this post was submitted on 18 Mar 2024
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The US doesn't support Israel for our safety. We do because historically being anti-Israel alienated the following groups.
The historical context is changing rapidly, though.
These days, Jewish voters are more likely to support safety for Palestinians than the ongoing genocide. By polls, they don't like Netanyahu and, while most think US support of Israel is "about right", more US Jews would prefer decreasing US involvement than increasing it, so the pendulum is swinging away. So, even among Jews, it's not clear that the US should be involved.
And AIPAC is just one among many lobbies. If you ask a random Republican what we should do with Israel, "nuke it to glass" is likely to be the answer, so they can only really influence Democrats and they still have to promise more money than the opposition lobbies do.
I don't think most Republicans want to nuke Israel to glass these days. Of course, that's more because they need it for their batshit end-times prophecies than any sort of humanitarian or rational reason.
Evangelicals only really started voting in the 80s. Their support of Israel is only significant recently.