First the good news: For all the talk about how anti-Israel and anti-Semitic sentiment in Europe and the Middle East is on the rise – and it is – out on Main Street America, Israel is now ranked fifth among countries viewed most favorably by Americans. That’s according to an update of Gallup’s annual World Affairs survey, conducted between Feb. 1-3.

In fact, a near-record 63 percent of U.S. citizens gave Israel a “favorable” (the highest mark since 1991) and 25 percent chose “unfavorable”. Meanwhile, only 20 percent viewed the Palestinian Authority favorably, actually an increase over last year’s 15 percent. Still, that’s fourth from the bottom – a position not surprisingly held by the Republic of Iran, which came in with a 10 percent favorable rating. (That proves it: One in 10 Americans are mentally unstable, which also attests to the popularity of reality TV.)

Then there’s the interesting political breakdown. Some 80 percent of Republicans as compared to 53 percent of Democrats view Israel favorably. Now this has long been pointed out by Jewish GOPers as to why their co-religionists should wean themselves from nearly a century of seemingly addictive support for Democratic presidential candidates.

Democratic Jewish stalwarts often respond that they must stay in their party to fight the anti-Israel far left, that the GOP is distorting the record and that Republican Party’s social agenda has been hijacked by the ultimately anti-Jewish conservative right-wing.

Mind you, one cannot doubt that the Republican base – a large chunk of it being the nation’s 60 million or so Evangelical Christians – are the most pro-Israel slice of non-Jewish America. For them (and in part other GOPers) it’s about theology and ideology.

• The theology could be about end-time scenarios (although not for all) when Jesus returns and the Jews either go along with the program or go away.

• The ideology is about favoring any democracy over fundamentalist/totalitarian regimes, something that worked well in the days of the Soviet Union and again in this era of radical Islam.

Interestingly, we Jews are the ones who heavily push that last argument to the non-Jews when lobbying on Capitol Hill. (Not surprisingly, we’d rather leave the theology to a latter conversation. In other words, when the Messiah shows up in Jerusalem, goes the joke, we’ll ask: “So, have you been here before? If not, let me show you around.”)

So is the GOP better for the State of Israel than the Democratic Party? The numbers say yes. Is that the only issue for most American Jews? Obviously not. And is that good for the Jews? The debate goes on. I invite your thoughts via the comments button here:

http://blogs.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/neilrubin_comments/8940/

I’m sure you’ve seen (or at least are aware of) the symposium sponsored by Commentary Magazine entitled “Why Are Jews Liberals?”  If not, here’s the link:
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/why-are-jews-liberals-a-symposium-15223

Well worth reading.