The latest unrest in the Middle East has relaunched all-too-familiar talking points from politicians about the Israel-Palestine relationship, with strategists questioning whether some of Capitol Hill’s most liberal Democrats can peel their party away from the Jewish state.
The majority of Republicans have stood staunchly in support of Israel in recent weeks, and a sizable group of Democrats is calling on President Joe Biden to side with the Palestinians.
Some Republicans have claimed that this pro-Palestinian sentiment coming from Democratic lawmakers such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib, who is of Palestinian descent, is akin to the pattern of antisemitic behavior that sank former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in the United Kingdom. Still, political strategists tell the Washington Examiner the standard Republican and Democratic stances on Israel-Palestine, at least in light of the latest conflict, are guided much more by politics than principle.
HUNDREDS OF FORMER BIDEN, DEMOCRAT STAFFERS PUSH WHITE HOUSE TO SIDE WITH PALESTINIANS
One Republican strategist called Corbyn, who attempted to orchestrate a cover-up of antisemitic practices committed by party members, a disgrace.
“I heartily disagree with the Squad’s line in the sand here,” that person told the Washington Examiner in a statement, referring to the aforementioned second-term House Democrats. “But tweeting your support for Palestine pales in comparison to what Corbyn did.”
The strategist added Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, or Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer are not the Democrats making these kinds of comments, adding it is coming from “only the socialists who have been increasingly sidelined by leadership.”
A second GOP strategist condemned some liberals for siding with terrorists over the Israeli people but, when pressed on the subject, conceded that a lot of the messaging on the subject is “playing the game.”
A third Republican strategist claimed more progressive Democrats, “sensing pending losses on the more radical provisions hidden inside Biden’s massive spending proposals,” want to assure Democratic primary voters they are invested in the issues they care about. That could be doubly true heading into the 2022 congressional races that most political prognosticators say will heavily favor Republican candidates.
Polling released by Gallup in March lends credence to that theory.
Thirty percent of survey participants expressed support for the Palestinian Authority, while 25% sided with Palestinians over Israelis in a head-to-head conflict. Both data points marked the highest levels ever recorded by Gallup and represented 9- and 6-point boosts, respectively.
Support for Israel remained relatively constant from 2018 (74%) to 2021 (75%), but the number of respondents who sympathized with Israel over Palestine fell 6 points across that same time frame.
The partisan polling gap is even more pronounced, with 85% of Republicans supporting Israel, compared to just 19% for the Palestinian authority. Sixty-four percent of Democrats also supported Israel, with 38% supporting the Palestinian authority.
A Democratic strategist pushed back on the claim that being pro-Palestine is the same as being antisemitic, telling the Washington Examiner that “doesn’t pass the smell test.”
“I believe that’s a convenient political talking point,” this strategist explained. “Most Democrats in office support a two-state solution, which has become the mainstream opinion of the Left because of advocacy groups like J Street. If Republicans what to say that J Street is fundamentally antisemitic, I’d send them back to the drawing board. Pro-Israel, pro-peace is and should be the party line in the Democratic Party.”
The strategist countered that “Islamophobia exists across political labels in the United States.”
“I think we’ve seen some of that with Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib,” that person added. “The difference is that such bias is celebrated in the Republican Party as thinly veiled bigotry labeled as toughness on terrorism.”
No matter the reason behind the pro-Palestinian stances taken by some liberal lawmakers, one senior GOP aide predicted serious problems for Democrats should Biden’s ceasefire fail.
“Republicans aren’t seizing or pouncing,” the aide claimed. “It’s Democrats who are doing that to each other. Those fault lines within their party will expose each other.”
It’s worth noting that a number of pro-Palestinian lawmakers, prompted by apparently antisemitic attacks carried out on U.S. soil in recent days, have amended their initial statements on the conflict to condemn violence by both the Israeli military and the Palestinian-supporting terror group, Hamas.
“There is no room for anti-semitism in the movement for Palestinian liberation. Our critique is of Israel and their human rights abuses,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “This is not an excuse for anti-semitic hate crimes.”
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“We’ve seen an increase in antisemitic and Islamophobic hate, in NYC and nationwide — hateful words, hate crimes, and other forms of violence. We must stand together to condemn hate,” New York Democratic congressman Jamaal Bowman said in a similar statement. “Targeting our Jewish family in response to international conflict is absolutely not okay. Conflict abroad does not need to turn us against one another. This is a counterproductive, inexcusable, and ignorant act of anti-semitic hate.”
