OPINION:
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee marked the two-year anniversary of the Hamas terror attack against Israel by saying that America “stands unwaveringly with our close ally and partner Israel because we know in our hearts that it is right” and that “you will never stand alone.”
Hold that thought. A recent survey suggests otherwise.
Pew Research Center found, in a poll posted Oct. 3, “about six-in-ten [Americans] now have an unfavorable view of the Israeli government, with a rising share saying Israel is ‘going too far.’”
Huckabee’s sentiments are nice, and when it comes to this White House, no doubt hold true. President Trump and his Cabinet are certainly solid, staunch allies to Israel.
But not so all in American politics.
Not so all in Congress — and this is where the Pew findings matter most. An ever-campaigning legislative body that is more beholden to the people than the executive is therefore — obviously — more apt to be influenced by the people. And 60 percent of the people can’t easily be ignored.
From Pew: About 39 percent of the 3,445 adults surveyed between Sept. 22 and Sept. 28 now say “Israel is going too far in its military operation against Hamas,” Pew wrote. A year ago, that percentage stood at 31; almost two years ago, it was 27 percent.
“Fifty-nine percent now hold an unfavorable opinion of the Israeli government, up from 51 percent in early 2024,” Pew wrote.
Only 16 percent believe Israel is “taking about the right approach to the conflict,” Pew wrote. About “10 percent say it isn’t going far enough,” Pew wrote. And fully a third of adult poll participants “say they aren’t sure,” Pew wrote.
This is tragic.
It’s also a matter for public relations.
The war against Hamas has been, for the better part of two years, a war of messaging — of media — of making sure the messages the media bring to the world are rooted in truth, context and moral absolutes. Israel has struggled to counter the propaganda of Hamas because the world is filled with organizations and governments and people who hate Israel more than they hate Hamas, or at the very least, see the Israeli people as one and the same as the Palestinian people of Gaza; as equal players in this world of humans; as equivalents on the universal scale of morality; as no more, no less innocent than the very terrorists who struck them on Oct. 7, 2023.
That’s why the media messaging in the days and weeks after Oct. 7, 2023, morphed from outrage at the atrocities of the Hamas terrorists, to the aggressive-slash-overkill of the Israel Defense Forces’ response, to the tragedy of the poor, starving Palestinian innocents to the — finally, coming full circle — outrage at the atrocities of the Israeli government and military as they waged an all-out war against Hamas-supporting terrorists in other countries.
And now here we are — as Pew found: “A third of Americans say the U.S. gives too much military assistance to Israel”; a similar share of Americans say it gives too little humanitarian aid to Gazans.
Too little aid to Gazans?
That tiny strip of land — that little strip of land from which Israel, 20 years ago, voluntarily withdrew — that tiny little strip of land and the Palestinians who populate it have been the recipients of the greatest sums of financial aid from around the globe.
“The international community has sent billions of dollars in aid to the Gaza Strip in recent years to provide relief to the more than 2 million Palestinians living in the isolated, Hamas-ruled territory,” The Associated Press wrote in December of 2021.
It’s Hamas-ruled because the people of Gaza voted Hamas to rule.
And what did Hamas do with all that foreign aid pouring in to the land? Used it to build tunnels and buy weapons and feed terrorists and to train to kill Jews. Post-Oct. 7, the aid continued — and it continues to this day. Israel itself, the victim of the Hamas attack, serves to facilitate aid to the area. The IDF secures locations for Palestinians to receive aid, so that Hamas will not steal it.
“On October 18, 2023, 11 days after Hamas’ murderous terror attack, Israel agreed to allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza from Egypt to mitigate a major humanitarian crisis and save innocent Palestinian lives,” the American Jewish Committee wrote in March.
Eleven days.
Eleven days after they were attacked, the Jewish people were trying to facilitate aid to the very people who supported their attackers.
The Bible speaks clearly about the Jewish people, and what they mean to God — and the extent that God will go to protect them.
Israel’s war on Hamas — war against all Muslim terrorists who want to eradicate the Jewish people from the face of the earth — isn’t just a military engagement. There is a spiritual component to the war as well — a religious one, a biblical one that brings warnings to nations that fail to take note. Huckabee understands this; so, too, America’s evangelical and Christian communities.
But the Pew poll highlights a dangerous turn, and elections matter.
“Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say they are extremely or very concerned about Israeli military strikes in Gaza killing Palestinian civilians, starvation in Gaza and the possibility of Palestinians being forced to leave Gaza,” Pew wrote.
Conversely, Pew wrote, “Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say they are extremely or very concerned about the possibility of Hamas attacking Israel in the future.”
Democrats worry most about the Palestinians — the Palestinians who voted for Hamas — the Palestinians, recall, who even cheered Hamas post-Oct. 7. Republicans are more concerned about the Jewish people and the fate of Israel.
It’s a moral imperative to vote for the right side.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “God-Given Or Bust: Defeating Marxism and Saving America With Biblical Truths,” is available by clicking HERE.
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