Gallup: Americans’ Support for Israel Strong as Ever

YERUSHALAYIM

Americans’ support for Israel is as high as it’s ever been, tying a record 64 percent in 1991 saying they sympathize more with Israel than the Palestinians, according to the latest Gallup poll.

Headlined “Americans Remain Staunchly in Israel’s Corner,” senior Gallup editor Lydia Saad wrote that “as the Trump administration prepares to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and is reportedly finalizing its broader Middle East peace plan, Americans’ stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is as strongly pro-Israel as at any time in Gallup’s three-decade trend.”

The findings matched 1991, the year Iraqi Scud missiles were launched against Israel, and 2013, when President Barack Obama visited the country.

The poll said that 19 percent of respondents sympathize more with the Palestinians.
The 45 point differential in this year’s poll between those saying they support Israel and those saying their sympathies are with the Palestinians is, however, less than the 52 point difference in 2013 and the 57 percent difference in 1991.

The Gallup poll comes two months after a poll by the prestigious Pew Research Center, which depicted a partisan split in support for Israel that aroused much concern.

Gallup researchers noted a less dramatic partisan gap than Pew. According to the Gallup poll, 87 percent of Republicans sympathize more with Israel than with the Palestinians, though among Democrats it was only 49 percent, or a 38 point difference. The Pew poll found a 52 point gulf between Republicans and Democrats (79/27).

“The broad contours of Americans’ perspectives on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remain about the same under President Donald Trump as they’ve been in recent years. Most Americans view Israel favorably and the Palestinian Authority unfavorably, resulting in a strong tendency for Americans to sympathize with Israel in the territorial conflict and to call for greater diplomatic pressure to be placed on the Palestinians,” Saad said in her explanatory comment.

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