5 Reasons Why Liberal Jews Will Never Support Israel

From PJM:

In “The Failure of the American Jewish Left,” an article in the current issue of Middle East Quarterly, David Brog, executive director of Christians United for Israel, laments the fact that “for many years, the liberal base of the Democratic Party has been steadily turning against the Jewish state.”

Brog notes the fiasco at the Democratic National Convention in September, where earnest efforts could not muster a two-thirds majority — or, apparently, any majority — for Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

While “liberal members of Congress such as Harry Reid, Robert Menendez, Shelly Berkley, and Elliott Engel remain among Israel’s most outspoken defenders on Capitol Hill,” a sizable chunk of Democrats now take stances inimical to Israel. For instance, “on January 26, 2010, 54 congressmen sent a letter to President Obama urging him to pressure Israel to lift its blockade of Gaza. All were Democrats.”

And in March that year, when 333 members of the House sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton protesting the administration’s excoriation of Israel for plans to build homes in Jerusalem, only seven Republicans refused to sign it while no less than 91 Democrats—over a third of all House Democrats—refused to do so. But “even more troubling than this shift in Washington is the shift at the grassroots.

On Capitol Hill, at least, most Democratic congressmen still stand with Israel. Out in the grassroots, only a minority of Democrats continue to do so.” For instance, “a February 2010 Gallup poll found that 85 percent of Republicans and only 48 percent of Democrats sympathized more with the Israelis than the Palestinians”; while “an October 2011 Quinnipiac poll found that 69 percent of Republicans and only 36 percent of Democrats sympathized more with the Israelis than the Palestinians.”