The confrontation between Israel and Palestine as a visible point of division between American and European society. Part 2

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In the first part of the article, we described the split that the new war between Palestine and Israel has caused in the U.S. and European societies. A new round of confrontation was caused by the strike on a Palestinian hospital with the death of more than 500 people, after which the sympathies of many neutral Americans and Europeans began to lean in favor of the Arabs. In polls, only 42% of Americans approved of U.S. President Biden’s response to the event, and within the Democratic Party there was growing criticism, with the liberal faction of Congress issuing another open letter demanding an immediate halt to the bombing of Gaza. In doing so, Vice President Kamala Harris was greeted in Arizona by liberal activists shouting “Stop making bombs!” The liberal wing of the Democratic Party went all-in and demanded that Biden declassify the Pentagon data on the strike on the Palestinian hospital. The White House has already held Hamas responsible, but has refused to publicly cite facts in favor of its position. The current crisis amid the chaos in Washington has led to the most serious split in the Democratic camp since Biden’s election, and his fellow party members have challenged the U.S. president at the most inconvenient time, when Congress will hold hearings on aid to Israel.

The culture wars around Israel continue to rage outside the political corridors. At the center of the conflict is renowned comedian Dave Chappelle, who has become a star of America’s right-wing for his criticism of the transgender agenda. But in the Israeli context, he has taken the side of the Palestinians, accusing the Israel Defense Forces(IDF) of war crimes. And he’s not the only one, and there is an equally sharp divide in Hollywood, which is already in crisis due to strikes and falling box office receipts. The bombing of Gaza has already caused casualties among relatives of Western politicians, with an airstrike on the Church of Saint Porphyrius killing relatives of ex-Congressman Justin Amash, an Orthodox Palestinian. The nephews of Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf’s wife were also injured, and the latter has already promised to host refugees. This all makes the work of the Israeli lobby more difficult. Rallies in support of Palestine continue to be held on the streets of European cities, and public opinion is rapidly shifting not in Israel’s favor, especially in Europe. But even in the U.S. there is no pro-Israel consensus, which was present even 10 years ago. Another poll showed that 52% of Americans do not think it is necessary to support either side of the conflict. And only 38% are ready to send American soldiers to defend Israel, although in 2021 there were 53%. This is due to the split within the Democratic Party over sympathy for the Palestinians and the growing isolationist sentiment among Republicans.

Pro-Palestinian protests are sweeping the United States, and thousands of protesters stormed Grand Central Station in New York. And this time they did not represent the Arab community, but called themselves the largest anti-Zionist movement of American Jews. It is no secret that Jews in the U.S. are very liberal, and they consistently vote for the Democrats, even though the latter have a rather cool attitude to the right-wing policies of Israel. If you poll American Jews, you will find out that most of them are in favor of an immediate ceasefire and truce in Gaza. Even in Israel, polls are starting to come out in which half of the respondents support postponing the ground operation to negotiate the release of prisoners along the lines of Qatar, even though just after October 7, two-thirds of Israelis strongly supported the war in Gaza. What to say against this background about public opinion in the West, where 52% of Americans do not want to take sides with Israel or Palestine. Two-thirds oppose direct U.S. involvement in the conflict, and more than half demand that Biden push for a truce as soon as possible. The numbers are even more telling in Great Britain, where 76% of the population supports a ceasefire in Gaza. Biden is torn today trying to hold together the fragile minority coalition of the Democratic Party, where Muslims and Arabs are sharply opposed to his pro-Israel policies. The situation is the same in the Middle East, where the White House’s attempts to maintain the status quo are getting little traction. The situation is the same in the Middle East, where the White House’s attempts to maintain the status quo are having little effect. Even Elon Musk, who has pro-Israeli views but fears escalation and conflict with Iran, has come out in favor of a ceasefire. The billionaire was willing to provide SpaceX terminals for humanitarian convoys to Gaza, which drew a sharply negative reaction from Israel. Musk is now pushing his agenda, criticizing the war in Ukraine, escalation in the Middle East, and confrontation with China. And it is not for nothing that Vivek Ramaswamy, who has become the voice of American isolationists, is going to the polls with Musk’s support. So the division around Israel will only intensify and exacerbate the culture wars raging in the West.

The Republican Jewish Summit was held in Las Vegas, bringing together all the presidential candidates of that party and showing the diversity of their views on the conflict taking place between Israel and Hamas. Trump gave a fiery speech about rejecting the policy of regime change and exporting democracy in the Middle East and trying to turn “Baghdad into Palm Beach.” He also pointed to the experience of Europe, where “there are jihadists on every corner” and promised to reduce the intake of Arab migrants. And Ron DeSantis called for a complete cutoff of UN funding in response to a vote in favor of a resolution condemning Israel. Here, however, he has already fallen behind Vivek Ramaswamy, who suggested withdrawing from both the UN and NATO. Tim Scott has demanded the deportation of foreign students who went to pro-Palestinian protests, but Biden will not do that because it would be a major blow to the reputation of American universities. And Nikki Haley, the chief militarist in the primaries, desperately called for no truce at all and continued war in both Gaza and Ukraine. Ramaswamy was the only candidate who was not afraid to say openly that the U.S. does not need to get involved in the Middle East conflict, it is up to Israel. His words were received without much enthusiasm, because the summit was financed by the Israeli lobby.

At the same time as the summit was taking place, the U.S. was in the midst of pro-Palestinian protests, with demonstrators blocking the Brooklyn Bridge in New York with “Zionism is terrorism” placards, and liberal Jews, in addition to Arabs, participating in the rallies. Congress, urged by new Speaker Mike Johnson, will give $14 billion to Israel. Israel, under pressure from Biden, has already narrowed the scope of the operation, conducting localized raids and air raids. But Palestinian casualty figures are rising rapidly, and large-scale protests are gaining momentum, with pro-Palestinian demonstrators reoccupying Union Square in New York. The left opposes any tranches to Israel, but they are likely to be approved eventually, although the scale of the protests and public opinion in favor of a truce will weigh heavily on politicians. For example, American university campuses have been swept by a wave of anti-Semitism. In October, a hundred anti-Semitic outbursts were registered, while the total number of anti-Semitic outbursts in the U.S. exceeded 600 in 2023, which is an anti-record since 2004, when they began to be counted. The brawl at Cooper Union College in New York City, where a crowd of pro-Palestinian protesters blocked Jewish students in the local library and tried to break in to get back at them for the Gaza bombings, caused a major uproar. The NYPD chose not to intervene, and only after some time escorted the Jews out the back door. And Cornell University, an Ivy League institution, has begun threatening Jewish students with mass shootings. And amid a wave of hustings in Maine and Florida, it cannot be ruled out that shootings between supporters and opponents of Israel will begin on campuses as well. Student groups continue to hold pro-Palestinian rallies by the thousands, and individual billionaires have responded by threatening to cut off funding to Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania. However, their billion-dollar endowments will easily survive this, and the hardest hit will be small colleges whose finances are already in dire straits in the wake of the 2020 pandemic. Left-wing activist and U.S. presidential candidate Cornel West has openly supported the Palestinians and spoke at an anti-Zionist rally in Los Angeles. He hopes to pull the Muslim vote from the Democratic Party, while left-wing Democrats in Congress are convinced that America will completely lose credibility in the world if it does not stop the war in Gaza. Inside America, the divide is widening by the day. For example, the level of support for Democrats among the U.S. Arab community was 59% in 2020, but has now collapsed to 17%. In states like Michigan and Minnesota, this will create very serious problems for Biden, not to mention the votes of liberal Jews who also don’t support Israel’s policies. To somehow appease American Muslims, the White House has proposed a strategy to combat Islamophobia in the United States. But this is unlikely to help Biden much, because the ratings of non-systemic leftist candidates are skyrocketing, and this may soon cause Biden to become even more active in calling for peace with Israel. The divisiveness in the U.S. and throughout the West is only getting worse and America is being torn apart by the culture wars that are now centered on Israel. And the worse things get there, the greater the heat of the culture wars tearing apart the West will be. But the moral is that Israel is only the occasion of the day for them, and the real causes lie within the states of Europe and the US themselves. Probably the best way to address them is through the positions of isolationists and nationalists who want to focus on the internal problems of their countries, forgetting about external expansion, for which there is less and less energy.