A new poll indicates that 45% of likely American voters believe that the U.S.-Israel relationship has worsened under President Joe Biden, versus 15% of likely voters who think it has improved, and 33% of voters who say it is the same.
The poll, from Rasmussen Reports, was conducted among 1,000 likely voters over May 31 and June 1, with a 3% margin of error with 95% confidence. The survey was more than a week after the end of the 12-day war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas terrorists, who launched the conflict by fomenting riots and firing rocket barrages at Israeli civilians.
The Biden administration has still failed to nominate a U.S. ambassador to Israel — a post that President Donald Trump had managed to fill by March 2017, despite heavy opposition from Democrats in the Senate to almost all his nominees.
Biden has, however, enthusiastically pursued a resumption of the Iran nuclear deal, despite evidence that Iran cheated on the agreement first negotiated by President Barack Obama. Biden also restored hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to the Palestinians that Trump had cut due to concerns that Palestinian leaders and institutions were supporting terrorism.
When the conflict began on May 7, as Palestinians rioted in Jerusalem on the last Friday in Ramadan, the White House seemed to equivocate, urging Israel to use restraint. At one point, the Biden administration seemed to equate Palestinian rocket attacks against civilians with legal (potential) Israeli evictions of several Palestinian families who have squatted in homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in Jerusalem owned by Jews who were dispossessed by Jordan in the 1948 war.
Over time, as it became clear that Hamas was driving the conflict, the Biden administration became more vocal in Israel’s defense. It delayed a ceasefire vote at the UN Security Council and backed Israel’s right to defend itself. When the war ended with an unofficial ceasefire, President Biden pledged to re-supply Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system.
At the same time, however, a wave of antisemitic attacks appeared on the streets of the U.S. Biden was slow to respond, delaying any reaction for nearly a week.
A separate poll indicated Wednesday that the vast majority of American Jews — most of whom are loyal Democrats — still say they approve of Biden’s performance thus far in office.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new e-book, The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it). His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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