The divisions between Jews in Israel and the US are wide and far-ranging both in the political and religious realms a report by the Algemeiner newspaper has pointed out.
According to the Algemeiner American Jews have overwhelmingly been associated with the Democratic Party at a ratio of about 3:1. Yet increasingly many Democrats are drifting away from Israel.
Following Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign Senator Bernie Sanders has become a key leader of the Democratic Party. Though Jewish Sanders likes to talk about his “Polish” ancestors. He has little regard for the so-called “Jewish homeland”.
In his interview at Intercept.com on September 22 Sanders revealed his true feelings on Israel: “Certainly the United States is complicit [in the Israeli ‘occupation’ of ‘Palestinian’ land]. . . . In terms of Israeli-Palestinian relations the United States has got to play a much more even-handed role.”
Sanders also said that there was “extraordinary potential for the United States to help the Palestinian people rebuild Gaza and other areas.”
A September 25 editorial in the Jerusalem Post was entitled “The popularity of US Senator Bernie Sanders signals an ominous change in American public opinion.” As mentioned above while the majority of Jews vote Democratic the Democrats’ support for Israel has traditionally been lower than that of Republicans — and the gap continues to grow. The current gap between the two parties on Israel is now the widest that it’s been since 1978 when the Pew Research Center first began polling Jews on this subject.
The article said that according to Pew “In the dispute between Israel and the Palestinians 74% of Republicans said they sympathized more with Israel compared to 33% of Democrats. Conversely 31% of Democrats said they sympathized more with the Palestinians while just 17% of Republicans said they did.”
Pew also said that the level of Democratic support for the Palestinians has reached a high point in this century. “Among liberal Democrats support for Palestinians surpasses support for Israel according to a 2016 Pew survey.”
