Pew Poll Confirms 'Israel Gap' Between Republicans, Democrats

[Purveyor]

The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) has highlighted a recent poll conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press that illustrates the “large gap” in support for Israel between Republicans and Democrats.

The poll, taken in mid-December, asked, “In the dispute between Israel and the Palestinians, which side do you sympathize with more, Israel or the Palestinians?”

The survey confirms the continued existence of a large “Israel gap” between Republicans and Democrats, states the RJC.

According to Pew, “There continue to be stark partisan differences in Middle East sympathies. Conservative Republicans maintain strong support for Israel with fully 75% saying they sympathize with Israel compared with just 2% who sympathize with the Palestinians. By contrast, liberal Democrats are much more divided: 33% sympathize more with Israel, 22% with the Palestinians.”

“This poll confirms the troubling shift among rank-and-file Democrats, for whom support of Israel is now a minority position,” said RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks. “Other polls this past year as well as the boos from the floor when a pro-Israel resolution was brought before the Democratic National Convention last summer, all point to lower support for Israel among Democrats.”

MORE...

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/163856#.UOZk3-SDoV0

[leveymg]

1. It's hard to be super-supportive of Right-wing governments, anywhere. That includes Netanyahu.

There's only so much that a rational person can overlook.

[The Straight Story]

2. Well, here is a post from a rw'er on FB about allegiance to Israel:

Not sure I should post it here as last thing I did I found on FB it got hidden and some meta threads about it....but I think this is telling about the RW: (oh, and while I am not 'pro' Israel I am also not anti-semitic - watch out when you post something not 100% pro israel as you could be called the same.

The RW - how they view Israel and the US and our taxes:

I would like to conclude this week with a thought for us all to take with us as we leave; one that I know many of you already accept but others aren't so sure. I think that the saga of Balaam and Balak is a prophetic tale of the gentile church. Balaam is a gentile. He is a spiritual man; in fact he's a God-fearer; that is he absolutely believes in and pays attention to the God of Israel. He hears from the God of Israel and knows the God of Israel. Yet he cannot bring himself to dismiss his long heritage of gentile traditions and customs that are so at odds with the Torah and other Scriptural commands of Yehoveh.

Balaam is a spiritually oriented gentile who knows Israel has a powerful God, and he has been given personal instruction from this God on what his relationship is to be with Israel (a relationship of uniting with them and blessing them based on God's covenants). God makes it clear to Balaam that He has already blessed Israel (it's a done deal) and as such it cannot be overturned by any man or gentile nation. And God will NEVER cease to see Israel as a blessed people. He will never permanently curse Israel, and He will oppose anyone who tries to curse His people.

God tells Balaam that Israel has a glorious future ahead of them BECAUSE they are blessed of God. Balaam says that he wants to die in the righteousness that the people of Israel have been given by Yehoveh.

And yet we find Balaam over and over again being warned off by Yehoveh as he journeys to Moab to do service to God's enemy, the King of Moab. Somehow there is this intellectual disconnect (Balaam describes it as a blindness that finally went away) whereby he just couldn't grasp that he cannot do service for a gentile nation whose intent is to weaken or harm Israel, and at the same time properly honor and be in harmony with the God of Israel. But that didn't stop him from trying on numerous occasions.

Balaam is an amazing model of the gentile dominated Church. Do you see it? The mainstream institutional Church says that Israel no longer has a glorious future, instead that glorious future now belongs to the gentile Church. The most ubiquitous and accepted Church doctrines say that God has abandoned Israel, rejected His people for all time, cursed them and blessed we gentile Believers in their stead. And the Church is so horribly wrong on this. Brothers and sisters in Christ it is utter self-destructive foolishness to think that we can do anything but work to actively bless Israel. Believers have not always had a clear-cut opportunity to do so, but we do now. Israel was not reborn as a nation until a mere 60 years ago, so there was no nation of Israel to love and defend. Obviously during the centuries of Jewish dispersion (especially prior to the rebirth of Israel) it should have been the Church's unequivocal duty to stand with them and befriend those Jewish families when they needed us the most, but we did not.

We must never assist or lend moral support and thus strengthen Israel's sworn enemies (as Balaam intended to do) and call it even handed or loving and kind, and think that somehow this is not cursing Israel. Balaam wasn't going to personally harm Israel, he was merely going to assist Israel's enemy (Moab) and then go home. God told him that if he did, He'd have to kill him.

We can't send supplies and money to the Palestinians, or apply political pressure upon Israel on their behalf, and then somehow claim that the God of the Bible sanctions this as a worthy and holy cause. We must not join with the secular word to push Israel into dividing the land that was covenanted to them by the Lord, or insist that Israel deed to the Muslims as their capital the very place our Messiah will again set foot when He returns from Heaven, or allow Islam to maintain a pagan shrine and worship center where the Temple of God once existed and will again, and then say that because our heartfelt intent is peace therefore doing all these things must be right in Our Lord's eyes.

If Balaam can wake up and see the light, then so can the Church. If Balaam can finally understand that Israel is not like the gentile nations, that God is not a human who changes his mind, that when he makes a promise or a covenant He will fulfill it and that the Lord Himself will curse anyone who curses His special people, Israel, then so can our brethren finally understand that. Let's do our part to see to it that it happens, soon.

[MrSlayer]

3. Why is it so "troubling"?

I don't understand why it's so important for Americans to support Israel no matter what. I mean personally, I don't hate them but I don't love them either. Any more than I hate or love Nigeria or Romania. They're just another foreign country I'm indifferent to.

I guess what I'm asking is: Why does this gap matter at all?

[KittyWampus]

4. I support Israel but not its far-right politicians & their insistence on making things worse.

[SCliberal091294]

5. go palestein!

[JI7]

6. "REPUBLICAN Jewish coalition"

look at the group pushing this poll. pretty misleading. those evangelicals don't give a shit about israeli lives.

[Bradical79]

7. Seems like a dumb overly simplified question that provides no insight.

I can sympathize with Israel and not support their military actions, just like I can sympathize with Palestine and not support Hamas for example. There are a lot of ways to break down how I feel about the situation.

Democrats being "split" probably has more to do with them recognizing the nuances of the conflict and the complex feelings they feel for the region. Meanwhile, the strong Republican support basically boils down to the superstitious nonsensical belief that questioning any Israeli action is a direct defiance of their deity's will.

This is essentially a right wing propaganda poll.

[gtar100]

8. Republicans are knee-jerk supporters of Israel. I bet the Democratic view

is more nuanced than this survey allowed. To the republicans, any show of sympathy for the Palestinians is considered heresy. They will never be helpful in this situation until they pull their heads out of their asses.

[WhoIsNumberNone]

9. The Reds are generally more religious

They go to the fundie churches, which are all telling them the Rapture is coming any day now, but it can't happen unless the Jews are returned to Israel. They watch Fox "News" and listen to Pig Boy and Glenn Blech on the radio- none of whom have anything good to say about the Palestinians (or Muslims in general) or anything the least bit critical to say about Israel. And they buy into the imperialist foreign policy whose propaganda tells them that Israel is our only friend in the Middle East, and without them we'd really be up shit's creek.

So, yeah. Not surprising at all.

[Honeycombe8]

10. So almost half of liberal Dems are divided between support for Israel & Palestinians?

If 33% support Israel more, and 22% support Palestinians more, then 45% are equally divided in their support (or non-support)?

[jberryhill]

11. The question wasn't about "support"

The question was about sympathy.

Both the Palestinians and Israelis are hostages to their own extremists.