Highest level of American support for Israel since 1991
A Gallup poll shows that 63% of Americans support Israel as compared with 15% that favor the 'Palestinians.' That's the highest level of support for Israel since 1991 when 64% of Americans supported Israel in light of the country absorbing scud missile attacks in the First Gulf War.
Unfortunately, support for Israel is rapidly becoming a partisan issue. Over the last five years, support for Israel has increased slightly among Republicans (rising from about 77% for each of the past several years to 85% today) and independents, but has stayed roughly the same among Democrats. Since 2001, however, there has been a more dramatic shift in partisan attitudes: a 25-point increase in sympathy for Israel among Republicans and an 18-point increase among independents. Even on this longer-term basis, support for Israel among Democrats has been relatively flat.The poll goes on to show that most Americans don't believe that peace is coming between Israel and the Arabs anytime soon, although (surprise!) a higher percentage of Democrats believes in peace than Republicans or Independents.
Read the whole thing.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:03 AM
1 Comments:
And these poll numbers combined with the overwhelming support from American Jews and from a very large segment of the Christian right (groups for whom support of Israel is an absolute) mean that the actions of Obama (really, any president) are very constrained. The US government is not going to do anything which casts it as opposing Israel.
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