This development has nothing to do with that most ancient of hatreds, anti-Semitism. Rather, in an age when a compelling narrative increasingly trumps a cold, hard history lesson, Israel’s version of the events leading up to Operation Protective Edge, while factually sound, is a snoozer.

The results of a recent Pew Research Center poll revealed the largest partisan gap in forty years on the issue of supporting Israel.

Conducted from July 8-14, the week Israel began its air operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip but before its ground invasion, the poll asked 1,805 respondents, “In the dispute between Israel and the Palestinians, which side to you sympathize with more—Israel or the Palestinians?”
The poll found that respondents considering themselves conservative Republicans supported Israel by 77 percent, compared to 68 percent of moderate Republicans. Among Democrats, 48 percent of moderate Democrats supported Israel, compared to 39 percent of liberal Democrats.
In other words, 61 percent of liberal Democrats either sympathize with Hamas, a group of war criminals designated as a terrorist organization by, among many other countries, the United States, or are utterly apathetic to the plight of a small, faraway democracy whose millions of citizens are being forced to flee for their lives under daily, sometimes hourly, rocket fire.