Judeosphere

Unemployed professor and Holocaust humorist Norman Finkelstein is publishing a new book this month, This Time We Went Too Far: Truth and Consequences of the Gaza Invasion.

An excerpt has been published in Counterpunch—which is very generous of Finkelstein, since it gives us an early opportunity to scrutinize his “scholarship.”

Finkelstein claims:

Public outrage at the Gaza invasion did not come out of the blue but rather marked the nadir of a curve plotting a steady decline in support for Israel.

One poll registering the fallout from the Gaza attack in the United States found that American voters calling themselves supporters of Israel plummeted from 69 percent before the attack to 49 percent in June 2009, while voters believing that the U.S. should support Israel dropped from 69 per cent to 44 per cent. Consumed by hate, emboldened by self-righteousness, and confident that it could control or intimidate public opinion, Israel carried on in Gaza as if it could get away with mass murder in broad daylight.

The poll Finkelstein is referring to was conducted by the Israel Project. However, he neglected to mention a few relevant facts:

(1) Support for both Israel and the Palestinians declined in that poll. As reported by the Jerusalem Post:

The survey, which covered 800 registered voters, seemed to indicate that Americans are beginning to be discouraged from supporting either party in the conflict. Asked whom the United States should support, far fewer answered Israel than in January (from 58% down to 44%), while the figure for Palestinians was cut nearly in half (from 9% to 5%). The number of undecideds and those supporting “neither” side increased, rising from a total of 23% in January to 32% last week. Americans question the commitment of both parties to achieving peace, a skepticism that is nearly equally widespread regarding both the new Netanyahu government and the Palestinian Authority.

(2) Support for Israel has rebounded steadily since that one poll was conducted. Just three months later, the Israel Project noted that “a strong majority (59 percent) of Americans support Israel in the ongoing conflict with the Palestinians, an increase of 10 points since June. Further, fully 63 percent of Americans believe the United States ‘should’ take Israel’s side in the conflict. This represents an increase of 19 points since earlier this year. Only 8 percent believe that the United States should take the Palestinians’ side.”

The newest poll, taken this March, shows that, by an 8 to 1 margin, Americans say the U.S. should side with Israel in conflict with the Palestinians.

(3) And, regarding Israeli actions in Gaza: “Most Americans (88 percent) are unaware of the [Goldstone] Report ….But those familiar with it disagree with it by a 50 to 29 percent margin. A plurality (30 to 19 percent) of those unfamiliar with it reaches the same conclusion when told that the report accuses Israel and Hamas of war crimes, with the more serious accusations leveled against Israel.”