NO IT DOES NOT! IT EXPLAINS WHY SOME REPUBLICAN NUT-BOYS NOW HOLDING EXECUTIVE POWER SUPPORT ISRAEL!!
>
>1) As already discussed on the list, many Christian fundamentalists support
>Israel because, in their religious fantasies, the founding of the Jewish
>State is a necessary pre-condition for the return of Christ.
>2) Even Christians who are not fundamentalists see the world through a
>Biblical prism, so Israel is dear to there hearts simply as a place where
>their religion was born.
>3) Among more secular folks, whites tend to support Israel more than
>non-whites. I suspect this is because Israel, like the U.S. is a settler
>colony and Americans, even in this supposedly p.c. world, have very little
>sympathy for the victims of a frontier society. The Palestinians are just
>another group of natives to be pushed out of the way.
You forgot (4) the legacy of the Nazi war against the Jews...
I would put (3) differently: it's both the resonance between the U.S. and Israel as the products of settler migration, and the lack of resonance between the U.S. and the Palestinian population in terms of their welcome to immigrating Jews. Think of it: People fleeing cruel, oppressive, anti-Semitic Europe--the Dreyfus Affair, Kishinev, et cetera--come to America, where they are welcomed and become an important part of the task of civilization. Others fleeing cruel, oppressive, anti-Semitic Europe come to Palestine, where they are scorned, attacked, told that they will be pushed into the sea--and then for good measure all the other Arab countries decide to expel their Jewish populations as well.
It's both that the Palestinians are another group of natives to be civilized and assimilated if possible and pushed out if not, and also that the Palestinians have committed the historical sin (in American eyes) of failing to welcome distressed people fleeing cruel, oppressive, anti-semitic Europe.
Both parts are there...
Brad DeLong