Israel, Anti-Semitism and the Left

As Obama has taken his party and the country further and further to the left, the support for Israel from his party has continued to decline. Frank Luntz conducted a poll of what he referred to as the "opinion elite." Those were defined as people being highly educated, high earners and publicly active. I suspect a number of my readers would qualify.

The poll asked people various questions about Israel. Here is how the "opinion elite" of the 2 parties answered. Does Israel have too much influence on US foreign policy? Dems - 76% say yes, Repubs - 20% agree. Does Israel want peace with its neighbors? Dems - 48% say yes, Repubs - 88% agree. Are settlements an impediment to peace? Dems - 75% say yes, Repubs - only 25% agree. Notice how the Dems answers tend to track with Obama's stated positions on these issues.

Do you support the BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction) movement against Israel. 31% of Dems do, while a mere 3% of Repubs do. Curiously, the poll found that 60% were unaware of what BDS was. Asked if Jews were oversensitive and claimed that legitimate criticisms of Israel were anti-Semitic, 50% of Dems agreed. Only 18% of Repubs agreed.

In an interesting pair of related questions, people were asked if the US should support Israel or the Palestinians. 51% of Dems said Israel, while a whopping 90% of Repubs said Israel. But, when asked who they personally supported, only a minority of Dems - 46% - said Israel. But an overwhelming 88% of Repubs personally supported Israel.

As Obama has sought to distance himself and his Administration away from Israel (which he has done since entering office), he has concurrently aligned himself with pro-Palestinian groups. It is not just that the radical Islamist groups, such as CAIR (the Council on American Islamic Relations) and the ISNA (the Islamic Society of North America), are frequent visitors to the White House. No, Obama looks to support his anti-Israel agenda by getting left-wing Jewish groups to side with him.

Whereas AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Council) is a true supporter of Israel, and non-partisan with regards to the 2 parties; Obama prefers to invite groups such as "J Street" to the White House. J Street claims to identify as a pro-Israel organization, yet is a far left group that has adopted virtually all the Palestinian talking points - the same as Obama. Now, there is another allegedly pro-Israel, but actually pro-Palestinian group, called "Breaking the Silence," that also gets White House access.

So let's see. Radical Islamic groups get access to the White House. Far left pro-Palestinian Jewish groups get access to the White House. But hey, Al Sharpton is described as a trusted adviser, so...

Meanwhile, the UN Human Rights Council was at it again. This joke of an organization has passed more anti-Israel measures than against any other member nation, and possibly more against Israel than all the other nations combined. Under Bush, the US was not a member of the Council; but Obama has a far greater affinity for all things international. This time, they adopted a report concerning last year's war between Israel and Hamas. The vote was 47-1, with 5 abstentions. Those abstaining were Kenya, Ethiopia, Paraguay, Macedonia and India. Israel has made an effort to create closer ties with India; and the Palestinians were apoplectic that India this time did not vote how they had hoped.

The 8 European countries on the Council all voted against Israel. No surprise there. They are the UK, France, Germany, Iceland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Latvia and Estonia. Think about that the next time you want to travel to one of these countries. There were reports that Israel asked the UK and Germany to vote for the resolution, fearing that a worse resolution might be enacted if the current one was not. The one no vote - the US. But at the Security Council, where it really counts, Obama has said he would no longer guarantee protection of Israel.

Well, at least those countries voting against Israel all have stellar human rights records themselves. That would be countries like China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, to name a few.

I'll leave you with this quote from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, regarding the UNHRC resolution. "On a day when Israel is hit by fire from the Sinai (by ISIS), when Islamic State is carrying out cruel terror attacks inside Egypt, in Syria Assad is slaughtering his people, and in Iran the number of arbitrary executions rises on an annual basis, the Council decides to condemn Israel that has committed no sins." But maybe the Dems would say that I'm just oversensitive to legitimate criticisms of Israel.