More on the war

For those who may doubt the destructive power of the Hizbollah rockets and Hizbollah's intention to kill civilians see this home video - missile attack on haifa - Google Video. It looks like it was posted on July 27, but that the attack took place on July 17 (at least judging from the time stamps on the video itself).

I just read an article in the Los Angeles Times about a recent poll on whether Americans support Israel in this current war. In answer to the question, "Do you think Israel's actions are justified or not justified?," 43% answered "justified, not excessively harsh," 16% said, "justified, but excessively harsh," 28% said "unjustified," and 13% "didn't know."

In answer to a question about what the American posture should be toward Israel and the Arab countries, 50% said the U.S. should continue to align with Israel, 44% said the U.S. should adopt a more neutral position, and 2% said the U.S. should side more with Arab countries.

It is interesting to see that there is a real split between Democrats, Independents, and Republicans. If we go back to the first question, 29% of Democrats think Israel's reaction is justified, but not excessively harsh, with 20% saying it's justified but excessively harsh (49% total justified response), and 36% saying it's unjustified. The Republican positions are 64% - 11% (75% justified) - 17% - so that Republicans are much more supportive, on the whole, than are Democrats. Independents fall inbetween - 37% - 15% - 33% (52% justified).

It seems to me that these poll results may forecast some trouble ahead for the Democratic Party on the subject of Israel, especially since 39% of Democrats call for the U.S. to continue to align with Israel, while 54% advocate a more neutral position.