The old Israel consensus "is breaking down" -- Republicans and Independents Support Israel Overwhelmingly, Democrats, Not

JPost.com | BlogCentral | Rosner's Domain | The old Israel consensus "is breaking down": Republicans and Independents Support Israel Overwhelmingly, Democrats, Not

Rosner readers should know by now that Republicans and Democrats don't share the the same views when it comes to Israel. But here's another writer discovering that support for Israel runs on party line. Or as the article claims: 'the old political consensus that brought Republicans and Democrats together in support of the Middle East's only flourishing democracy is breaking down'.
look at the disparity that emerges when those results are sorted by party affiliation. While support for Israel vs. the Palestinians has climbed to a stratospheric 85 percent among Republicans, the comparable figure for Democrats is an anemic 48 percent. (It was 60 percent for independents.) And behind Israel's 'Top 5' favorability rating lies a gaping partisan rift: 80 percent of Republicans - but just 53 percent of Democrats - have positive feelings about the world's only Jewish country.

Similarly, it is true that 333 US House members, a hefty bipartisan majority, endorsed the robustly pro-Israel Hoyer-Cantor letter to Clinton. But there were only seven Republicans who declined to sign the letter, compared with 91 Democrats - more than a third of the entire Democratic caucus. (Six Massachusetts Democrats were among the non-signers: John Olver, Richard Neal, John Tierney, Ed Markey, Michael Capuano, and Bill Delahunt.)

From Zogby International, meanwhile, comes still more proof of the widening gulf between the major parties on the subject of Israel. In a poll commissioned by the Arab American Institute last month, respondents were asked whether Obama should 'steer a middle course' in the Middle East - code for not clearly supporting Israel. 'There is a strong divide on this question,' Zogby reported, 'with 73 percent of Democrats agreeing that the President should steer a middle course while only 24 percent of Republicans hold the same opinion.'"