Over the last day or so there have been more and more signs that Israel’s image is tanking due its latest massacres in Gaza. Ordinary Americans see Palestinians being “annihilated,” and they’re angry about it.
The Gallup poll that shows 2-to-1 opposition to Israel’s war among the young and the non-white is getting a lot of pickup:
“Latest Gallup poll shows young Americans overwhelmingly support Palestine.”
Salon headlines the same trend:
“Millennials are over Israel. A new generation, outraged over Gaza, rejects Washington’s reflexive support.”
CNN featured the data last night and quoted a branding expert (I believe named Martha Pearson) saying,
“Israel’s image is taking a big hit here… Israel isn’t moving into the 21st century in terms of their media.”
The realist blogger Pat Lang says Israel’s support is disintegrating around the world— as the Israelis have made clear that genocide is one of their options.
[I]t can be seen at this point that while Israel has triumphed politically and militarily at the tactical level, it is defeated at the strategic level. Hamas yet lives and continues to resist the fire storm of air strikes, artillery bombardment and ground action. That very steadfastness places Israel in the position of eventually having to make a choice with regard to the Palestinians between actual, serious, bargaining or extermination. The Israeli government and populace have chosen to believe that sufficient brutal force, if widely applied, would separate the resistance from the people. That has failed no matter how much the Israelis would like to believe otherwise. At the same time, political support for Israel is disintegrating across the world. This is defeat.
Notice Lang’s wise observation that the resistance will never be separated from the people? This is the lesson of Northern Ireland and South Africa; and the best response to those who chant about the rockets, the rockets.
As many have noted, liberal Zionist MJ Rosenberg has had it with Israel over the filthy justifications of slaughter:
Hasbara, “It was Lindbergh who killed the Lindbergh baby.” “It wasn’t Booth. Lincoln killed himself.” “Julius Caesar had a heart attack.”
Hasbara: “Kennedy was speeding in Dallas. It wasn’t Oswald.”
Speaking anecdotally, my sense of US public opinion on the left is that Israel is cooked. “I have come to hate Israel,” writes one friend to me. Another, on a hike, says, “That country has no legitimacy; do you know how it was created?” A third has begun using the term Nazion instead of Zionist. How is it pronounced? I asked.
Nazion is pronounced Natz Zion, combine Nazi and Zion. That way you get the play on “nation” as well as Nazi and Zion, an aural reflection on fanatic nationalism as well.
Yes, I saw Chris Hayes deploring the comparison of Israelis to Nazis on Twitter. The responses to him reflect enormous rage toward Israel; and as Nick Galea, a defense attorney and baseball blogger in Illinois writes sensibly:
“I think it’s a little smarmy to ask for nuance from the people being annihilated.”
(Also, no one should be barred from considering the Holocaust’s effect on Jews. As Norman Mailer said, Hitler’s bitter posthumous achievement was to reduce Jews to the question, Is it good for the Jews?)
Even Michael Walzer, the liberal Zionist political philosopher, seems to concede that Israel might be losing. In a call arranged by Peace Now today, he repeatedly analogized Israel’s position to that of the U.S. army in Vietnam and Afghanistan.
High tech armies lose wars of this sort by killing too many civilians– as we lost, the US lost, a war in Vietnam and may be losing a war in Afghanistan. Because this kind of warfare against people who live among and fight from among the civilian population is enormously difficult.
Walzer pronounced Israel’s strikes on homes of Hamas officials to be morally wrong. And per Pat Lang, he said that Israel could win by annihilating a population, but it can’t do that “for moral and political reasons.”
More on the left-Israel divorce. This is from two weeks back. Leftwinger Sue Katz of Arlington MA says she’s done with Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Al Franken and Bernie Sanders:
This is a break-up letter, I’m sorry to tell you. I am done with each and every one of you. Don’t come knocking at my door or my inbox. Don’t look for my support…
I could do an ABC of brutal Occupation, but you ought to already understand what is being done by a country to which you vote billions of dollars in military and other support. You three are members of one of the most powerful political bodies in the world and you should be as ashamed of yourselves as I am of you.
Lastly, I’d point to something posted by a pro-Israel outfit. Camera is very upset that the LA Times has run a photo gallery from Gaza without any photographs of Hamas militants. Well, then, go to that slideshow, many of them photos by Carolyn Cole, like the astonishing portrait at the top of this post of a boy mourning a friend in a makeshift graveyard in Gaza City. The Israel lobby doesn’t have a clue what is happening to it.
“This is defeat.”
Israel has delegitimized itself…I hope that DC gets the message before it’s too late.
“The Israel lobby doesn’t have a clue what is happening to it.”
Believe me, they have a very good idea. They understand that it’s principally a function of social media, which is why the numbers among 18-29 differ so much from other demographic groups. But they’re used to this, and since they don’t spend their time finding new ways to hate people or invent new antisemitic terminology based on the word as Nazi as BDS proponents do, they’ll find a way to move forward.
Younger people think the war is unjustified because they don’t like the pictures on Twitter. It doesn’t mean that they support Palestine or that they’re “over Israel,” as BDS organizer Professor David Palumbo-Liu argues (and you should credit him, rather than disingenuously suggesting that Salon Magazine holds that view). The same poll shows that people who follow the news closely overwhelmingly support Israel, shows a correlation between educational achievement and support for Israel (those with postgraduate degrees find Israel’s response justified 53-27).
Most crucially, these polls show next to no support for the Palestinians. 11 percent think Hamas’s actions are justified. 17 percent think Palestinian actions are justified. Moreover, support for Israel from 18-34 year olds has been remarkably consistent since 2000; in 2014 it was 52%; in 2000 it was 49%. Israel retains, by far, the highest favorability ratings in the United States of any Middle Eastern country. As I’ve told you so many times, whatever misgivings people may have about Israel, they will not translate in support for the Palestinian cause unless there’s something BETTER about it than the highly attractive image Israel presents of a liberal democratic high-tech society presents.
As usual, you’re spinning the poll results to fit your agenda, and you’re taking them out of context. The truth is that most Americans actually have a bigger view of the region than you do. And they see a group worse than Al-Qaeda taking over Iraq, massive carnage in Syria, Brutal dictatorships in Egypt and Iran, and similar trends within the Palestinian Authority. So much as the pictures on social media may make younger people squeamish (and they are doubtless a big part of polling result for younger people), you’re not going to get anywhere until this translates into actual support for Palestinians, rather than revulsion at carnage.
The polls here would be corrupted. People I speak to, who have no dog in this fight are all horrified about what is happening in Gaza. No parent can see the brutality and loss of innocent lives, and NOT feel repulsed about what Israel is doing. I think the majority in the world feels this way too. Despite the desperate attempt by Israeli spokespeople to keep harping that they are under threat by occupied people, and despite the parroting of US leaders repeating the now hollow sounding excuse about Israel having the right to defend itself. Facts and numbers show exactly who urgently need protection from the 6th most powerful armed forces in the world, who use deadly weapons (some gifted by their generous uncle sam).
This time Israel has lost the PR war (very badly) by the media coverage of their assault in Gaza, and hooray for social media. The truth is prevailing. Israel has finally shown it’s true colors and the rest of the world (except the US) finds it EVIL AND UGLY.
It would be strange if there wasnt pro-israel support since the media bias is still in 9/10 cases pro-israel.
Does the average Joe even know where Israel/Palestine is on a school map?
There is one thing what the recent polls don’t reflect, what I – based on my anecdotical view – assume that there is another big and very relevant change happening in the US. From what I see, a big change regarding Israel is underway in the US military establishment.
I have no data for this yet, but from my personal social bubble it looks like that more and more US soldiers view Israel instead of an ally against Islamic terror hordes more and more as a ruthless enemy occupying US power and making US soldiers die and suffer in senseless wars for Israel, and that view is even more often to be seen among US officers.
As I said I have not seen polling data for this yet, but my feeling is that there might be a big change underway in the US.