[Marxism] Dem leaders out of step with voters on Israel's attack on Gaza

["Anthony Boynton" <anthony.boynton@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dem leaders out of step with voters on Israel's attack on Gaza

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January 3, 2009



BY GLEN GREENWALD



A new Rasmussen Reports poll -- the first to survey American public opinion
specifically regarding the Israeli attack on Gaza -- strongly bolsters the
severe disconnect between American public opinion on U.S. policy toward
Israel and the consensus views expressed by America's political leadership.



Not only does Rasmussen find that Americans generally "are closely divided
over whether the Jewish state should be taking military action against
militants in the Gaza Strip" (44 percent to 41 percent, with 15 percent
undecided), but Democratic voters overwhelmingly oppose the Israeli
offensive -- by a 24-point margin. By stark contrast, Republicans, as one
would expect (in light of their history of supporting virtually any proposed
attack on Arabs and Muslims), overwhelmingly support the Israeli bombing
campaign (62 percent to 27 percent).



It's not at all surprising that Republican leaders -- from Dick Cheney and
John Bolton to virtually all appendages of the right-wing noise machine --
are unquestioning supporters of the Israeli attack. After all, they're
expressing the core ideology of the overwhelming majority of their voters
and audience.



Much more notable is the fact that Democratic leaders -- including Harry
Reid and Nancy Pelosi -- are just as lock step in their blind, uncritical
support for the Israeli attack, in their absolute refusal to utter a word of
criticism of, or even reservations about, Israeli actions.



While some Democratic politicians who are marginalized by the party's
leadership are willing to express the views that Democratic voters
overwhelmingly embrace, the suffocating, fully bipartisan orthodoxy which
typically predominates in America when it comes to Israel is in full force
with this latest conflict.



Is there any other significant issue in American political life, besides
Israel, where citizens split almost evenly in their views, yet the leaders
of both parties adopt identical positions which leave half of the citizenry
with no real voice?



More notably still, is there any other position, besides Israel, where a
party's voters overwhelmingly embrace one position (Israel should not have
attacked Gaza) but that party's leadership unanimously embraces the exact
opposite position (Israel was absolutely right to attack Gaza and the U.S.
must support Israel unequivocally)?



Equally noteworthy is that the factional breakdown regarding Israel-Gaza
mirrors quite closely the factional alliances that arose with regard to the
Iraq war. Just as was true with Iraq, one finds vigorous pro-war sentiment
among the Dick Cheney/National Review/neoconservative/hard-core-GOP crowd,
joined (as was true for Iraq) by some American liberals who typically oppose
that faction yet eagerly join with them on Israel.



Meanwhile, most of the rest of the world -- Europe, South America, Asia, the
Middle East, the U.N. leadership -- opposes and condemns the attack, all to
no avail. The parties with the superior military might -- the U.S. and
Israel -- dismiss world opinion as essentially irrelevant. Even the pro-war
rhetorical tactics are the same, just as those who opposed the Iraq war were
said to be "pro-Saddam," those who oppose the Israeli attack on Gaza are now
"pro-Hamas."



There are certainly meaningful differences between the U.S. attack on Iraq
and the Israeli attack on Gaza (most notably the fact that Hamas does shoot
rockets into Israel and has killed Israeli civilians and Israel is
blockading and occupying Palestinian land, whereas Iraq did not attack and
could not attack the U.S. as the U.S. was sanctioning them and controlling
their airspace). But the underlying logic of both wars is far more similar
than different: military attacks, invasions and occupations will end rather
than exacerbate terrorism; the Muslim world only understands brute force;
the root causes of the disputes are irrelevant; diplomacy and the U.N. are
largely worthless.



It's therefore entirely unsurprising that the sides split along the same
general lines. What's actually somewhat remarkable is that there is even
more lock-step consensus among America's political leadership supporting the
Israeli attack on Gaza than there was supporting the U.S. attack on Iraq.



salon.com
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