For the first time ever, a majority of Democrats say US should pressure Israel not Palestine

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For the first time ever, a majority of Democrats say US should pressure Israel not Palestine

March 26th, 2021

Awake Goy

Gallup has released its annual polling on how Americans view the Israel/Palestine conflict and, for the first time ever, a majority of Democrats say the United States should focus its political pressure on Israel.

Israel remains quite popular in the United States, with 75% of respondents saying they view the country favorably and 58% saying they sympathize with Israelis. However, there are signs that this support for Palestine is beginning to increase. In 2020, the Palestinian Authority had a favorability rating of just 21%. That jumped to 30% this year.

This shift is much more stark when it comes to Democrats. For the first time ever a majority of them say that the United States should apply “more pressure on Israel” to make compromises, as opposed to “more pressure on Palestinians.” 53% of Democrats told the pollsters they want more pressure on Israel, which is up from 43% in 2018. A decade ago this position didn’t crack 38%.

The Gallup results are in line with similar surveys carried out over the last few years. In 2019, a Data for Progress poll found that 65% of Democratic voters support conditioning aid to Israel. A Center for American Progress poll from the same year had that number at 71%. A 2020 University of Maryland Critical Issues Poll found that 49% of Democrats had heard of BDS, and 48% of those who had heard of it said that they “strongly or somewhat” support the movement.

While the Democratic base is shifting on Palestine, there’s no sign that the party’s establishment is beginning to change in any way. President Joe Biden has criticized Israeli settlement expansion, but calls conditioning military aid to Israel a “gigantic mistake.” The administration also opposes the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) recently-launched investigation into alleged war crimes committed by the country.

When Jalina Porter, a State Department spokesperson, was asked about Israel potentially demolishing 200 homes this week, she refused to condemn the move and repeated the administration’s standard criticism of both sides:

QUESTION: Okay. I have a couple of follow-ups. Also the Israelis are set to demolish maybe 200 homes in the Sheikh Jarrah area, which is part of East Jerusalem, maybe displacing a few thousand Palestinians. Do you have a position on that?

MS PORTER: Well, I’ll just say that we believe it’s critical for Israel and the Palestinian Authority to refrain from unilateral steps that exacerbate tensions and undercut efforts to advance a negotiated two-state solution, such as annexation of territory, settlement activity, demolitions, incitement to violence, and providing compensation for individuals imprisoned for acts of terrorism.

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