My journalist friend Kieren McCarthy posts to FB: “I have always wondered why the American people are so pro-Israeli. I understand 100% why the Jewish population is but never quite understood why everyone else is. Just watched NBC’s Nightly News focuses on Gaza and have been blown away by how pro-Israel the seemingly objective reporting was. In Israel complete identification with the people and their very real concerns. In Gaza, shots of people in horse carriages, everyone killed (even two small boys) identified as being a militant. Really quite disturbing. Anyway, here’s hoping there’s a truce today.”
The main reason you don’t understand, I suspect, Kieren, is that you are secular and most Americans are Christian. It’s the religious vs secular divide that largely explains support for Israel. Identifying Jews (except for the most Orthodox who are complicated) support Israel, but this probably accounts for no more than 50% of American Jews, the completely secular 50% of American Jews don’t care about Israel. Most supporters of Israel in America are Christian, not Jewish. Some Christians support Israel and some don’t, depending on their theology. America is a religious nation and believes in things like good and evil, and thus they support Israel. Europe is secular and sees little difference between a tiny democratic state and a totalitarian terror entity like Hamas.
