"The Democrats have a problem with Israel, but it´s not a disgrace," wrote Jackson Dahl, a columnist for The Washington Post. Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump, whom they described as two sides of a single coin.
But Dehel, a loyal supporter of Israel, says the Democratic Party has problems with Israel, but female deputies Elhan Omar (Minnesota) and Rachida Tlib (Michigan), the two new members of Congress who drew attention to their poisonous tweets and support for the boycott movement, The problems are "claiming" that they represent a minority of Americans isolated within the Democratic Rally, and that the biggest problem for Democrats is embodied in the man who dominated Israeli politics over the past decade - who is considered the most likely candidate in the upcoming national elections. "
"Benjamin Netanyahu has worked hard and successfully to thwart the goal pursued by Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and is still embraced by most Democrats, namely, a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," Netanyahu said. An initiative that most Democrats still support. "
"Netanyahu worked to link the Israeli government frankly with the Republican Party and helped split the US opinion on Israel on partisan grounds," said Dehel. "This connection grew stronger during Donald Trump´s administration: Netanyahu supported and defended, even even Hakki, a president (Donald Trump) Is considered undesirable by a strong majority of Americans and deeply distressed by most Democrats. "
"One may think that a foreign leader (Netanyahu) is seeking broad sympathy in the United States to avoid President Trump, but as he seeks a new term as prime minister, Netanyahu has gone so far as to put a huge picture with Trump On the front of an office building in Tel Aviv, and the results are expected, as polls show by several organizations that Netanyahu´s personal ratings among the Democrats declined during the Trump presidency, as well as the decline of support for Israel.
"In 2015, 31 percent of Democrats said they had a positive view of Netanyahu, according to Gallup, and by August 2018 the figure had fallen to 17 percent, according to the Economist and Yogov surveys. Democrats who said they consider Israel an ally from 31% to 26% in just six months between December 2017 and 2018. The second poll was conducted after Trump took two of the moves celebrated by Netanyahu and strongly opposed by Democrats: withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal, transfer US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.It was widely believed that the last step (recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the transfer of the US Embassy) undermined the chances of reaching a peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians. According to the Economist and Yogov poll, only 16% of Democrats supported the transfer of the embassy, ​​while 61% opposed it. Including 47% strongly opposed. "
"The majority of Democrats still say they believe the US should protect Israel - 54 percent described it as a very important or somewhat important goal," Dahl explains, not including the insult of Omar and Rushaida Taleb, who support the boycott, divestment, "Only 20 percent of Americans now say they support the boycott movement, but with Netanyahu and Trump working together, the Democrats´ positions seem to change quickly."
Netanyahu´s war with the Democrats dates back more than two decades, and the mistake is on both sides. "When Netanyahu ran for prime minister in 1996, Clinton supported the more moderate Shimon Peres, and after Netanyahu´s victory, his first meeting at the White House Clinton told his adviser Dennis Ross that he thought he was the superpower and that we had to do whatever he wanted. "
"Netanyahu has been sabotaging the peace process with the Palestinians, by blocking and delaying every possible step, and his bad relations with Washington are believed to have contributed to his failure in the 1999 elections. But Clinton has failed to conclude a Palestinian state agreement because of the intransigence of the president Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and after the Palestinians launched a campaign of suicide bombings and after Arafat´s successor, Mahmoud Abbas, rejected another offer to establish a Palestinian state, the Israelis voted to bring Netanyahu back to the post of prime minister in early 2009. "
"It is not surprising that Obama received Netanyahu, in the light of that history, with suspicion, quickly turned into a foe, his administration portrayed the Israeli leader as the main obstacle to peace, while Abbas sought the excuse generously despite his intransigence. In the 2013 and 2015 elections, Obama did his best to repeat what Clinton did to get him out of office, but Netanyahu failed to support Mitt Romney during the 2012 US presidential election.
At the end of his article, the writer notes that "Netanyahu, who retained his position after the departure of Clinton and Obama, seems to see the Democrats as failures who can not harm him." His actions suggest a bet that Trump, or someone like him very much, And that what will happen to Netanyahu during the coming elections this spring (9 April) will have an impact on the Democratic Party´s relations with Israel, more than anything that Elhan Omar or Rachida Tlib does. Already troubled will get worse. "
