[Peace-discuss] Public vs. gov't in US and Israel

[C. G. Estabrook]

[From an article by E. J. Kessler in the current Forward.  --CGE]

  CHENEY GETS 48 ROUNDS OF APPLAUSE 
  FROM RIGHTWING JEWISH LOBBY

Even as President Bush's popularity dropped to record lows,
his administration was embraced warmly this week by the
thousands of delegates at the most influential annual
gathering of American Jewish activists. . . At the annual
policy conference of the main pro-Israel lobby, the American
Israel Public Affairs Committee, several of the most hard-line
administration officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney
and Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, drew a
resounding response. . .

Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who, like the two other
candidates for prime minister in Israel's coming election,
spoke on a video link from Jerusalem, was cheered
enthusiastically when he called for building "an iron wall"
around Hamas. Labor leader Amir Peretz and Kadima's candidate,
Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, were not as warmly
received, as they talked about a two-state solution to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. . . .

The enthusiastic support for Netanyahu and Bush administration
hawks underscores what appears to be a widening gap between
pro-Israel activists in Washington on the one hand and the
Israeli and American publics on the other. Polls show
Netanyahu trailing Olmert and Peretz in Israel at the same
time that support for Bush and the Iraq War are plummeting in
America. . .

AIPAC also appears to be out of step with the American Jewish
community on Iraq. Like many other American Jewish
organizations, it supported the Iraq war. But 70% of American
Jews oppose the Iraq war, according to a poll commission by
the American Jewish Committee at the end of 2005. Jewish
organizations, most of which have a liberal political
orientation, recently have taken a unified hard line against
Iran and Hamas. . .

Cheney's personal approval ratings have dropped to below 20%.
But the vice president was received enthusiastically at the
AIPAC conference, drawing 48 rounds of applause from the 4,500
assembled delegates -- including eight standing ovations. When
he took the podium, the crowd stood and cheered for almost a
minute. It displayed similar warmth toward Bolton, a leading
administration hawk on Iraq and Iran, who spoke Sunday
morning. . .

http://www.forward.com/articles/7458