THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XII, Issue # 220, October 19, 2010
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
ISRAEL & CONGRESSIONAL DEMOCRATS
By Dr. Daniel Pipes
AMERICA'S TWO MAJOR POLITICAL PARTIES, U.S. FOREIGN POLICY TOWARD ISRAEL, & THE U.S. CONGRESSIONAL
ELECTIONS OF NOVEMBER 2, 2010: THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY VERSUS THE REPUBLICAN PARTY ON AMERICAN
SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL & ITS GOVERNMENT -- THE PATTERN OF WEAK DEMOCRATIC SUPPORT & SIGNIFICANTLY STRONGER
REPUBLICAN SUPPORT FOR THE STATE OF ISRAEL -- HOW AMERICAN VOTERS CONCERNED WITH ISRAEL'S WELFARE &
SECURITY SHOULD VOTE IN THE IMPENDING CONGRESSIONAL ELECTIONS
FULL STORY:
How should American voters concerned with Israel's welfare and security vote in the U.S. Congressional elections on
November 2, 2010?
This much is clear after almost two years of Democratic Party control over the executive and legislative branches of
the U.S. national government: Democrats consistently support Israel and its government far less than do Republicans.
Leaving President Barack Obama aside for now (he's not on the ballot), let's focus on Congress and on voters.
Congress: The pattern of weak Democratic support for Israel began just a week after Inauguration Day, 2009, right after
the Israel-Hamas war, when 60 U.S. House Democrats (including such Leftwingers as Dennis Kucinich, Barbara Lee,
and Maxine Waters) and not a single Republican wrote the Secretary of State to "respectfully request that the State
Department release emergency funds to [the anti-Israel organization] UNRWA for reconstruction and humanitarian
assistance" in Gaza.
In the same spirit, 54 House Democrats and not a single Republican signed a letter to President Barack Obama a year
later, in January, 2010, asking him to "advocate for immediate improvements for Gaza in the following areas" and then
listed ten ways to help Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist organization.
In dramatic contrast, 78 House Republicans wrote a "Dear Prime Minister Netanyahu" letter a few months later to
express their "steadfast support" for him and Israel. The signatories were not just Republicans, but members of the
House Republican Study Committee, a conservative caucus.
So, count 54 Democrats for Hamas and 78 Republicans for Israel.
In the aftermath of the March, 2010, crisis, when Vice President Joe Biden went to Jerusalem, 333 members of the
House of Representatives signed a letter to the Secretary of State reaffirming the U.S.A.-Israel alliance. The 102
House members who did not sign included 94 Democrats (including Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi) and 8
Republicans, a 12-to-1 ratio. Seventy-six Senators signed a similar letter; the 24 who did not sign included 20
Democrats and 4 Republicans, a 5-to-1 ratio.
Voters: Public opinion explains these differences on Capitol Hill.
An April, 2009, poll by Zogby International asked about U.S. policy: Ten percent of Obama voters and 60 percent of
voters for Republican John McCain wanted the President to support Israel. Get tough with Israel? Eighty percent of
Obama voters said yes and 73 percent of McCain voters said no. Conversely, 67 percent of Obama voters said yes
and 79 percent of McCain voters said no to Washington engaging with Hamas. And 61 percent of Obama voters
endorsed a Palestinian "right of return," while only 21 percent of McCain voters concurred.
Almost a year later, the same pollster asked American adults how best to deal with the Arab-Israeli conflict and found
"a strong divide" on this question. Seventy-three percent of Democrats wanted the President to end the historic bond
with Israel, but treat Arabs and Israelis alike; only 24 percent of Republicans endorsed this shift.
A survey this month asked if a likely voter is "more likely or less likely to vote for a candidate whom you perceive as
pro-Israel." Thirty-nine percent of Democrats and 69 percent of Republicans prefer the pro-Israel candidate. Turned
around, 33 percent of Democrats and 14 percent of Republicans would be less likely to support a candidate because he
is pro-Israel. Democrats are somewhat evenly split on Israel, but Republicans favor it by a 5-to-1 ratio.
A consensus exists that the two parties are growing further apart over time. Pro-Israel, Conservative Jeff Jacoby of the
Boston Globe finds that "the old political consensus that brought Republicans and Democrats together in
support of the Middle East's only flourishing democracy is breaking down." Anti-Israel, Leftwing James Zogby, of the
Arab American Institute, agrees, writing that "traditional U.S. policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict does not
have bipartisan backing." Thanks to changes in the Democratic Party, Israel has become a partisan issue in American
politics, an unwelcome development for it.
In late March, 2010, during a nadir of U.S.-Israel relations, Janine Zacharia wrote in the Washington Post that
some Israelis expect their Prime Minister to "search for ways to buy time, until the midterm U.S. elections [of November,
2, 2010] in hopes that Obama would lose support and that more pro-Israel Republicans would be elected." That an
Israeli leader is thought to stall for fewer congressional Democrats confirms the changes outlined here. It also provides
guidance for voters.
October 19, 2010 update: For a more extensive compilation of figures on this topic, see my weblog entry, "Republicans
and Democrats Look at the Arab-Israeli Conflict."
© Daniel Pipes 2010
Originally Published in National Review Online, October 19, 2010
Republished with the Permission of Daniel Pipes
Reprinted from the Daniel Pipes Mailing List, October 19, 2010
URL: http://www.danielpipes.org/8994/israel-congressional-democrats
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
American Politics, Political Competition, & the Control of
Public Policy: Elections, Political Parties, Political Factions,
Ideologies, Special Interest Groups, & Political Corruption
American Government & the U.S. Congress:
Congressional Legislative Politics & National Public Policy
Israel & the Arabs -- The Israeli-Arab Conflict
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
Islamism & Jihadism -- Radical Islam & Islamic Terrorism
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
Dr. Daniel Pipes, a Ph.D. in Islamic History (Harvard University, 1978), is Founder and Director of the Middle East Forum,
Publisher of Middle East Quarterly,
Founder of Campus Watch, Taube Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University, a
signatory of the Project for the New American Century, a former board member of the U.S. Institute of Peace, a former
adjunct scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a Golden Circle supporter of the U.S. Committee for a Free
Lebanon, a former member of the U.S. Department of Defense Special Task Force on Terrorism and Technology, and a
former lecturer at the U.S. Naval War College, Harvard University, the University of Chicago, and the University of
Pennsylvania. Dr. Pipes was the Director of the Foreign Policy Research Institute from 1986 to 1993.
Author or co-author of eighteen books, Dr. Pipes is a regular columnist for National Review Online, Front Page
Magazine, the New York Sun, and the Jerusalem Post. His analyses of world trends and of forces and
developments in the Middle East have appeared in numerous North American newspapers, including the Washington
Post, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. He frequently appears on American network
television, as well as at universities and think tanks, to discuss the Middle East, Islam, and the Islamist threat to the
U.S.A. and the West. He also has appeared on BBC and Al Jazeera, and has lectured in approximately
twenty-five countries.
Dr. Pipes is a Polish-American Jew whose parents fled Poland in 1939, immigrated to the U.S.A., and assimilated well into
American society and culture. His father is Richard Pipes, an American historian specializing in Russian and Soviet history
and serving as Professor of History at Harvard University from 1950 until his retirement in 1996. During the Cold War, the
worldview of Richard Pipes was strongly anti-Soviet and anti-Communist.
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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