“they see them as underdogs in the superpower plays that cast Israel as the bully, supported by billions of dollars from the U.S. government and a very activist Jewish-American community.”
I don’t think that is the issue. It’s a dollars and cents issue for them. They view it in terms of guns v. butter. If the government spends a lot of money helping Israel, then that means the government has less money for government handouts. And naturally, like the Europeans, the black community wants to pander to the side that has the money, ie. the Arabs.
Conservatives tend to think of the issue in terms of principle, and in terms of security, which the liberal blacks don’t care about.
I suspect part of the problem is that Arabs are seen by American Blacks as “people of color” and Jews are seen as European Whites.
Of course the irony is that Jews, have supported American Blacks without question, whereas Arabs in Africa treat Blacks like dirt.