Soccer Dad

Haveil havalim daily edition 08/09/2006

Haveil Havalim is the weekly Jewish/Israel blogging carnival. The most recent edition is here.

Since I originated the carnival, I've adopted the name for a daily edition that I will try to produce during the war against Hezbollah, Mondays through Thursdays. Unlike the weekly edition, the daily edition will be broken down into three sections. In Depth, Regular Stuff and Assignment Desk. In Depth will be an issue that I wish to explore. Regular Stuff will be a linkfest, though not as extensive as the weekly edition. Assignment desk will be a topic or project that I'm suggesting other bloggers or e-mailers explore. I'll be happy to publish links to or publish e-mails from anyone who responds.

IN DEPTH: With the narrow defeat yesterday of Sen. Joe Lieberman the question of Democrat vs. Republican, liberal vs. conservative is still a relevant issue. Yesterday Dr. Helen linked to a nice column by Michael Barone about the LA Times poll comparing Democratic and Republican support for Israel.

Should the United States continue to align itself with Israel, adopt a more neutral posture, or align more with Arab countries? By a 50 to 44 percent margin, respondents said we should stick with Israel rather than take a more neutral posture; only 2 percent want us to side more with Arab countries. But there's a big difference between respondents of different parties. Here's a table showing the results, including independents.

Reps Inds Dems
Continue with Israel 64 46 39
More neutral posture 29 49 54
Side with Arabs 1 2 2

I have take issue with this slightly. While I agree that Republicans are generally more pro-Israel than Democrats, I don't believe that the split is that pronounced. Gallup polls over the years consistently show American support for Israel over the Palestinians running 3 or 4 to 1.

I have to think that the L.A. Times poll understates support for Israel and probably understates Demcratics support for Israel.

Yes the larger point holds, but the difference isn't as stark as Barone reads it.

I also don't fully agree with Barone's reason for the difference between Republican and Democratic support for Israel

It seems that support for Israel is highly correlated with having strong religious and moral beliefs, while opposition to or strong criticism of Israel is correlated with moral relativism. If you don't think one moral values system is necessarily better than any other, then you're not likely to care much about Israel.

I'm sure that's part of it, but I don't think that the role of the media can be discounted either. The media plays a big role in presenting the conflict between two sides with legitimate claims and legitimate grievances. Anyone reading or watching or listening to the media would conclude that Israel and its enemies are both morally culpable for the conflict (or perhaps that Israel is even more culpable.) Republicans are less likely to take the MSM at face value and seek out other sources of information.

I suspect that if most American were asked to choose between an unnamed functioning democracy and an unnamed terrorist run state they'd favor the former by at least 10 to 1. That Israel isn't favored by such a strong margin is indicative of the corrosive effect the media has on Israel's image.

Barone, though, I think comes closer to the mark here

Just as you're not as likely to favor responding forcibly to attacks on civilized nations and their people. Surely, this kind of thinking goes, there's some way to compromise, some things to negotiate, some concessions to be made. Surely, it's just too crude, too unsophisticated, too unnuanced, to respond with military force.

I do believe that that's related to the problem. If the dispute in the Middle East is about territory, then there's a compromise available. But if it's about Israel's existence, there's no ready solution. Surely those who believe in Peace Now are motivated, at least partially, by the hope that the problem can be solved. The alternative is too horrible to consider.

REGULAR STUFF:
How the war goes
The Counterterrorism blog thinks that Israel's going to settle for less.

The Hashmonean thinks otherwise.

Meanwhile those suprisingly formidable Hezbollah fightes? Well a group of them were surprised. While sleeping. I hope that Daled Amos's wish comes true.

And Meryl Yourish notes that the IDF is looking for missiles, hopefully in all the right places.

Protest too much

Elder of Ziyon notes that the anti-Israel-war rallies get a lot more attention than the pro-Israel rallies in Reuterworld.

Cozy Corner took pictures of the well attended (not!) AI rally in his city.

Treppenwitz and West Bank Mama lament (not!) the lack of media attention given to Israel's anti-War (or is it pro-surrender) rallies.

From the Roths
Aug 9, 2001 was the terror attack at Sbarro's. Arnold and Frimet Roth, parents of Malki Roth describe the double standard that we see in the world.

ASSIGNMENT DESK: Since I'm running late today, no new assignments. But Cozy Corner answered yesterday's question "Who do you think is better for Israel. Democrats/liberals or Republicans/conservatives?"

And it isn't an answer that I expected at all. What's more, he blames it on Instapundit!

Technorati Tags: Blog carnivals, haveil havalim, Israel, Judaism, Hezbollah, Lebanon, Haveil Havalim Daily.

Posted by SoccerDad at August 9, 2006 6:42 AM