The public supports Palestine. Why don’t our politicians?
JVL Introduction
“It has almost become an iron law of British politics,” says Ell Folan, “that when Israel does something inexcusable, you can be certain that British politicians will fall over themselves to excuse it.”
Who, asks Follan, are those politicians speaking for?
For all the evidence from YouGov polls, displayed here is easily readable graphic form, shows that the politicans are out of sync with the public on the Israel-Palestine question.
“All of these data indicate that Britons’ support for Palestine goes beyond a vague dislike of Israel – a plurality of voters is actively pro-Palestine.”
RK
This article was originally published by Novara Media on Thu 13 Jul 2023. Read the original here.
The public supports Palestine. Why don’t our politicians?
It couldn’t be more clear-cut.
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Presumably the Unsures are unsure because they don’t know much about the situation and the history, and I would imagine that if they did, most of them would be sympathetic to the Palestinians, and feel animosity towards Israel. At worst they would split as the Sures have, but I think it would more-than-likely end up with around 75% supportive of the Palestinians.
It doesn’t appear that anyone commisioned the survey – ie a newspaper or an organisation – and it’s just a Yougov initiative. Thing is, how much media coverage did it get, if any. The results of surveys in themselves can often be potentially influencial on the Unsures.
As for Starmer and Co and the Tories, what can you say about people who were more-than-happy to play along with the A/S smear campaign and cause concern and consternation in a large section ot the Jewish population in their quest to destroy and terminate Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. And subvert democracy, which was its sole purpose of course, along with all the other smear campaigns waged against him.
Support for Israel is a badge of identification of support for the Washington Consensus: that is the economic and military dominance of the US. Palestinians are disposable.
Well the answer is simple. Governments decide foreign policy according to the interests of the Establishment – the capitalists, the multinationals and associated parasites like Hedge Funds. The idea that foreign policy is decided democratically is for the birds.
It is only occasionally such as with the campaign against Apartheid in South Africa that public opinion gets a look in. So convincing the public is not enough.
We have to recognise that support for the NATO alliance with Israel, because that is what it is, is almost uniform amongst the political and ruling classes. That is the purpose of the ‘antisemitism’ smears, to deflect us from expressing solidarity.
But it is not enough simply to win over the public, we have to forge political instruments, including electoral challenges, to the tie up between Starmer and the Tories
Excellent article. I’m against Zionism, but I am not anti Semetic. However, politicians are terrified to say this in case they are vilified like Jeremy Corbyn.
We need to separate the two concepts, so that people are free to talk about it. Keir Starmer saying that anti Zionism is akin to antisemitism is absurd, he’s doing everything he can to separate himself from Corbyn, even if it means sacrificing his integrity, demonstrating his inappropriateness as a leader of any party.
With all due respect to “the public” it doesn’t understand the issues, the context, nor the history of the myriad of offers to the Palestinians. Israelis and Jews everywhere have to live with the consequences of mistakes like embracing Arafat, “the public” doesn’t have to. Government policy is what counts and apart from Corbyn and a few of his fellow terrorist admirers, leaders from both sides of politics “get it” when it comes to Israel and its enemies.
So many MPs have received election funding from Zionist individuals and lobby groups.
They are delivering the quid pro quo.
Jaye seems to be in a minority.
Surprisingly, my un-informed neighbours and work colleagues don’t view Israeli actions in a positive light. Despite their lack of understanding – and many of them are not Labour voters – they also separate the Israeli government from the people. Just as we would with Sunak and the 80% wanting to nationalise water.