Quote:
Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
What's remarkable about Israel is how it manages to maintain a strong democracy and freedom of speech even though it's the target of unrelenting belligerence from its neighbours and from terrorist organizations within the country. There are unquestionably mainstream and popular voices in Israel that condemn the expansion of settlements in the occupied territories.
In fact, the pro-Israel lobby in the U.S. (and American Jews in general) are more hawkish than Israelis themselves. It's easy to be inflexibly hardline from the safety of 7000 miles away.
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The lobby - yes - but the gap is growing the other way actually: Israel's public has become increasingly right-wing over the last fifteen years since the second intifada, and American Jews have polled lower in their support for and identification with Israel than at any time previously, especially with respect to some of the more controversial policies like settlements. There was a very large divergence after the unfortunate events in Gaza in 2009 especially (Operation Cast Lead). It's a real threat to Israel's identity and future.
http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/03/10/...y-from-israel/