From Mondoweiss
"One of my new themes on this site is that the Israel lobby as we know it is over. Gaza and Netanyahu shattered it. Obama gave his speech in Cairo because he knew he would have political cover from American Jews to reach out to the Muslim world. Marty Peretz and Charles Krauthammer didn't like the speech, but Jeffrey Goldberg and Roger Cohen (and Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod) did. That's the ballgame.
This morning Ori Nir of Peace Now provides powerful evidence for my theory from a still-secret poll that says that women and Democrats are defecting:
"Israel Radio ran a scoop this morning: poll data showing a sharp drop in Americans' perception that Israel's government seeks peace. The poll was conducted by a U.S. organization that strives to improve Israel's image here."
You see: When Obama distances himself from Israel, the American people are listening. And the poll was conducted by The Israel Project, a lobby organization that I gather had a couple of people on hand in Cairo to interpret Obama's speech to reporters. (I missed them.) Nir continues:
The state-run radio station's Washington correspondent, Nathan Guttman, obtained data from a recent unpublished poll, conducted by the Israel Project, an organization that works to improve Israel's image in the United States.
The Israel Project has been conducting a periodic running poll, asking American registered voters questions about Israel. Consistently, the polls' results – those that were published - have so far shown a steady, sturdy level of support for Israel as a peace seeking country.
That has changed, quite dramatically, now that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is refusing to get on board President Obama's two-state peace push. And that change is probably why the Israel Project has not (yet?) published its poll.
According to the poll, conducted among a rather large sample (800 registered voters) between June 9 and June 11, there has been a 20% drop (!) in the perception of Israel's government as peace seeking. Here are the data. The question asked was: "And, how committed do you think the Israeli government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is to reaching a peace agreement with the Palestinians?" A similar question ("How committed do you think the Israeli government is to reaching a peace agreement with the Palestinians?") was asked in December 2008 and in March 2009. In December and March, the results were almost identical: 66% said it was committed and 29% (in December) and 30% (in March) said it was not. This month, however, in the light of the open conflict on Israeli-Palestinian peace between Bibi and Obama, only 46% say Israel is committed and 39% say it is not.
Furthermore, there is a steep decline in the percentage of Americans who say that the U.S. should support Israel. That has dropped from 71% in March 2008 (at the time of the Annapolis process) to only 44% now.
Israel Radio reported that the Israel Project confirmed the validity of the poll and the data, but said they were "not final."
APN has leaned that the poll findings were sent confidentially to a small number of people in the U.S. and in Israel.
A second source who passed this along includes the following: "An analysis of the results shows that the largest decrease in support for Israel is among women and Democratic Party voters. Those who commissioned the poll have decided not to publicize it for now because of its negative results regarding Israel." "
