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<\/p>\nAdam Johnson is co-host of the Citations Needed<\/a> podcast and author of \u201cHow to Sell a Genocide: The Media\u2019s Complicity in the Destruction of Gaza,\u201d out April 21 and available for preorder now<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n As Israel\u2019s standing<\/span> in the U.S., and among liberals in particular, continues to crater, the mainstream American media is vaguely taking notice. But when they report on this increasingly potent political dynamic, national publications continue to frame it as a tension among Democratic voters <\/em>\u2014 rather than a tension between Democratic voters and their party leadership.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cA Democrat\u2019s Dodge on AIPAC Points to the Party\u2019s Tensions Over Israel<\/strong>,\u201d read one recent New York Times<\/a> headline. \u201cTensions over pro-Israel lobbying<\/strong> group highlight rifts <\/strong>in Democratic primaries,\u201d read another Reuters<\/a> headline. \u201cIsrael\u2019s subsequent military campaign in Gaza has driven a significant, deeper-than-ever divide among Democrats<\/strong>,\u201d NBC News<\/a> reported last week. \u201cThe U.S.-Israel alliance has rapidly gone from a point of bipartisan consensus to a wedge issue dividing<\/strong> both parties,\u201d opined the Washington Post<\/a>. <\/p>\n All of those were just last month, but the false equivocation goes back further. \u201cThe Democratic primary electorate,\u201d The Hill<\/a> informed readers in March, \u201cis increasingly divided over Israel<\/strong>.\u201d \u201cIsrael tensions<\/strong> threaten Dems\u2019 midterm plans,\u201d Politico<\/a> announced in a January headline, which continued in the piece: \u201cJust as Democrats are finding their footing by focusing on affordability, their differences on Israel are threatening to tear them apart.<\/strong>\u201d \u201cNew York City\u2019s annual Israel Day Parade has long been considered a bipartisan tradition \u2014 but this year, the event is becoming a symbol of the growing divide<\/strong> within the Democratic Party over Israel,\u201d Sinclair\u2019s National News Desk reported<\/a> last week.\u00a0<\/p>\n There\u2019s only one problem with the \u201ctensions,\u201d \u201cdivided,\u201d and \u201cwedge issue\u201d framing: It is not supported by any polls. The \u201cdivide,\u201d such as it is, is increasingly not among Democrats or even liberals; it is between the supermajority of Democratic Party voters and party leadership. While party leaders such as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senator Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and big Democratic donors<\/a>, are pro-Israel, actual Democratic voters have moved on from Israel with remarkable speed and consistency. Let\u2019s take a look at the polling:<\/p>\n To contextualize that 13 percent \u2014 which is down from 34 percent of Democrats who said they viewed Israel positively back in 2023 \u2014 it\u2019s even lower than the number of Democrats who say they support traditional right-wing stances, such as:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The media justifiably treats all of these issues as Republican or conservative-coded views. Yet support for Israel is still treated as a mainstream, if contested, liberal value.<\/p>\n In reality, it\u2019s simply not: It\u2019s overwhelmingly a Republican<\/a>, right-wing view<\/a> not backed by a supermajority of Democrats. So why has this consistently misleading narrative in U.S. media been allowed to persist?\u00a0<\/p>\n The Israel \u201cdivide,\u201d such as it is, is increasingly not among Democrats or even liberals; it is between the supermajority of Democratic Party voters and party leadership.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n There\u2019s an obvious tension <\/em>over Israel and the U.S. role in supporting it, which has been writ large in high-profile battles, from Democratic Senate campaigns<\/a> to debates over the Democrats\u2019 platform<\/a>. The media has to cover that tension, but describing it more accurately \u2014 as a divide between party elites and the rank and file \u2014 is an awkward narrative, one that requires a deeper class and material analysis. <\/p>\n So instead, it\u2019s just indexed under the misleading and generic label of \u201cparty divisions.\u201d Naturally, Israel is not a 100\u20130 issue in favor of Palestine among voters, but no issue is that one-sided. A minority of Democrats support all kinds of relatively fringe, right-wing opinions. Here are some of them compared alongside the issue of Israel\u2013Palestine. The percentage of Democrats who:\u00a0<\/p>\n Polls are not a perfect snapshot of political beliefs and can be somewhat contradictory (a profile of the 2 percent of Democrats who think Israel is committing genocide and<\/em> have a positive view of the country would make an interesting read). But polls over the past three years, and the last few months in particular, show a very clear trend that support for Israel is now an increasingly fringe belief among Democrats. It\u2019s worth emphasizing that the issue of Democratic voters souring on Israel is not particularly sectarian, either, with Jewish Democrats, especially those under the age of 35, steadily abandoning Israel. A Washington Post poll<\/a> from October found that among Jewish Americans ages 18 to 34, only 36 percent claimed to have an \u201cemotional attached to Israel,\u201d and half agree with the broad liberal consensus that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.<\/p>\n But if watching how Democratic leadership and the party\u2019s funders continue to back Israel to the hilt was your only barometer, you might assume there\u2019s been no shift in public sentiment at all.<\/p>\n The dynamic is playing out over efforts to push a war powers resolution to end U.S. support for Israel\u2019s bombing and occupation in Lebanon<\/a>. On Wednesday, Axios<\/a>, citing \u201cnumerous\u201d anonymous \u201cHouse Democrats\u201d and \u201caides,\u201d attempted to paint a Rep. Rashida Tlaib-led bill to end U.S. support as a provocation dividing Democrats. \u201cAn impending House vote to constrain the Trump administration from joining Israel\u2019s war in Lebanon has some Democrats fuming that one of their own members is forcing them to take an agonizing vote,\u201d reporter Andrew Solender lamented.<\/p>\n\n
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