Israelis are Drinking the Tea

As much as Jewish American liberals like to wince at their perception of racist, bigoted, anti-Semitic WASPy, and as Barack Obama would call them, "gun toting" Tea Partiers, it appears that the trend supercedes the love of Jesus, country music, and pulled pork.  Now, Israel's right wing is starting their own Tea Party.  And in case you're wondering whether or not Obama had anything to do with this one, the JPost, has described the Israeli Tea Party as one that "promises to be just as patriotic, provocative and antagonistic to Obama as [the]American version...".

Why are some Israelis in a rush to dump their leaders overboard? According to Michael Kleiner, former Likud legislator and "driving force" behind the Israeli Tea party,

"We believe President Obama is trying to force us to do things that most Israelis believe are very dangerous... We are being blackmailed to sacrifice our security and vital interests by another country, which is unprecedented."

Their discontent is far from off-base. As Caroline Glick recounted less than two weeks ago:

On Tuesday State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley was asked, "Do you [i.e. the administration] recognize Israel as a Jewish state and will you try to convince the Palestinians to recognize it?

As Rick Richman at Commentary's blog noted, Crowley repeatedly tried to evade answering the question. Reporters were forced to repeat the question six times before Crowley managed to say, "We recognize that Israel is a - as it says itself, is a Jewish state, yes."

As for whether or not the administration will try to convince the Palestinians to recognize the Jewish state, Crowley could not bring himself to give a simple affirmative answer.

Crowley's refusal to give straight answers to straight questions about US recognition of Israel as a Jewish state shows that Israel has never faced a more unfriendly US administration. After all, recognizing Israel as a Jewish state means recognizing that the Jewish people are a nation, and as a nation, the Jews have a right to self-determination in our national homeland. So recognizing Israel as a Jewish state is recognizing Israel's right to exist.

Glick goes on to do more than advocate that Netanyahu steer clear of Obama's Middle East policies; she cites poll numbers that overwhelmingly prove that Israeli and American Jews, along with American voters at large, are relatively on the same page when it comes to the Obama Administration versus Israel.
Citing A survey of American Jewish opinion published this week by the American Jewish Committee:

78% of American Jews voted for Obama in 2008
51% approve of his performance in office today

49% of American Jews support Obama's handling of US-Israel relations
45% disapprove

62% of American Jews approve of Netanyahu's handling of US-Israel relations
27% disapprove

Glick goes on to cite another poll "...carried out from October 3-5 by the non-partisan McLaughlin and Associates survey research group for the pro-Israel Emergency Committee for Israel. It is the most in-depth poll of US sentiment towards Israel in recent memory. The poll broke down respondents by political affiliation, geographical area, religion, race, age, education level, sex, income level and ideological outlook."
Check out these results:

93.5% of Americans believe that the US should be concerned about Israel's security

77% of Americans believe the Palestinians must recognize Israel as a Jewish State

50.9% of Americans are more likely to vote for a staunchly pro-Israel candidate
25.2% are less likely to do so.

53% of Americans say they could not vote for an anti- Israel candidate even if they agreed with the candidate's positions on most other issues.

42.7% of Americans believe that the president's Middle East policies harm Israel's security
29.6% believe that they are improving Israel's security situation.

51.6% of Americans believe that Obama is less friendly towards Israel than his predecessors have been.
35.4% believe that he is as friendly towards Israel as his predecessors were.

69% of Republicans are more likely to vote for a pro-Israel candidate
40% of Democrats are.

15% of Republicans are less likely to vote for a pro-Israel candidate
33% of Democrats are less likely to vote for a candidate who strongly supports Israel.

5% of self-described liberals are pro-Israel.

This morning on MSNBC's Morning Joe a series of commentators and wonks were discussing the fact that America is at a political crossroads of sorts, where the traditional definitions of "left" and "right" are no longer the same things as they were 40 or 50 years ago. The observation is correct. We are entering into a period that no longer looks at Republican or Democrat, or even Likud or Labor-- this is the era of Capitalists versus Socialists, of Republics versus Communist states, and nowhere is this more clearly illustrated that the relationship between America and Israel.

Average voters, the non-politicians who are the most affected by policy and the most likely to pay for the politicians' mistakes, are tired of being pushed (again, to quote President Obama) "to the back of the bus".  Now, thanks in large part to that endless resource known as the Internet where nobody (and no agenda) can hide, the truth is out in the open for all the voters to see and hear in an environment where they are free to respond.  And freedom is contageous.  Goodbye, old-world political hierarchies; this is Politics 2.0.

Tea, anyone?