The Arab_Israeli Conflict

by Jonathan Rynhold

  163 “U.S. Seen as Less Important, China as More Powerful,” Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, December 3, 2009, http://people-press.org/2009/12/03/us-seen-as-less-important-china-as-more-powerful/.

  164 “U.S. Seen as Less Important, China as More Powerful.”

  165 “Continuing Divide in Views of Islam and Violence,” Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, March 9, 2011, http://www.people-press.org/2011/03/09/continuing-divide-in-views-of-islam-and-violence/; “Part 2: Views of Islam and Religion in the World,” Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, March 20, 2002, http://www.people-press.org/2002/03/20/part-2-views-of-islam-and-religion-in-the-world/;

  “Public Expresses Mixed Views of Islam, Mormonism”, Pew Research Religion and Public Life Project, September 25, 2007, http://pewforum.org/Public-Expresses-Mixed-Views-of-Islam-Mormonism.aspx.

  166 Newport and Carroll, “Republicans and Religious Americans Most Sympathetic to Israel.”

  167 “Modest Backing For Israel in Gaza Crisis”.

  168 “Foreign Policy Views: Afghanistan, Iran, Israel,” Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, March 15, 2012, http://www.people-press.org/files/legacy-pdf/03-15-12%20Foreign%20Policy%20Release.pdf.

  169 Ibid.; “War Support Slips, Fewer Expect a Successful Outcome,” Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, February 15, 2007, http://www.people-press.org/2007/02/15/war-support-slips-fewer-expect-a-successful-outcome/.

  170 “More See America’s Loss of Global Respect as Major Problem,” Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, June 16, 2008, http://people-press.org/2008/06/16/more-see-americas-loss-of-global-respect-as-major-problem/; “U.S. Seen as Less Important, China as More Powerful.”

  171 Eytan Gilboa, American Public Opinion toward Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict (Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 1987), 294; “Modest Backing for Israel in Gaza Crisis,” Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, January 13, 2009, http://www.people-press.org/2009/01/13/modest-backing-for-israel-in-gaza-crisis/; Lydia Saad, “Support for Israel in U.S. at 63%, Near Record High: Near-Record-Low 30% Optimistic about Arab-Israeli Peace,” Gallup, February 24, 2010, http://www.gallup.com/poll/126155/support-israel-near-record-high.aspx.

  172 Lydia Saad, “Recent Middle East Violence Costs Israel Some U.S. Public Support” Gallup, March 15, 2002, http://www.gallup.com/poll/5476/recent-middle-east-violence-costs-israel-some-us-public-support.aspx; “Modest Backing for Israel in Gaza Crisis”; “America’s Place in the World 2009,” Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, December 2009, http://people-press.org/reports/pdf/569.pdf.

  173 Saad, “Recent Middle East Violence Costs Israel Some Public Support.”

  174 Jeffrey M. Jones, “Nearly Half of Americans Favor Independent Palestinian State,” Gallup, June 3, 2002, http://www.gallup.com/poll/6115/Nearly-Half-Americans-Favor-Independent-Palestinian-State.aspx; Lydia Saad, “Americans Remain Skeptical about Middle East Peace,” Gallup, June 4, 2009, http://www.gallup.com/poll/120728/americans-remain-skeptical-middle-east-peace.aspx.

  175 However, when the question was phrased so that Israeli control was linked to Israel “keeping all the Christian, Muslim and Jewish holy sites open and safe for all faiths,” the position of Democrats reversed, with over half supporting complete Israeli control and just over a quarter favoring division. See the survey of registered voters conducted by Public Opinion Strategies for the Israel Project, December 12–14, 2010.

  176 Zogby International, The Doha Debates: Should the U.S. ‘Get Tough with Israel,” Arab American Institute, April 2009, http://www.aaiusa.org/page/-/Polls/ArabAmericanOpinion/DohaDebates_2009.pdf.

  177 David W. Moore, “Americans Skeptical Either Side in Palestinian-Israeli Conflict Wants Peace: Four in Ten Say United States Supports Israel ‘Too Much,’” Gallup, June 11, 2002, http://www.gallup.com/poll/6193/Americans-Skeptical-Either-Side-PalestinianIsraeli-Conflict-Wants-Peace.aspx.

  178 “American Attitudes Hold Steady in Face of Foreign Crises,” Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, August 17, 2006, http://people-press.org/2006/08/17/american-attitudes-hold-steady-in-face-of-foreign-crises/; “Modest Backing for Israel in Gaza Crisis.”

  179 “American Attitudes Hold Steady in Face of Foreign Crises.” Independents were positioned roughly midway between Republicans and Democrats.

  180 “Modest Backing for Israel in Gaza Crisis.”

  181 Moore, “Americans Skeptical Either Side in Palestinian-Israeli Conflict Wants Peace”; “Questions and Answers about American Public Opinion and the Middle East” Gallup, April 10, 2002, http://www.gallup.com/poll/5596/questions-answers-about-american-public-opinion-middle-east.aspx.

  182 “American Attitudes Hold Steady in Face of Foreign Crises.”

  183 “Modest Backing For Israel in Gaza Crisis.”

  184 “American Attitudes Hold Steady in Face of Foreign Crises”;

  “Modest Backing for Israel in Gaza Crisis.”

  185 Jones, “Americans Continue to Be Pessimistic About Middle East Peace.”

  186 Unpublished documents commissioned by a pro-Israeli organization. Greenberg, Quinlan Rosner Research for the Israel Project April 20, 2010.

  187 Martin Indyk, Innocents Abroad: An Intimate Account of American Peace Diplomacy in the Middle East (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2009).

  188 David Makovsky, Making Peace with the PLO: Policy and Politics in the Rabin Government (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1995), 144.

  189 Makovsky, Making Peace with the PLO.

  190 Jonathan Rynhold, Israeli Political Culture in Israel’s Relations with the United States over the Palestinian Question, 1981–1996 (Ph.D submitted in the Department of International Relations, London School of Economics and Political Science, 1998), chapter 7.

  191 “US-Israel Memorandum of Agreement,” James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, October 31, 1998, http://cns.miis.edu/wmdme/isrl_moa.htm.

  192 Jonathan Rynhold, “Making Sense of Tragedy: Barak, the Israeli Left and the Oslo Peace Process,” Israel Studies Forum, 19, no. 1 (2003).

  193 Dennis Ross, The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005), 801–805.

  194 Indyk was a senior official during the Clinton Administration serving as ambassador to Israel and as senior director of Near East and South Asian Affairs at the United States National Security Council.

  195 Ibid.; Martin Indyk, Innocents Abroad.

  196 “Remarks By the President on a New Beginning Cairo University”, White House, June 4, 2009, www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-at-Cairo-University-6-04-09/.

  197 This “evenhanded” perspective was also apparent in the only reference he made to the Arab-Israeli conflict in his 2006 book, The Audacity of Hope; see Peter Beinart, The Crisis of Zionism (New York: Times Books/Henry Holt, 2012), 90.

  198 Ron Kampeas, “Obama Gets Jewish Support on Peace Push,” JTA, July 13, 2009, http://www.jta.org/news/article/2009/07/13/1006510/obama-gets-jewish-support-on-peace-push-questions-about-style.

  199 Robert O. Freedman, “George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and the Arab-Israeli Conflict from 2001 to 2011,” in Robert O Freedman, ed., Israel and the United States: Six Decades of U.S.-Israeli Relations (Boulder, CO: Westview, 2012).

  200 Beinart, The Crisis of Zionism, 126.

  201 Ibid., 129.

  202 See Obama interview with Joe Klein in “It Always Takes Longer Than You Think,”, Time, February 1, 2010.

  203 “Dennis Ross Departs,” Jewish Week, November 15, 2011; Beinart, The Crisis of Zionism, 130–148.

  204 Freedman, “George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and the Arab-Israeli Conflict from 2001 to 2011.”

  205 Cited in Hilary Leila Krieger, “Forcing the Peace,” Jerusalem Post, April 30, 2010.

  206 “Remarks by the President on the Middle East and North Africa” (State Department, Washington DC), White House, May 19, 2011, http
://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/05/19/remarks-president-middle-east-and-north-africa.

  207 On the debate inside the administration between the approach of Ross, Mitchell, and the “quartet of staffers” over presenting a U.S. plan and the Palestinian move at the UN, see Beinart, The Crisis of Zionism, 146–148.

  208 Elizabeth A. Oldmixon, Beth A. Rosenson, and Kenneth D. Wald, “Conflict over Israel: The Role of Religion, Race, Party, and Ideology in the U.S. House of Representatives, 1997–2002,” Terrorism and Political Violence, 17, no. 3 (2005), 407–426. In the Senate, Republicans were more supportive of Israel throughout the 1990s; see Beth A. Rosenson, Elizabeth A. Oldmixon, and Kenneth D. Wald, “U.S. Senators’ Support for Israel Examined through Sponsorship⁄Cosponsorship Decisions, 1993–2002: The Influence of Elite and Constituent Factors,” Foreign Policy Analysis, 5, no. 1 (2009): 73–91.

  209 Glenn Kessler and Howard Schneider, “U.S. Urges Israel to End Expansion,” Washington Post, May 24, 2009.

  210 Caroline Glick, “Column One: Republicans, Democrats and Israel,” Jerusalem Post, April 30, 2010, http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Editorials/Article.aspx?id=174345.

  211 David Nather, “Reid’s Pro-Israel Message to Obama,” Congressional Quarterly, June 15, 2009; U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Foreign Affairs Democrats, “Berman Calls on Abbas to Accept Netanyahu Proposal for Unconditional Peace Talks,”http://www.democrats.foreignaffairs.house.gov/press_display.asp?id=632; “US delegates blame Palestinians for no peace talks,” Agence France-Presse, August 13, 2009.

  212 Herb Keinon, “Hoyer: E. J’lem not same as W. Bank,” Jerusalem Post, August 11, 2009; “Schumer: Obama’s ‘Counter-Productive’ Israel Policy ‘Has to Stop,” Politico, April 23, 2010; http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0410/Schumer_Obamas_Counterproductive_Israel_policy_has_to_stop.html; Ben Smith, “Criticism on Israel move builds on Hill,” Politico, April 22, 2010.

  213 Lahav Harkov, “Senators Stress Value of US-Israel Ties,” Jerusalem Post, April 14, 2010.

  214 Natasha Mozgovaya, “US House opposes unilateral declaration of Palestinian state,” Haaretz, December 6, 2010.

  215 “Faith on the Hill—The Religious Composition of the 112th Congress,” Pew Research Religion and Public Life Project, January 5, 2011, http://www.pewforum.org/2011/01/05/faith-on-the-hill-the-religious-composition-of-the-112th-congress/.

  216 Scott Wilson, “Democrats Restore to Party Platform Language on Jerusalem,” Washington Post, September 5, 2012; interview with person on the Democratic Convention conference floor at the time.

  217 Mark Hugo Lopez and Susan Minushkin, “2008 National Survey of Latinos: Hispanic Voter Attitudes,” Pew Research Hispanic Trends Project, July 24. 2008, http://www.pewhispanic.org/2008/07/24/2008-national-survey-of-latinos-hispanic-voter-attitudes/; Mark Hugo Lopez, “Latinos and the 2010 Elections: Strong Support for Democrats; Weak Voter Motivation,” Pew Research Hispanic Trends Project, October 5, 2010, http://www.pewhispanic.org/2010/10/05/latinos-and-the-2010-elections-strong-support-for-democrats-weak-voter-motivation/.

  218 Lopez and Minushkin, “2008 National Survey of Latinos”; Mark Hugo Lopez, “The Latino Vote in the 2010 Elections,” Pew Research Hispanic Trends Project, March 11, 2010. http://www.pewhispanic.org/2010/11/03/the-latino-vote-in-the-2010-elections.

  219 Frank Newport and Joseph Carroll, “Just How Democratic Is the Jewish Population in America Today?” Gallup, September 16, 2002, http://www.gallup.com/poll/6799/just-how-democratic-jewish-population-america-today.aspx; Frank Newport, “Mormons Most Conservative Major Religious Group in U.S.,” Gallup, January 11, 2010, http://www.gallup.com/poll/125021/Mormons-Conservative-Major-Religious-Group.aspx; “Trends in Political Values and Core Attitudes: 1987–2007,” Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, March 22, 2007, 8. http://people-press.org/files/legacy-pdf/312.pdf.

  220 “Independents Take Center Stage in Obama Era: Trends in Political Values and Core Attitudes: 1987–2009”, Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, May 21, 2009, http://people-press.org/2009/05/21/independents-take-center-stage-in-obama-era/.

  221 James L. Guth and William R. Kenan Jr., “Religious Factors and American Public Support for Israel: 1992–2008” (paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Seattle, WA, September 1–4, 2011).

  222 Green, “The American Public and Sympathy for Israel.” Similar results were obtained in a 2009 poll during the Gaza War; see “Modest Backing for Israel in Gaza Crisis.”

  223 “The Generation Gap and the 2012 Election,” Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, November 3, 2011, http://www.people-press.org/2011/11/03/the-generation-gap-and-the-2012-election-3/?src=prc-headline; “Independents Take Center Stage in Obama Era.”

  224 John C. Green, “The American Public and Sympathy for Israel: Present and Future,” Journal of Ecumenical Studies, 44, no. 1 (2009): 107–121. See also Benjamin Phillips, Eszter Lengyel, and Leonard Saxe, American Attitudes toward Israel. (Waltham, MA: Brandeis University, Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies, 2002), 41, 105–106, and figures 15, 54; Frank Newport and Joseph Carroll, “Republicans and Religious Americans Most Sympathetic to Israel,” Gallup, March 27, 2006, http://www.gallup.com/poll/22063/republicans-religious-americans-most-sympathetic-israel.aspx; Lydia Saad, “In U.S., Canada Places First in Image Contest; Iran Last,” Gallup, February 19, 2010, http://www.gallup.com/poll/126116/Canada-Places-First-Image-Contest-Iran-Last.aspx.

  225 “Goal of Libyan Operation Less Clear to Public,” Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, April 5, 2011, http://www.people-press.org/2011/04/05/goal-of-libyan-operation-less-clear-to-public/.

  226 Author interview with Peter Beinart.

  227 Author interview with Matthew Yglesias; Spencer Ackerman, “That Liberal Zionism Question Again (Illiberal Israel Edition),” Attackerman, May 23, 2010, http://attackerman.firedoglake.com/2010/05/23/that-liberal-zionism-question-again-illiberal-israel-edition/; Josh Marshall, “Doing Israel No Favors,” Talking Points Memo, June 9, 2009, http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/doing-israel-no-favors.

  228 Matthew Yglesias, “The Duty to Do the Right Thing,” ThinkProgress, May 19, 2010, http://thinkprogress.org/yglesias/2010/05/19/197286/the-duty-to-do-the-right-thing/; Spencer Ackerman, “Has Jeffrey Goldberg Actually Read Anything Trita Parsi Wrote?” Attackerman, November 2, 2009, http://attackerman.firedoglake.com/2009/11/02/has-jeffrey-goldberg-actually-read-anything-trita-parsi-wrote/.

  229 Josh Marshall, “A Number of Readers,” Talking Points Memo, March 14, 2003; Matthew Yglesias, “A Palestinian Partner,” ThinkProgress, June 11, 2010, http://thinkprogress.org/yglesias/2010/06/11/197533/a-palestinian-partner/; Matthew Yglesias, “Most Arabs Ready for Peace,” ThinkProgress, August 6, 2010, http://thinkprogress.org/yglesias/2010/08/06/198145/most-arabs-ready-for-peace/.

  230 Josh Marshall, “Two Points Further On,” Talking Points Memo, April 15, 2002.

  231 Josh Marshall, “Hubris,” Talking Points Memo, February 3, 2011, http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/hubris; Josh Marshall, “I Didn’t Go To,” Talking Points Memo, April 15, 2002, http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/--99727; Spencer Ackerman, “Somewhere, Khaled Meshal Is Laughing,” Attackerman, November 1, 2009, http://attackerman.firedoglake.com/2009/11/01/somewhere-khaled-meshal-is-laughing/.

  232 Spencer Ackerman, “Peace Is Possible,” Attackerman, December 30, 2008, http://attackerman.firedoglake.com/2008/12/30/peace-is-possible/.

  233 Ezra Klein, “Can’t Take the Politics out of Politics,” American Prospect, December 30, 2008, http://prospect.org/article/cant-take-politics-out-politics.

  234 Ezra Klein, “Israel, Wrong,” American Prospect, December 28, 2008. http://prospect.org/article/israel-wrong.

  235 Spencer Ackerman, “This Is Starting to Get Dangerous for Us,” Attackerman, March 12, 2010, http://attackerman.firedoglake.com/2010/03/12/this-is-starting-to-get-dangerous-for-us/; Matthew Yglesias “Lazare on The Israel Lobby,�
�� Atlantic, October 19, 2007, http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2007/10/lazare-on-em-the-israel-lobby-em/43347/; Ezra Klein, “Crazy Ravings from a Madman,” American Prospect, December 28, 2008, http://prospect.org/article/crazy-ravings-madman.

  236 Matthew Yglesias, “Palestinian Unity Deal Shouldn’t Preclude American Action on Israeli-Palestinian Conflict,” ThinkProgress, May 18, 2011, http://thinkprogress.org/yglesias/2011/05/18/201029/palestinian-unity-deal-shouldnt-preclude-american-action-on-israeli-palestinian-conflict/; Matthew Yglesias, “Low Standards,” Atlantic, July 29, 2008, http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2008/07/low-standards/49525/.

  237 Ezra Klein, “Focusing on the Settlements,” American Prospect, February 12, 2009, http://prospect.org/article/focusing-settlements.

  238 “Beyond Red vs. Blue,” May 10, 2005.

  239 Gilboa, American Public Opinion toward Israel, 282–284.