A friend sent this to me this morning, and I decided to share it.
New Harvard Harris Poll (Israel poll is on page 64):
- 82% of US citizens express support for Israel, while 18% express support for Hamas.
- 67% of US citizens indicate they would support a ceasefire only after Hamas is removed and all hostages are released.
- 63% of respondents support Israel's sovereignty over the West Bank.
- 78% of respondents support the removal of Hamas from the Gaza Strip.
- Regarding the future of Gaza, 73% of respondents prefer either Israeli control or governance under new Arab states.
As part of this support for Israel over Hamas, a majority of polled Americans have also voiced support for Israel’s war aims (the return of the hostages and the destruction of Hamas). This support does not seem to have been overly affected by the negative representation of Israel’s war conduct in the media or online.
While it may seem like these two polls represent a tidal change in American feelings toward Israel over the past two months, an analysis of each Harvard CAPS-Harris poll on Israel and Hamas since October indicates that support for Israel has remained strong among Americans since the October 7 terror attack and that the negative focus on the war in the media and online has not led to a decrease in backing for Israel’s war against Hamas. - Honest Reporting
Despite the onslaught of negative press about Israel, and the significant anti-Israel protests throughout the Western world, Israel has tremendous support in the USA.
At first glance, especially with the protests, it has seemed that people in the Western world are outraged at the loss of civilian life during war. While that is understandable, upon closer inspection, it appears that this outrage is selective. Let’s take a look at civilian casualties in the Syrian Civil War (which seems to have subsided) and the Israel-Palestine Conflict.
The United Nations Human Rights Office (OHCHR) reported in 2022 that at least 306,887 civilians had been killed in the Syria civil war between 2011 and 2021, which amounts to roughly 1.5% of Syria's population.
As of February 2024, over 30,000 civilians have died during the Israel -Palestine Conflict (29,782 Palestinian and 1,410 Israelis). In 2016 the population of Palestine was 4.5 million, in 2024 the population of Israel was 9.3 million. A rough estimate (including inaccurate population numbers for Palestine): total lives lost in the Israel-Palestine conflict represents 0.224% of the combined population.
I'm not an apologist for civilian casualties in Palestine, but I am curious why little, if any, outrage has been witnessed regarding civilian casualties during the civil war. Granted Syria’s war went on for ten plus years, but the loss is still 1.5% of the population!
It seems that the outrage depends on how well organized certain campaigns are. Clearly there are well organized campaigns regarding Israel and Palestine, but not so much with Syria.
Many Anti-Israel campaigns have been funded by Neville Roy Singham, a tech multimillionaire who is a devoted socialist and Maoist. In 1974 the FBI investigated him, stating on their blog: “the FBI investigated Singham because of background, emotional instabilities or activity in groups engaged in activities inimical to the U.S.” Neville is an American but he is rumored to live in Shanghai part of the year. Perhaps he is close with the Chinese Communist Party?
The Free Press even highlighted this in November of 2023: “Neville Roy Singham and his wife Jodie Evans are China propagandists—and a primary source of the fury exploding on our streets.”
Also worth noting, Open Society Foundation (George Soros) records show the foundation gave $13.7 million to the Tides Center, which has sponsored several nonprofits who have justified Hamas' bloody attack. Read more at the NY Post.
It's safe to say that anyone who's against Israel's right to exist is against democracy in the Middle East, and in theory is also against the United States and Western powers. The narrative that has been spread since the October 7th attacks has been that Israel is nothing more than a colony colonized by white europeans. That's not exactly true. In ancient times, the land that is now Israel hosted numerous Israelite and Jewish kingdoms. In the 1880s Jews began to purchase land in what was then known as Ottoman Palestine. In the early 1940s Jewish immigration to the land that is now Israel surged, and in 1948 the British seeded the land known as Palestine to the new country of Israel. The most accurate description of the situation is that Israel was recolonized by Jews, beginning in the 1880s, and solidified in the 1940s.
Just a reminder, Hamas, the political party that controls Gaza, is designated as a terrorist organization by many countries and international organizations, including the United States, Israel, the European Union, and Canada. Don't support terrorists!