from the West and closer to Iran and Russia;

Syria (with North Korean assistance) has progressed militarily and (with Iranian assistance) reestablished hegemony in Lebanon;

Hezbollah (with Syrian and Iranian assistance) has moved closer to governing Lebanon;

Lebanon has bowed to Syrian, Iranian and Hezbollah ascendance;

Iraq has found itself without American political support for the political reconciliation it needs;

The Gulf States believe they face Iran alone;

Egyptians believe democracy doesn't matter; and

Al Qaeda has advanced in Yemen, Algeria and Somalia and other parts of Africa.

In addition, the Obama Administration has rejoined the UN Human Rights Commission (and didn't object to Iran holding a seat on the UN Committee on the Status of Women) and rejoined the UN Alliance of Civilizations, an openly anti-Israel body that claimed in 2006 that global tensions were driven primarily by the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and, relating to the September 11th attacks, referred to "a perception among Muslim societies of unjust aggression stemming from the West."

(Read full report)

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.

Ed Koch Israel Break the Silence Rally 25 April '10

25 April '10

"There are those, when asked what they are doing to challenge and defeat the president's actions with regard to these grave matters, who have answered, "I'm working behind the scenes." Those corridors must be heavily crowded, and those hidden efforts do not appear to have produced results. I repeat, the silence is deafening."

Ed Koch



Stand with Israel rally

This Sunday, join thousands for an historic gathering to proclaim that we never again will be silent.

JOIN US TO STAND IN SOLIDARITY WITH ISRAEL’S RIGHT TO BUILD AND LIVE IN ITS OWN COUNTRY.

EMERGENCY RALLY FOR A UNITED JERUSALEM UNDER ISRAELI SOVEREIGNTY.

PROTEST THE ADMINISTRATION’S DISGRACEFUL SCAPEGOATING AND UNDERMINING OF ISRAEL.

Sunday, April 25, 2010 — 1 PM , Israeli Consulate, 2nd Ave between 42nd and 43rd St, NYC

Please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.

Netanyahu Can Say "No"

Ephraim Inbar
BESA
Perspectives 103
25 March '10

EXECUTIVE SUMMERY: The Obama administration’s attempt to force Israel to accept the division of Jerusalem as a prerequisite for peace talks is astonishing. Despite the obvious reluctance to confront an American president, Prime Minister Netanyahu can effectively resist such American pressure on Jerusalem. In fact, Jerusalem is the issue on which Netanyahu can best make a stand against Obama.

President Barack Obama capitalized on a minor Israeli glitch – the announcement of Israel's plans to build in Ramat Shlomo – to fabricate a crisis in US-Israeli relations. Obama seeks to renegotiate the agreement reached for starting proximity talks with the Palestinians and to extract additional concessions from Israel. Most striking and central is the administration's effort to force Israel into accepting the division of Jerusalem even before the talks start.

The White House expects that the Israeli prime minister will bend under pressure to its wishes. While in the past Netanyahu has proven susceptible to such pressure, the administration may be overplaying its hand on the issue of Jerusalem. Despite the obvious reluctance to confront an American president, Prime Minister Netanyahu can effectively resist American pressure. In fact, this is the issue on which Netanyahu can best take a stand against Obama.

The division of the city is opposed by the current democratically-elected Israeli government and (according to polls that I have directed) by over 70 percent of the Jews in Israel. Few issues in Israel command such a large and clear majority.

The timing of the crisis also serves Israel well. A few days before Passover when Jews repeat a 2,000-year-old text pledging, “Next year in Jerusalem,” Netanyahu can say no to American demands for concessions in Jerusalem. Rejection of the division of Jerusalem expresses the deepest wishes of an overwhelming number of Jews living both in Israel and the Diaspora.

(Read full paper)
.

The Obama Administration's Coolness to Israel is No Mirage but it is a Manageable Problem

Barry Rubin
The Rubin Report
23 March '10

(The overall issue should be what we've learned from this for the future, alliances, reliances, etc. Y.)

As my readers know, I have often defended the Obama Administration against excessive criticism, conspiracy theory charges, and claims that it wants to destroy or at least damage Israel as some ideological goal. And I've also been willing to criticize it for its foreign policy mistakes when, unfortunately, all too often that's been necessary.

But when David Remnick writes in the New Yorker that Israelis inexplicably have this strange mistaken, paranoid perception that President Barack Obama doesn't really love them, that crosses the line. The president, he explains, has Jewish friends and they think he is quite warm toward Israel.

Not only is it inaccurate and insulting to claim Israelis are just imagining that a real problem exists here but it misunderstands a very simple point that we daily observe: Israel's elite, academics, and journlaists understand the United States far better than current U.S. leaders, academics, journalists, and members of the policy elite understand Israel. Of course, Remnick's approach is also just one more way that opinionmakers and journalists have been avoiding the need to deal with the very real problems and shortcomings that do exist.

Here's the bottom line: It is hard to argue (honestly, at least) that Obama isn't the least-warm president to Israel while in office since the country was established in 1948. The "while in office" phrase is meant to include Jimmy Carter whose great hostility came mostly after he left the White House.

This doesn't mean the Obama Administration cannot be worked with. From about April 2009 to early March 2010, U.S.-Israel relations were going pretty well. Two groups in particular deserve credit for this:

(Read full post)
.

Obama’s Position on Israel: Why Are We Surprised?

Ron Radosh
Pajamasmedia.com
19 March '10

In the past few days, there have been many sharp, biting and on target comments about the fabricated crisis Obama has manufactured between Israel and its most important ally, the United States. If you go to this link, check out the Daily Alert for March 19th, and read the links to the articles by Marty Peretz, Bret Stephens, Charles Krauthammer, Jackson Diehl, Elliot Abrams, Dan Senor, Jonathan Schanzer, Lanny Davis, Mitchell Bard and Clifford May. All of these writers, each in their own distinct way, show how the Obama administration has chosen this moment to appease the Palestinians, who have done little of content to show any real desire for a peace agreement, and to pressure our major ally in the Middle East and to push them to the wall at a time of great peril in the region.

Among all these writers, there is major agreement on the following: 1: All of Israel knows that the contemplated building is not controversial. The settlement freeze announced earlier did not apply to building in this area of Jerusalem, a stone’s throw from the Knesset. 2: While the Israelis have time and time again shown a commitment to obtaining peace with the Palestinians, both Fatah and Hamas have not produced any movement of substance to match very real Israeli moves of compromise. To the contrary, any movement by Israel has been met instead by more intransigence. 3: By singling out Israel alone for tough talk, and ignoring any similar harshness towards any of the Palestinian factions, the administration has made it harder for Mahmoud Abbas to accept any of Israel’s offers, since it would make him look weaker than the American President. 4: The President is clearly revealing that he is moving along the path announced last year in Cairo, when his words indicated an overwhelming desire to tilt in the direction favored by the Arab nations.

As the liberal Democrat Lanny Davis asked, referring to the recent announcement that the “settlement” construction had to be condemned, “How could the U.S. government use such language about a democracy that has been America’s most loyal ally in the world on virtually all issues, a nation that shares our core values — protecting civil rights, women’s rights, due process and free speech — not only for Israeli citizens, but for over 1 million Israeli Arabs as well?”

It is the question, and one answer comes from Marty Peretz, editor in chief of The New Republic, who both endorsed and campaigned for Obama during the campaign, and assured his readers Obama was a keen supporter of Israel and its alliance with the United States. Peretz makes the following startling statement. Rather than hope that the condemnation was a “temporary aberration,” as Davis thinks it might be, Peretz writes:

(Read full article)
.

Time for some self-respect

Fresnozionism.org
15 March '10

The US has ratcheted up the pressure on Israel after the initial flap about Jewish building in East Jerusalem. PM Netanyahu’s apologetic response did not defuse the crisis, showing that it is not about the ‘timing’ of Israel’s announcement, but rather represents a new turn in US policy.

Not only is it assumed that the Administration wants the Ramat Shlomo project canceled, but according to the Jerusalem Post today, the US is asking for further “confidence-building” concessions from Israel, like the release of more Palestinian prisoners.

I suspect that the Palestinians understand Obama’s people better than Netanyahu does. Israel has implemented a settlement freeze in Judea and Samaria (and taken harsh actions against violations), removed roadblocks and checkpoints, and said that it will talk to the Palestinians directly and without preconditions. The Palestinians, on the other hand, insist on preconditions even for indirect talks. And, importantly, they don’t budge.

Naturally the US approach is — since they can’t move the Palestinians — to try to move Israel. The issues on which Israel and the Palestinians are the farthest apart are refugees and Jerusalem; so perhaps the administration thinks that if it can break Israel on Jerusalem, the Palestinians will soften on refugees. Perhaps the Palestinians even led them to believe this.

(Read full post)
.

Biden: Obama Made Me Do It

Marty Peretz
The New Republic
11 March '10
Posted before Shabbat

I am a little embarrassed to be so self-referential this morning, but I am going back to my Spine from yesterday, “The Relentless Facts of Palestine.”

Vice President Biden knew he had to calm the waters in Israel a bit. And he did. So, to an audience at Tel Aviv University--said by some to be comparable to Cairo University, where President Obama delivered his June 4 speech, and which saying tells you how little most people understand the real differences among universities--Biden delivered the reassurances that probably nobody expected: “U.S. president Barack Obama and myself know that the U.S. has no better friend in the community of nations than Israel.” That is certainly the case, across the board politically and philosophically. And aesthetically, too, by the way. These two countries are the epitome of humanistic modernity.

Sill, in the back of everyone’s mind in the audience was Biden’s use of the word “condemn” when speaking about the release of a newly approved Israeli plan for building 1,600 new apartments in what he called East Jerusalem. Just a minor point here: The designated units would be in North Jerusalem, not in the eastern part of the city that carries the yolk and passion of holiness--a troublesome yoke and a troublesome passion.

(Read full post)
.

Fact-Checking Finkelstein’s New Book

Judeosphere
04 March '10

Unemployed professor and Holocaust humorist Norman Finkelstein is publishing a new book this month, This Time We Went Too Far: Truth and Consequences of the Gaza Invasion.

An excerpt has been published in Counterpunch—which is very generous of Finkelstein, since it gives us an early opportunity to scrutinize his “scholarship.”

Finkelstein claims:

Public outrage at the Gaza invasion did not come out of the blue but rather marked the nadir of a curve plotting a steady decline in support for Israel.
One poll registering the fallout from the Gaza attack in the United States found that American voters calling themselves supporters of Israel plummeted from 69 percent before the attack to 49 percent in June 2009, while voters believing that the U.S. should support Israel dropped from 69 per cent to 44 per cent. Consumed by hate, emboldened by self-righteousness, and confident that it could control or intimidate public opinion, Israel carried on in Gaza as if it could get away with mass murder in broad daylight.

The poll Finkelstein is referring to was conducted by the Israel Project. However, he neglected to mention a few relevant facts:

(Read full post)
.