Posted on 06/28/2009 1:08:35 AM PDT by bruinbirdman
Recent polls reveal that nearly half the American public is unsure that Israel is still the good guy in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The eroding support for Israeli policies signals a growing appetite for a new, more even-handed narrative. What must be understood is that the crucial conflict is not between Israel and Palestine. It's between peace and violence.
The Israel Project hired pollster Stanley Greenberg to test American opinion on the Middle East conflict - and got a big surprise. In September 2008, 69% of Americans called themselves pro-Israel. Now, it's only 49%. In September, the same 69% wanted the United States to side with Israel; now, only 44%.
How to explain this dramatic shift? Greenberg himself suggested the answer years ago when he pointed out that, in politics, "a narrative is the key to everything". Last year the old narrative about the Middle East conflict was still dominant: Israel is an innocent victim, doing only what it must do to defend itself against the Palestinians. Today, that narrative is beginning to lose its grip on Americans.
Well, to be more precise, the first part of the old narrative is eroding. Nearly half the American public seems unsure that Israel is still the good guy in the Middle East showdown. But the popular image of the Palestinians as the violent bad guy is apparently as potent as ever. The number of Americans who say they support Palestine remains unchanged from last September, a mere 7%. And only 5% want the US government to take such a position.
Those numbers reflect the narrative that President Barack Obama recited in Cairo on June 4. He chided the Israelis for a few things they are doing wrong - like expanding settlements and blockading Gaza. To the other side, though, his message was far
(Excerpt) Read more at atimes.com ...
Barf alert missing?
Chemus doesn’t even bother to get as graphic about Pallie attacks as he does about alleged Israeli settler attacks. He talks in a vacuum about “occasional rockets” from Gaza as though they never went anywhere and worked any mayhem. And “suicide bombers” as if they exploded in the middle of the desert.
Hmm..........hiring Stan Greenburg to poll this seems similar to hiring a trojan horse to represent you at the battlefront.
"Those numbers reflect the narrative that President Barack Obama recited in Cairo on June 4."
President Hussein Obama the Islamist is succeeding in turning Americans against Israel?
yitbos
Polls have two purposes. They are a propagandist's tool, they tell him if his work is having the desired effect, and help him to focus his efforts.
And they help to shape public opinion by convincing people that they are on the right side or the wrong side of a subject, because more and more every day people are starting to think "x".
And it makes for filler, fake information masquerading as news. We won't discuss whether Israel is or isn't in the right, we'll discuss what people feel about it. So inches of newsprint get filled without any real information having been communicated.
Is Israel's innocence a "narrative" to be replaced by another narrative? Propagandists think in terms of narratives because building them and knocking them down is all in a day's work for them. Israel is an outpost of civilization in an uncivilized world. The crucial conflict is between peace and violence, is it? Maybe, and the only peace you'll find in the middle east is the peace that exists behind Israel's well guarded borders. At the edges the blood begins, the chaos begins. The hate, the disfunction, the killing.
But no, the crucial conflict is not between peace and violence, it is between civilization and brutality. Civilization has to be defended philosophically and it has to be defended by force of arms. Its not a narrative. Its a principle.
Propaganda, all crap. The Palestinians shell the Israeli towns trying to kill civilians almost daily, while the MSM whines about Israel arresting some terrorist.
Israel should Nuke Gaza and be done with it.
Why yes... at least, dulling down the level of concern by speaking little of it. The whole feud over there is unimaginable to most Americans. It really is the third world and the first world cheek by jowl.
“The eroding support for Israeli policies signals a growing appetite for a new, more even-handed narrative.”
Utter bullsh1t, as is this entire piece, and a sign of the idiot hand of the Hussein administration, which has very actively sought to promote Moslem interests, with the ample collusion of the Ministry of Propaganda which has occasionally been labeled the MSM. This, coupled with the fact that anti-Semitism, out of fashion after World War II, is once again not only acceptable, but tres chic.
There is, however, no honor among thieves - or Moslems - and the United States will find, to its regret, that the decline of our only reliable ally in the Middle East is yet another sign of the precipitous decline of American interests around the world under the current president.
This general decline in American interests and the American projection of power can only lead to an international power vacuum, which will certainly result in chaos sooner rather than later.
Bad times are here, with worse to come.
The Obammunist's speech in Cairo spoke volums in favor of Mohammedism. Now he is speaking of a new embassy in Damascus. He wants settlements destroyed on the West Bank.
President Hussein al-Obama speaks in disrespect of U.S.A European allies who are outspoken in their support of Israel.
Perhaps Barak Hussein Obama has spoken a lot to change Americans attitudes towards Islam and away from Israel?
yitbos
I mean, he has spoken little of what Israel is suffering. Of Islamia and its woes real or imaginary, he has spoken voluminously.
Agreed
fixed
Which yitbos do you subscibe to?
And it's certainly true that there are incidents of individual Palestinians venting their frustration violently. After all, they've been living under an arbitrary, demeaning, and sometimes brutal occupation for 42 years...
In fact, though, Hamas rocket attacks had ended in July 2008 ...
It is hard for many of my fellow Jews to accept the painful truth that we are as capable of violence as the Palestinians, or anyone else. But this new narrative is gaining ground rapidly in the American Jewish community, where groups like J Street and Brit Tzedek v'Shalom are making well-organized efforts to promote it and act upon it.
It this guy really is a Jew, or anything other than an anti-Semitic fake whose goal is another Holocaust, then he should be ashamed of himself.
How expensive was it to live in Israel?
Recent polls reveal that nearly half the American public is unsure that Israel is still the good guy in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Meaningless.
Half of Americans thought that Obama was an American and was capable of being a American President.
This is nothing but Kenyan-International-Communistic-Chicago politician-Moose-Limb hogwash!
Pretty pricy, somewhere around 125% of a large American city. Food prices very high.
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