It's easy, RIchard

Submitted by stanley b (United States), Jul 31, 2012 at 15:49

Hi Richard, the answer to your question is quite simple: American Jews are not necessarily pro-Israel, or they will qualify their support by asserting their right to criticize the Israeli governments who are too far to the right for their liking. Your mistake is assuming that Jewish interests and Israel go hand in hand.

In fact, the current mindset of the liberal Jewish American is unable to be supportive of Israel because they are too swayed by their sense of social justice and outrage fanned by media reportage of the "oppressors" who make the poor Palestinians' lives miserable, so they are not comfortable affiliating themselves with Israel. Or, they think that a strong US administration will teach Israel a lesson and force her to be more accommodating and empathetic to the Palestinians and thus more in line with their thinking.

One thing I can tell you, there is less and less correlation between American Jewry and Israel. It is not a given by a long shot.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".