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ONE FACTOR that might be mentioned is that the critics are far out of date.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.
So what is the great urgency here, the dramatic change, the Palestinian moderation that offers a real chance for peace, or the Israeli misbehavior that throws away a great opportunity to achieve it? Other than pure perversity, ideological nastiness, panic derived from mass-media antagonism toward Israel, or the sharp Obama-era turn to the Left, the claim that Israel is doing something reckless which is antagonizing would-be supporters doesn’t make sense.
And then it hit me.
THERE HAS just been yet another in a long series of polls about what Americans think of Israel and the Palestinians. These polls have been broadly consistent. In 2012, about 71 percent of Americans say they side with Israel – as high as that number has ever been in all of history. And that’s compared to only 20% who say they side with the Palestinians, a figure that has been stable now for three years.
But here’s the point: apparently, Democratic and liberal support for Israel has gone down. The idea of supporting Israel’s control over Jerusalem was at first left out of the Democratic platform, then booed and opposed by a majority of the delegates voting (though undemocratically added anyway by the leadership). Of course, they did the same regarding the mentioning of God, so Israel is, as has so often been the case historically, in good company.
The point, however, is that this isn’t really about Israel, it’s about the liberal Democratic intellectual (or pseudo-intellectual) upper middle class milieu claiming Israel is wantonly throwing away support by acting irrationally.
After all, these people have a choice regarding how to respond to the situation:
Option 1: Israel is at fault for losing the Obama cult crowd and a small but vocal increasingly left-wing sector of Americans (many of whom aren’t that thrilled with the United States either) because of something that it has done.
If only Israel would show itself ready to take risks for peace, elect a prime minister who was ready to recognize a Palestinian state and give up almost all of the territory captured in 1967, show the Palestinians that Israelis aren’t horrible monsters, let Palestinians rule the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, help them get billions of dollars in aid and let them create the own armed force to stop the real extremists, then peace is possible! Oh, wait a minute, that already happened.
And there were three such prime ministers: Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Ehud Barak.
Option 2: Given an increasingly left-wing ideology that’s based on faulty assumptions and neglects the dangerous radicalism of Islamist forces and other enemies of America, it is the dominant worldview in the mass media, academia and ruling circles in America that is to blame for turning away from Israel.
Understand this well: Option 1 requires Israel to change; Option 2 requires the people voicing such complaints about Israel to change.
Well, these people don’t want to examine their assumptions and change their views.
They’d end up suffering for their support of Israel, they’d be out of step with the mob, they might have to – shudder! – step away from what’s popular and “in.” My goodness, they might even have to question Obama’s brilliance and policies! No contest.
So it’s not surprising that Option 1 wins out. And the exact same point would apply if you substitute the word America for Israel and revised as required the details.
Hey, do what you have to do to avoid admitting you’re wrong and paying some price for telling the truth. But don’t blame us.
The writer is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center, Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, and editor of The Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) journal. His latest book is The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan). www.gloria-center.org
@ Raymond Felsted:
Rick Santelli.
@ dweller:
Must agree with you Darlin,!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@ yamit82:
MY REPLY TO YAMIT ZAPPED BY SPAM FILTER.
@ yamit82:
The financial meltdown.
I remember hearing about it several years before it happened, and I don’t even follow the subject of finance. Independent experts – those not affiliated with either government or the banks – were warning consumers of the coming derivatives meltdown. But they were mostly on alternative media, not the MSM. The worst part of this scandal is the incestuous relationship between govt overseers and major financial institutions.
~~~~~
ROBERT MAZUR is an investigative writer who exposed sordid details of major banks laundering zillions for the drug cartels. No wonder governments want to keep prohibition going. It’s good business. http://www.businessinsider.com/robert-mazur-on-whats-wrong-with-banking-system-2012-9 – This concerns Israel since Hezbullah is working with the drug cartels.
HSBC caught in drug money laundering operations – and it’s not the only major bank involved in this. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/02/hsbc-money-laundering-colombian-drug-traffickers_n_2395167.html
@ yamit82:
No way.
No way, no how.
Not as presently constituted they may not. (FIFY.)
Not as presently constituted they don’t. (FIFY twice now.)
But then, the DEMO party hasn’t deserved to win a National election since at least 1972
— maybe earlier.
@ yamit82:
Cowboy says,”who cares”!!!!!!!!!!!!
@ Dr Honey Bee Ph.D:
The one question every guy must know
@ Raymond Felsted:
A loss is a loss. You lost. Cheer up Romney would probably have been worse. Just like Bush was worse than Clinton.
The Republican party may never again win a National election, at least they don’t deserve to win.
@ Shy Guy:
I would never insult an animal like the noble jackass in such a way as to compare one to an “AS A JEW”.
Dr Honey Bee Ph.D Said:
FIFY
@ Shy Guy:
I see you learned of the “lost tribe” called the “as a Jew”,. The are denizens of the East and West coast of the USA. In Texas there is a bounty on them !!!!!!!!! We Texas Jews pay a large bounty for every Starbuch’s Latte sipping one of them. We put them in border motels,resind their PH.Ds feed them BBQ until the minds crack, and they begin babling yawl-yawl, then we turn them into pro Israel consertative.
DON’T MESS WITH TEXAS
Alex Markin Said:
Their latest endeavor
Part of the problem resides with the J-Street people in the US and their fans among Conservative and Reform rabbis. We are seeing that in South Florida where rabbis rush to act like kapos, blocking any interaction with Jews who disagree with their appeasement agenda, and even excluding them from gatherings. They then blast these Jews for being uncivil. If anyone wants facts on that, I will be delighted to oblige.
Cheers
Alex
EW YORK — The convulsions of the Arab Spring may be driving the American public’s support for Israel to new highs, according to a poll released Wednesday by the Washington-based group The Israel Project.
Americans who say the United States should support the Jewish state in the conflict with the Palestinians increased from 60 percent a year ago to 68% today, a survey of voters taken November 6-8 by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner has found.
Those who said they supported the Palestinians dropped from 8% to 7% in that time.
The survey polled 793 respondents and the margin of error is 3.5%.
“Given the turmoil in the Middle East, increased support among the American public for deepening the special relationship between the US and Israel is both a natural reaction and good policy,” said Israel Project CEO Josh Block. “Americans know that Israel is our greatest and only truly reliable ally in the region, and that is more true today than ever,” he added.
That analysis is supported by the finding that 81% of Americans want to maintain or bolster US relations with Israel, while only 13% want the US to distance itself from Israel. (A consistent 2% want the US to “end its relationship with Israel.”)
That’s a significant bump in support for the relationship from one year earlier, when support for maintaining or strengthening the relationship was at 73%, and for distancing at 23%.
Similarly, 59% said the US should work more closely with Israel, compared to just 24% who said it should work more closely with traditional Arab allies, like Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
Add to that the comments made recently by Steven Plaut to the effect that how things have changed in the attitudes of Israelis since OSLO. This means that a situation which is most favourable for Jewish patriots has opened up in a very FORCEFUL way.
But you would never grasp or understand that if you were following say the statements of Netanyahu where it is all doom and gloom.
Something similar is happening in Syria where the enemedia is talking down the chances of Assad.
Why let the media set the agenda like this. The reason is that there is no party to express these great moments in history.
As I said elsewhere we need a party in Israel which will strike out, and among other things dispossess Haerretz, hand the computers and press to the youth of Jews News, move immediately to arrest and put on immediate trial Abbas, and along with Abbas try posthumously Hajj Amin el Husseini.
It is the absence of party which is key
Samuel Fistel Said:
Permanent majority? Only among low information voters. The right lost the last election by only 3 or 4% of the total vote. Low information voters are easily 15-20% or more of the electorate and many will vote Republican as they learn more of the principles of freedom and liberty. Most low information voters are on the dole and vote to protect and secure their welfare payments. The right needs a charismatic leader who will appeal to their hope for a better future, one where they will have a stake in the economy.
@ yamit82:
Peter Schiff is a sharp financial analyst. I’ll watch the videos tonight. Thank you.
@ Canadian Otter:
Watch the whole clip but I am referring to the part from 41 min point re: the chinese
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgMclXX5msc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrpPsOvHUU8&list=PL62A813634DA71B50
@ Samuel Fistel:
A bunch of very superficial thinkers, who are totally heedless of the dangers to the world.
The following quote is from a blogger called “Summer Patriot, Winter Soldier,” who appears to have a good grasp of the reality of Islam and its followers and apologists:
@ Samuel Fistel:
Politicians need millions to run for Congress, and the most available source now is the Muslim world. The Muslims’ main interest is not to sell oil to America but to thoroughly infiltrate centers of power and influence, while they quietly invade and colonize through legal and illegal immigration. Politicians can’t afford benign neglect of the ME when their careers are dependent on Muslim donations.
Is that realistic, considering that China has been financing the US economy by buying large amounts of US treasury bonds?
America is turning away from muslim arabs directly, and Jewish Israel indirectly:
The Democratic Party in America is still run by “old school” LBJ pro-Israel center-left liberals. But not for long. The younger Democrats who are replacing them are much further to the left. They are more pro-arab and anti-Israel.
Obama is the transitional figure. He started out very anti-Israel and pro-arab. But he received stinging criticism for being too openly anti-Israel, while the arabs disappointed both him and all the young Democrats by being too violent, conservative and fanatically islamic. And although we declared victory in Iraq and Afghanistan, we actually lost both wars in terms of lost treasure, blood, and prestige.
The only thing arabs offered America economically was oil, but America is now finding more gas and oil in its own shores.
Given that America is broke, and has to borrow all the money it spends on foreign aid, it is easy to see where Obama and the Democrats are heading, as they become the permanent majority: benign neglect of the entire Middle East, both arabs and Israel, and a shift to keeping a closer eye on China by supporting China’s threatened neighbors (Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines). The looming appointments of Kerry and Hagel are steps in this direction.
It sounds like Rubin in trying to sound blase’ reveals the panic at the heart of his contention. Shelly Adelson, most likely a fan of Rubin’s less than brilliant Middle East dispatches thought he could put enough gelt in Newt Gingrich’s and then Mitt Romney’s trousers that they could waltz right into The White House. The truth is Rubin’s grasp of reality is not altogether like that other great Jewish sage – Dick Morris. They’re clueless, desperate and about as reliable as a lobotomized orangutan.