For the primary time in Gallup’s historical past of polling on Israel’s violent occupation of Palestine, Democrats now sympathize extra with Palestine than they do with Israel, new polling finds.
In a ballot launched Thursday, Gallup found that Palestinians now maintain an 11-point lead in Democrats’ sympathies over Israelis, with 49 % of respondents sympathizing with Palestine and 38 % with Israel. 13 % responded neither, each or no opinion.
This can be a massive enhance in help for Palestinians over final yr, when the pollster discovered that Democrats favored Israel 40 % to 39 %. It’s a vital shift in opinion over previous a long time, as favorability for Israeli violence has remained above a plurality of 40 % since 2001 — the primary yr that Gallup surveyed this concern — till this yr.
The shift in opinions has precipitated sympathy towards Palestine to achieve its highest level amongst all respondents, at 31 %. The shift is basically pushed by individuals in younger generations, the ballot says, with millennials and Era Z barely favoring Palestine total.
Many independents got here round on the difficulty this yr as effectively, the ballot discovered. Whereas a plurality of 49 % of independents nonetheless stated that they favor Israel, the hole closed to its smallest level ever, with a report excessive of 32 % of independents saying that they sympathize with Palestinians. The one group wherein opinions didn’t considerably change was Republicans, whose help for Israel remained excessive, at 78 %, in the latest survey.
The shift is also attributable to the acceleration of Israeli violence lately. Final yr, Israeli forces killed essentially the most Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem and West Financial institution in decades, and are continuing that violence this yr at a fee that might probably surpass final yr’s grisly dying toll.
In January, Israeli forces carried out a raid towards the Jenin Refugee Camp in West Financial institution wherein they killed at the least 9 Palestinians, in what United Nations analysts say was the deadliest single Israeli operation since 2005. Since then, Israeli forces have killed dozens extra Palestinians, with at least 83 Palestinians killed thus far this yr.
This escalation has come as Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sworn, in his sixth time period, to be essentially the most far proper chief within the historical past of Israel after collaborating with extremist right-wing teams with a purpose to safe the victory.
Netanyahu’s extremist regime is, as Marjorie Cohn noticed for Truthout, essentially the most anti-Palestinian in Israeli historical past. His Zionist coalition has promised to “end” taking on occupied Palestinian territory as soon as and for all, incorporating it into Israel. This may primarily contain “cleaning” West Financial institution and East Jerusalem of Palestinians, Cohn wrote.
The polling demonstrates that, in stubbornly sticking to their help of Israel no matter its fascist leaders and apartheid, elected Democrats are more and more out of contact with their base. The presidential administration of self-labeled Zionist Joe Biden has been instrumental on this, giving billions to Israel to proceed its occupation and even opposing Al Jazeera’s transfer to submit a case to the Worldwide Prison Court docket over Israel’s killing of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh final yr.
In the meantime, in Congress, when the Home voted on a invoice to pile $1 billion for Israel’s Iron Dome on prime of different funding already funneled to the apartheid, a whopping 210 Democrats, out of 222, voted for the invoice, together with, controversially, supposed progressives like Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-New York), who voted “sure”, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), who voted “present.”
Even Democrats who at the moment have little relevance within the political sphere are stubbornly advocating for Israel. Disgraced former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, as an illustration, announced this week that he’s launching the ironically-named “Progressives for Israel” to supposedly fight antisemitism — a line of reasoning that many Jewish advocates have denounced towards repeatedly — in a bizarre move that has baffled political commentators.
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