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Why Americans Back the Jewish State

[ Foreign Affairs] Walter Russell Mead - Many observers attributed President Truman's decision to recognize Israel in 1948 to the power of the Jewish community. But as the Truman biographer David McCullough has written, Truman's support for the Jewish state was "wildly popular" throughout the U.S. A Gallup poll in June 1948 showed that almost three times as many Americans "sympathized with the Jews" as "sympathized with the Arabs." Over time, moreover, pro-Israel sentiment in the U.S. has increased, especially among non-Jews, even as the demographic importance of Jews has diminished. In 1948, Jews constituted an estimated 3.8% of the U.S. population. By 2007, Jews were only 1.8%, accounting at most for 3% of Israel's supporters in the U.S. Support for Israel is a U.S. foreign policy that makes some experts and specialists uneasy but commands broad public support. It does not represent the triumph of a small lobby over the public will. The story of U.S. support for a Jewish state in the Middle East begins early. "I really wish the Jews again in Judea an independent nation," said John Adams after his presidency. Any discussion of U.S. attitudes toward Israel must begin with the Bible. For centuries, the American imagination has been steeped in the Hebrew Scriptures. The United States' sense of its own identity and mission in the world has been shaped by readings of Hebrew history and thought. Americans have often considered themselves God's new Israel. One of the many consequences of this presumed kinship is that many Americans think it is both right and proper for one chosen people to support another. The writer is Henry A. Kissinger Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations.
2008-06-20 01:00:00
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