A recent Gallup poll finds a substantial rise in the American people’s support for Israel. Indeed, it is very close to the high it reached during the first Gulf War when Israel was subjected to Iraqi Scuds.
Clearly, you cannot fool the American people all the time. Americans also know who their allies are and hope that Israel will take care of Iran.
BUT Gallup also reports that Democrats are far less sympathetic to Israel than are Republicans or even independents. Personally, I blame the unrelenting efforts by the media and academia to blacken the name of the much too successful Democratic Jewish state. Democrats only seem to love hapless victims ruled by ruthless tyrants.
Over the last five years, support for Israel has increased slightly among Republicans (rising from about 77% for each of the past several years to 85% today) and independents, but has stayed roughly the same among Democrats. Since 2001, however, there has been a more dramatic shift in partisan attitudes: a 25-point increase in sympathy for Israel among Republicans and an 18-point increase among independents. Even on this longer-term basis, support for Israel among Democrats has been relatively flat.
And, yet, American Jews continue to vote Democratic.
