Israel’s Popularity and Obama’s Popularity

Since I first became interested in world affairs, a fundamental question has continued to stir within me ever more strongly every time I find myself unable to answer it: what is the logic of the blind American support for Israel? The strength and continuity of U.S. support for Israel is unprecedented in the history of international relations throughout the ages.

I enrolled in the College of Economics and Political Science at Cairo University pondering some possible answers to the big questions. The years allotted to my studies ran out, and yet I had not yet found a convincing answer to the greatest question of all, the fundamental question I mentioned above. After my studies I moved to the United States. I believed at that time that I was coming closer to getting to the heart of the answer I was seeking. I figured that once I was in the United States, I would be able to address the fundamental question directly to the people at the heart of the issue.

By now, I have lived for a number of years in many different parts of the United States. At first I lived in New York on the Atlantic seaboard where the largest and most influential group of Jews in the world is to be found. Later, I moved to the majestic city of San Francisco on the Pacific coast in Northern California. I swung back through the American heartland in Ohio, returning to the eastern seaboard in Maryland and ending up in the American capital of Washington, D.C. Despite my having come into contact with the greatest symbols of American decision and opinion making, I did not find a convincing answer to the secret of the blind American support for Israel. That is, until I attended a seminar entitled “Religion and U.S. Foreign Policy,” organized by the Boston University Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs in the summer of 2009. As I followed this series of lectures and discussions, I came closer than ever before to finding a convincing answer to my question.

The answer I have discovered is best illustrated by the fact that the popularity of Israel exceeds the popularity of any American president in the view of the American people.

Indeed, at any given time, the popularity of Israel among Americans probably exceeds the popularity of the current American president. By way of example, let us take the American approval rating for President Barack Obama and his policies. According to an opinion poll by Reuters News Agency on Oct. 7, 43 percent of Americans approve of Obama and his policies at the same time that 53 percent of respondents disapprove. The most recent opinion poll conducted by CNN came to much the same conclusion. On Oct. 5, 45 percent of respondents to CNN’s poll expressed approval of Obama’s policies, while 52 percent expressed disapproval.

At the same time, the approval rating of Israel rests at 65 percent according to a March 2010 survey conducted by Zogby International, at the same time that a mere 21 percent of respondents expressed disapproval of Israel’s policies. 81 percent of the American people consider Israel to be “the ally that it is possible to rely on in the Middle East,” according to an opinion poll conducted by Harris Interactive in Aug. 2010.

All of this comes despite the injuries that Israel has inflicted on the rights of the United States, such as: the destruction of the USS Liberty in the 1960s; the passing of military and technological secrets to China; espionage against the U.S. Army itself; and its ongoing refusal of peace in the Middle East in a way that is harmful to American interests.

This is just what David Petraeus, the current commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, was trying to express in testimony to the Armed Forces Subcommittee of the U.S. Senate. General Petraeus said that Arab anger towards the United States, which originated with the Palestinian question, is sharpened by the strength of the American partnership with certain peoples and governments of the region. Al-Qaida and other extremist groups exploit this anger to mobilize support for themselves, in the same way that the continuation of the conflict has given Iran an ever-larger opening into the Arab world.

Despite this, America support for Israel is solid, unwavering and shows no sign of decreasing.

True, there is the strong, influential lobby seeking to prolong the status quo of Israeli dominance over the capabilities of the Palestinian people. This is in the light of absolute American support that gives Israel a long leash to do whatever it wants. Meanwhile, Israel continues to build even more settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank as has happened once again last week.

Daniel Kurtzer, the ambassador of the United States to Egypt from 1997 through 2001 and to Israel from 2001 through 2005, sees that the Israeli authorities have their own prerogatives and will not do something just because the American president said this or that.

Obama himself mentioned during a meeting with Jewish members of Congress that he will not impose a solution, and that in any case he is unable to impose a solution upon the Israelis and the Palestinians even if he had a mind to do so. He only affirmed that his role is to draw broad strokes to facilitate negotiations between the two sides.

What the Israeli prime minister wants is normalization and confidence-building between Israel and various Arab actors, including the countries of the Gulf. He claims that this is part and parcel of realizing what is known as the “economic peace” before the opening of negotiations for a political settlement, claiming that establishing the former will set a basis for the latter.

Yet more than economic or strategic concerns, the religion factor represents the greatest foundation stone of support for Israel within the United States. The vision of Netanyahu is supported by the backing that Israel obtains from Evangelical groups, who ultimately want to accelerate the complete Israeli domination over all the Holy Land of Palestine, hoping by this to hasten the second coming of Christ.

Walter Russell Mead, a researcher for the Council on Foreign Relations, pointed out during his lecture at the “Religion and U.S. Foreign Policy” seminar, “American Protestants’ support to Jews and Israel was found before the Jews set foot in America, and before the establishment of the state of Israel.”*

Mead understands that the first Americans were Protestants, who believed that they were a chosen people: that is, they believed that their version of Christianity was the best and the most correct. Such American Protestants believed that the creation of the Jewish state in Israel established them as a chosen people as well. They believe that God blessed America with a special mission, that the Americans are blessed by God, and that the success of the Israelis is the same as the success of the Americans.

The faith of the Evangelicals rests upon their belief that they will be singled out by the Messiah when he returns to earth. They believe that he will rule on earth for 1000 years in the company of believing Christians, and after that will come the End of Days. But Christ, according to the beliefs of the Evangelicals, will not return to the earth unless all of the Jews return to Palestine. There is, for example, a prophecy in one of the books that says: “Verily, God will return the Jews to the Promised Land,”* meaning Palestine. The adherents of this belief have taken some prophecies from the Old Testament of the Bible, warped them, and attempted to apply them in the modern age with disastrous results.

One of the most prominent leaders of the Christian Zionist movement, Reverend Richard Land, affirmed that three-fourths of the Evangelicals in the United States support Israel completely. He believes that God promised the Jews a return to the Holy Land, and just look how this promise has been fulfilled!

When I asked him about cases of dual loyalty, whether the Evangelicals would stand with America or with Israel should their strategic interests ever conflict, Reverend Land responded with great confidence that “such a thing is not possible. Know that many Americans would not support their government if it did not stand with Israel.”*

As for us, as citizens of Egypt and as Arabs, we should not waste what little we have left: that is, the popularity of the Palestinian cause and its pride of place among our priorities. We must do so in a manner that is far from the childishness and polemics of Hamas and Fatah, and equally distant from the failure of our governments who have yet to find a way to translate the popularity of the Palestinian cause into meaningful political power.

*Editor’s Note: These quotations, accurately translated, could not be verified.