On Israel and American Public Opinion

Just a brief diary about the Gallup poll information released today on what Americans think of Israel and the Palestinians.

We've had some diaries lately about pro-Israel statements from HRC, Edwards, and Obama, and each one received comments indicating that the candidates are saying pro-Israel things simply to attract a certain segment of the voting population.

Well, every now and then it's helpful to remember that the name of that particular voting segment is "the pro-Israel majority of American voters."

PRINCETON, NJ -- For the nearly 20 years Gallup has been tracking Americans' sympathies in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, more Americans have continually sided with Israelis. That remains the case today, as a solid majority of Americans (58%) say their sympathies lie with the Israelis and only 20% say their sympathies are more with the Palestinians. This is according to Gallup's annual World Affairs survey, updated Feb. 1-4, 2007.

That's roughly three to one. It's also worth noting that American support for Israel is increasing:

Americans are more pro-Israeli in their views today than they were 10 and 20 years ago, but, they are also more polarized, more generally. Over time, the percentage of Americans not having any partiality in the dispute -- either favoring both sides, favoring neither side, or having no opinion -- has decreased. At the same time, sympathies toward Israelis have increased fairly substantially and sympathies toward the Palestinians have increased slightly.

Gallup Organization

More data

There will always be those who attack folks like HRC, Edwards, and Obama for being pro-Israel; I could point links to some pretty nasty posts about it, about how they've been "bought by AIPAC" and are "pandering to Jewish organizations" and so forth.

But it's simply, pragmatically true: no candidate with a significantly anti-Israel stance is going to get much traction, not because some Nefarious Zionist Machine is interfering with American electoral politics, but simply because, by a margin both wide and growing, Americans are pro-Israel.

That's not the same as saying we agree with everything Israel does, or with the level of funding they receive -- although the latest CNN poll I could find on that shows that the percentage of people who want funding to Israel cut is pretty much exactly the same percentage as (if not lower) than those who want all foreign aid cut, regardless of to whom it goes.