neverdie
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- Oct 26, 2018
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I agree with the part in bold, but I'd add a couple of points. Not knowing the ins and outs of an issue is common practice in representative democracy. I'd bet more people have a grasp on Israel-Palestine than the intricacies of the national deficit. People vote based on their preferred interest which is typically divested of specialist knowledge. The point is that they want people (specialists) to act on their behalf to attain "simple" goals. The legislative pressure might not be there yet but it will always be a cumulative effect.The slight decline in US support as suggested in one of your links could simply be anti-Trump sentiment creeping into small segments of the public. A vast majority of people in the US neither neither know about or care about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Some of the numbers may also be reflective of a bit of organic drift in American society gradually becoming a bit less homogenous and more multicultural, which is going to cause variances in public attitudes towards on range of social and political issues. None of this will change US policy and so it won't in any way affect Israel or the Palestinians.
Gallop said:Preferred U.S. Pressure to Resolve Palestinian-Israeli Conflict
In order to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, do you think the United States should put more pressure on the Palestinians to make the necessary compromises (or) put more pressure on the Israelis to make the necessary compromises]?
2007 | 2008 | 2013 | 2018 | 2021 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
% | % | % | % | % | |
More pressure on the Palestinians | 39 | 38 | 48 | 50 | 44 |
More pressure on the Israelis | 30 | 25 | 25 | 27 | 34 |
In 2013 (the last "war") 48% of Americans wanted more pressure on Palestinians as a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. In 2018 (after Israel sniping Gazans on their freedom march) that number rose to 50%. Even before the events of May '21, that number had fallen to 44% whereas those wanting more pressure applied to Israel rose to its highest (34% and a slight majority of 53% among Democrats).
No one's expecting an immediate change in US policy but if variances in public attitudes shift the balance in favour of the Palestinians (in the sense of a sizeable minority/majority advocating for US pressure on Israel to resolve the situation), then this will, over time, lead to policy changes. If it doesn't translate to policy changes then the point is surely that the US electorate has no control over policy regardless of their vote, which as we've seen with Trump, simply isn't true.
I'll wait a while for all of these metrics to take account of the latest events as it's still too soon to tell much of anything in concrete terms.