Les paradoxes des Juifs américains

La communauté juive US n’échappe absolument pas aux paradoxes provoqués par notre époque et les étranges “politiques” qui s’y sont développées et qui sont désormais en crise majeure. Jim Lobe met le fait en évidence, à partir d’une enquête d’opinion qu’il commente aujourd’hui sur Antiwar.com. Et ce fait est, cette année (il s’agit d’une enquête annuelle), particulièrement remarquable.

On y constate notamment :

• Les Juifs américains continuent à tenir l’Iran et ses projets supposés comme un cas très dangereux pour Israël ; en même temps, ils s’opposent de plus en plus nettement à une attaque militaire US de l’Iran.

• Les Juifs américains sont très pessimistes à propos des possibilités d’arrangement israélo-palestiniens et de plus en plus opposés à la création d’un Etat palestinien ; en même temps, le “soutien à Israël” est placé très bas dans les priorités de la politique US selon les Juifs américains, à 6% d’opinion contre 23% pour l’économie, 19% pour la sécurité sociale, 16% pour l’Irak, 14% pour le terrorisme, etc..

• D’une façon générale, les Juifs américains sont de plus en plus hostiles à la guerre en Irak et à la guerre contre la terreur en général alors que ces deux thèmes constituent deux points fondamentaux d’union des politiques US et israélienne.

Voici quelques remarques de Lobe :

«…That may prove a hard sell to the Jewish community, at least according to most of the new survey's results. For example, two-thirds of US Jews now believe that Washington should not have gone to war in Iraq – up two percentage points from 14 months ago – and 76 percent believe that US efforts to bring stability and order to Iraq are going either “somewhat” or “very” badly.

»As for the threat posed by Iran – which is expected to be a major foreign policy focus of the Republican presidential campaign, particularly if Giuliani wins the nomination – only 35 percent of US Jews said they would support “the United States taking military action against Iran to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons,” while 57 percent said they would oppose such a move.

»Those findings are striking both because 59 percent of Jewish respondents said they are “very concerned” about the prospect of Iran obtaining nuclear weapons and because they represent a further erosion of Jewish support for military action compared to previous years.

»The poll was taken before last week's publication of the latest National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) which found that Iran had suspended its alleged nuclear weapons program in 2003 and is unlikely to be able to build a weapon before 2010 at the earliest.

»Thus, in the 2005 survey, 49 percent of Jewish Americans said they would support military action, while 46 percent said they would oppose it. Last year, 54 percent said they would oppose such action, while 38 percent said they would oppose it.

»If the Jewish community has become more dovish on Iran and Iraq, however, it has also become more skeptical about Israeli-Arab peace efforts and a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

»Fifty-five percent said they believe that negotiations between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas “cannot lead to peace in the foreseeable future.” Three out of four respondents said Israel could not achieve peace with a Palestinian government led by Hamas, which currently controls the Gaza Strip.

»In a more stunning result, only 46 percent of respondents said they favor the establishment of a Palestinian state, while 43 percent said they oppose it.

»In 2004, 57 percent of respondents said they supported the establishment of Palestinian state. Last year's survey still found majority support – 54 percent for a Palestinian states, and 38 percent opposed.

»Asked whether in the framework of a permanent peace accord, Israel should be willing to compromise on the status of Jerusalem as a united city under Israeli jurisdiction, 58 percent of respondents replied negatively this year. Last year, only 52 percent were against such a compromise, which most analysts, including Olmert's deputy prime minister, Haim Ramon, consider essential to achieving a final peace agreement.

»These more hawkish views on Israeli-Palestinian ties clearly reflect the views not only of Jewish Republicans, which would not be surprising, but other, more liberal and Democratic members of the Jewish community as well. Forty-three percent of respondents defined themselves as liberal, 31 percent as “moderate,” and 25 percent as conservative.

»Still, “support for Israel" ranked relatively low among the issues which respondents said would be most important to them in deciding how to cast their votes next year. Asked to choose among nine different issues, 23 percent named the economy and jobs as their top issue; 19 percent opted for health care; 16 percent cited Iraq; and 14 percent, “terrorism and national security”. Along with immigration and the energy crisis, support for Israel was named as the most important issue by only six percent of all respondents.»

Ces contradictions sont très significatives des tensions et contradictions extraordinaires de l’époque, avec le constat que la communauté juive américaine n’y échappe pas plus que les autres communautés, pays, etc. Ce qu’on observe est effectivement un cloisonnement grandissant des jugements et opinions, entre l’attachement affirmé à Israël d’une part, d’autre part des opinions qui vont souvent dans une logique contraire à cet attachement. Les Juifs américains sont largement démocrates de gauche et libéraux (au sens US) et ils retrouvent de plus en plus cette tendance politique, notamment en politique extérieure, – ce qui est le point le plus intéressant de cette enquête. L’époque marque son empreinte dans cette attitude, avec l’écart grandissant entre les engagements virtualistes, utopistes ou affectifs d’une part, et les réalités politiques et psychologiques d’autre part.

Mis en ligne le 13 décembre 2007 à 10H40