Israel and US Politics: New York Times

Support for strong US-Israel relations crossed party lines from the 1970s to the start of this century. More recently, though, a rift has opened between the two major parties as surveys show that the least pro-Israel demographics – among black, Hispanic, the young and nonreligious voters – represent a larger proportion of the Democratic Party. "Many blacks and Hispanics draw strong parallels between the discrimination they have suffered at home and the plight of Palestinians," explains Nathan Thrall for the New York Tiimes. "As the Democratic Party is pulled toward a more progressive base and a future when a majority of the party will most likely be people of color, tensions over Israel have erupted." In the halls of the Capitol, newly elected Democratic lawmakers are outspoken about their views and the response has been fierce. Both the Democratic establishment and Republicans criticized Representative Ilhan Omar for using anti-Semitic tropes. More than 75 percent of American Jews supported the Democratic Party during the 2018 midterm elections. The Democratic Party, while unequivocal in its opposition to the rise of anti-Semitism in the United States, splits over how to engage with Israel or analyze the history of discrimination. The Palestinian-initiated boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, for instance, is a flashpoint in which its supporters strive to frame the conflict as similar to South Africa’s apartheid of the last century while critics claim any opposition to a Jewish-majority state is anti-Semitic. – YaleGlobal