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The Underpinnings of U.S. Support for Israel

(BICOM) Toby Greene interviews Jonathan Rynhold - America was founded by Puritans, who believed that one had to read the Bible, and so Hebrew was compulsory at Harvard and Yale. Even secular Americans and non-Protestant Americans are sympathetic to Israel because they are so familiar with the idea of the Jewish people returning to their homeland. So even if it's no longer religiously based, it is culturally based. Americans say: "We are a country of pioneers, of immigrants, who fled Europe from religious persecution and set up a democracy - so are the Israelis." Increasingly over the last five to ten years, the American public reached a position where a majority believe that if it's a choice between using force to prevent Iran going nuclear and letting Iran go nuclear, one must use force. But the public also supports the president's effort to try and use diplomacy and at the moment they extend him a certain amount of credit to see whether he can achieve that. Dr. Jonathan Rynhold is director of the Argov Center for the Study of Israel and the Jewish People and a senior researcher at the BESA Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University.
2015-03-04 00:00:00
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