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Democrats’ Israel problem is Netanyahu

  

Category:  Op/Ed

Via:  john-russell  •  5 years ago  •  8 comments

Democrats’ Israel problem is Netanyahu
Netanyahu seems to have written off the Democrats as losers who can’t harm him. His actions suggest a bet that Trump, or someone much like him, will control the White House indefinitely. Or maybe he’s simply a short-term tactician. After all, he’s simultaneously seeking to woo voters and dodge a pending criminal indictment.

S E E D E D   C O N T E N T






OPINION


Democrats’ Israel problem is Netanyahu















By JACKSON DIEHL | The Washington Post | Published: February 19, 2019





The Democratic Party has problems with Israel. But Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., the new members of Congress who have attracted attention with toxic tweets and support for boycott, are not the main protagonists. They represent a minority of Americans and are isolated in the Democratic caucus.

The bigger trouble for Democrats is embodied in the man who has dominated Israeli politics for the past decade — and who is favored in upcoming national elections. Benjamin Netanyahu has doggedly and successfully worked to thwart the goal pursued by Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and still embraced by most Democrats: a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He campaigned against Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, an initiative most Democrats still support.

Along the way, he has openly wedded Israel’s government to the Republican Party and helped to divide U.S. opinion on Israel along partisan lines. That bond has intensified during the Trump administration. Netanyahu has embraced, defended and even imitated a president who is regarded unfavorably by a majority of Americans and passionately despised by most Democrats. You would think a foreign leader seeking to cultivate broad sympathy in the U.S. would avoid the polarizing vortex of President Donald Trump. Yet, as he seeks a new term as prime minister, Netanyahu has gone so far as to drape a huge image of himself with Trump across a Tel Aviv office building.

The results have been predictable. Polling by several organizations shows that Netanyahu’s personal ratings among Democrats have plummeted during Trump’s presidency, along with support for Israel. In 2015, 31 percent of Democrats said they had a favorable view of Netanyahu, according to Gallup; by August 2018, that had dropped to 17 percent. According to Economist/YouGov polling, the percentage of Democrats who said they considered Israel to be an ally dropped from 31 percent to 26 percent in just six months between December 2017 and May 2018.




The second poll was taken after Trump took two actions celebrated by Netanyahu and opposed by Democrats: abrogating the Iran nuclear deal and moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. The latter step was widely seen as sabotaging the chances for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. According to the Economist/YouGov poll, just 16 percent of Democrats supported the embassy move, while 61 percent opposed it — including 47 percent who did so strongly.

A majority of Democrats still say they believe the U.S. should protect Israel — 54 percent called it a “very important” or “somewhat important” goal last May. That would not include Omar and Tlaib, both of whom have endorsed the BDS movement — boycott, divestment and sanction of Israel. Only 20 percent of Americans now say they support BDS. But as Netanyahu and Trump collaborate, the attitudes of Democrats seem to be changing fast.

Netanyahu’s war with the Democrats extends back more than two decades, and there has been fault on both sides. When Netanyahu ran for prime minister in 1996, Clinton endorsed the more dovish Shimon Peres. After Netanyahu’s victory, his first meeting at the White House was rocky. “He thinks he is the superpower and we are here to do whatever he requires,” Clinton told adviser Dennis Ross.

Netanyahu proceeded to sabotage the Mideast peace process, dragging his feet on every step. His poor relations with Washington were widely seen as contributing to his ouster in a 1999 election. But Clinton failed to close a deal for a Palestinian state, thanks mostly to the intransigence of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. After Palestinians waged a campaign of suicide bombings, and after Arafat’s successor, Mahmoud Abbas, turned aside another statehood offer, Israelis voted Netanyahu back into the prime minister’s office in early 2009.

Not surprisingly, given that history, Netanyahu was greeted by Obama with suspicion that soon turned to hostility. His administration portrayed the Israeli leader as the primary obstacle to peace while giving Abbas a generous pass for his own intransigence. Netanyahu backed Mitt Romney during the 2012 presidential election. And when Netanyahu came up for re-election in 2013 and 2015, Obama did his best to repeat Clinton’s feat of driving him out of office. He failed.

By now, having outlasted Clinton and Obama, Netanyahu seems to have written off the Democrats as losers who can’t harm him. His actions suggest a bet that Trump, or someone much like him, will control the White House indefinitely. Or maybe he’s simply a short-term tactician. After all, he’s simultaneously seeking to woo voters and dodge a pending criminal indictment.

Either way, what happens to Netanyahu this spring will have more impact on the Democratic Party’s relations with Israel than anything Omar or Tlaib do. If he remains in office, an already troubled relationship is sure to get worse.

Jackson Diehl is deputy editorial page editor for The Washington Post.



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JohnRussell
Professor Principal
1  seeder  JohnRussell    5 years ago

I am a Democrat and I am pro Israel. I think the US should "protect" Israel and I do not support BDS because Israel is a small country and a boycott of Israel is an existential threat to that nation.

I also support a two state solution in Israel with a part of the land being given to the Palestinians to self-govern.  According to some that makes me a hater of Israel and even possibly an "anti-semite". Bullshit.

Netanyahu is a problem to many Democrats. He is a right winger who absolutely cannot be trusted to be part of a fair peace making in that region. His buddy buddy act with Trump does not help at all. Under Netanyahu Israel will build settlements on so much of the land in dispute that there will be none left for a Palestinian territory and the two state solution will have been defacto destroyed.

We also have the issue of Trump being so anti Muslim playing into this. Do you think the fact that Trump wanted to ban all Muslims from coming to the US has anything to do with how American Muslims and other Americans view an Israel that is so admiring of Trump?

 
 
 
luther28
Sophomore Silent
2  luther28    5 years ago

Though not a Democrat, I also have always supported Israel and its right to exist (although the solution to their troubles is theirs to figure out).

But then again Israel is a ally, not a State or Territory of ours so what Mr. Netanyahu may think of either party is neither here nor there in my opinion, that is unless he intends on applying for Statehood.

 
 
 
luther28
Sophomore Silent
4  luther28    5 years ago

I am actually shaking my head. Thought we had put all this in our rear view mirrors, when I'm wrong...... I'm really wrong.

 
 

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