Democrats have a huge antisemitism problem, and Joe Biden is rapidly losing support with a substantial part of his base because of it.
It is an understatement when I say that I think Biden is a failed president, but I give him credit for being better on the Israel-Hamas war than I thought he would be. Yes, he has been pressuring Israel to stop short of where it should, but this is mostly a result of the Administration’s judgment that US interests diverge from Israel’s regarding the war.
I am not sure that any other US president, other than Trump, would have provided stronger support for Israel. Let’s face it, the US foreign policy establishment is not exactly universally supportive of Israel.
So modest kudos to Biden’s administration, which has resisted the political pressure to abandon Israel.
In fact, many Democrats have taken a stand for Israel, which is causing significant problems for them because their political base is strongly split over the war. Older Democrats tend to support Israel; younger Democrats tend to support the Palestinians and in some cases Hamas itself.
Latest troubling poll numbers for Biden on Israel, from NBC News:
– 70% of voters aged 18-34 disapprove of his policy
– 56% of all voters disapprove of his policy
– 51% of Democrats say Israel’s gone too far
– 49% of Democrats oppose U.S. aid to Israel https://t.co/Eh1UEiqzct— Ben Samuels (@Bsamuels0) November 19, 2023
The NBC poll proves to be a shocker for a number of reasons. For the first time, this poll shows Trump beating Biden, and it sure looks like what is driving the dramatic drop in Biden’s support is driven by his Israel-Hamas policy.
The pollsters were actually shocked at how dramatic the impact of these policies has been, given that foreign policy rarely drives votes. But when you dig into the numbers there is little doubt that this issue more than any other is driving Biden’s declining numbers.
BREAKING: 56% of Americans — including 70% of voters age 18-34 — say they disapprove of Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war, according to a new NBC poll. In all, just 33% of Americans approve of Biden’s foreign policy. WATCH pic.twitter.com/95ayDODZzJ
— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) November 19, 2023
Older voters actually support Biden’s support of Israel, but younger voters hate it. As a core constituency of the Democrats, this drives Democrat support of Israel into 50-50 territory, and with youth, the numbers are much worse. Fully 70% of voters 18-34 disapprove of his policy.
President Biden’s support among Democrats is dwindling over his handling of the Israel-Hamas war, according to a new poll.
A new poll by NBC News found that just 34 percent of all voters approved of how Biden is handling the Israel-Hamas war, which has been ongoing since militant group Hamas launched its deadly incursion into southern Israel on Oct. 7. Since the onset of the fighting, Biden has remained adamant over the U.S.’s continued support to Israel.
NBC News noted that only half of Democratic voters, 51 percent, approved of Biden’s handling of the conflict. Nearly 60 percent of independent voters said they disapproved while nearly 70 percent of Republicans said the same thing, the outlet noted.
Some Democrats have been outspoken against the U.S.’s support of Israel, arguing that the U.S. should cease funding the country and also calling for a cease-fire in the war. Progressive members of Congress, including Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Cori Bush (D-Mo.) have spearheaded these calls.
This also comes after a protest broke out in front of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters in Washington, D.C. last week. Organizers said attendees of the demonstration wanted to engage with Democratic lawmakers to discuss a cease-fire in Gaza, but that they weren’t able to due to a clash with Capitol Police.
The poll also found that Biden’s approval rating dropped to 40 percent, which it said is his lowest level of his presidency. NBC News noted that the poll found that his support largely eroded among Democrats who believe that Israel has gone past the line of its military action in Gaza as well as among voters 18 to 34. Among this age group, 70 percent disapprove of Biden’s handling of the war.
It is difficult to parse out why Republicans and Independents disapprove of his policies; Republicans will likely reflexively say they disapprove; I would like to see more information about what motivates independents. What we do know is that Democrats are definitely split between older and younger voters.
Biden has never had great poll numbers on foreign policy, but the drop from September is precipitous, driven mostly by Democrat defections. There has been a 17-point shift toward the negative in just a few months, making it clear that the Israel war is driving the numbers.
Ironically Israel is more popular than either Donald Trump or Joe Biden, and indeed everyone and everything polled. Palestine is generally unpopular, and almost nobody polled liked Hamas. This suggests that the unpopularity of Israel is mostly limited to younger voters.
Don’t be surprised to find that Biden gets more and more tough on Israel, within limits, for no reason other than the need to keep his electoral coalition together. Promoting a cease-fire is a politically safe position to take–placating many younger voters without appearing to abandon Israel.
Everybody likes peace, although pursuing peace at this juncture may be a bad policy move. Political reality may wind up trumping smart policy. It does often enough. Getting Israel and Gaza out of the headlines as quickly as possible is a political imperative for Biden.
It is somewhat comforting to note the overall popularity of Israel with Americans; unfortunately, the next generation appears to hold very negative opinions, which will likely drive Democrat policies in the relatively near future.
The trends are not in Israel’s favor.
Read the full article here
