Poll: Support for Israel is Strong
By a two-to-one margin, 62% to 31%, Americans believe their government should back Israel even if it leads to an increased probability of terrorist attacks against this country, according to a new survey of American attitudes toward the Middle East sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League.
The poll, conducted from December 1- 4, shows strong levels of support among Americans for Israel and the global Jewish community, and strong backing for a continued U.S.-Israel alliance. At the same time, the wide-ranging survey reveals skepticism about the current Israeli approach to peace in the Middle East, as well as a widespread sense of threat from other countries in the world.
Three-fourths of those questioned said the United States and Israel have a “special relationship” because of a shared commitment to freedom and democracy, and 61% see Israel as a “loyal ally of the U.S.” Asked whether they sympathized more with Israel or the Palestinians, 40% said Israel, while 15% said the Palestinians, 11% said both and 24% said neither.
Respondents affirmed by a strong margin, 57% to 31%, that America has a “moral obligation” to fight global antisemitism. Forty percent said antisemitism worldwide has reached its “most dangerous levels since the 1930s,” while 46% disagreed.
Support for Israel comes with a decided skepticism about the aims of Yasser Arafat and the Palestinians. Fully 57% of those surveyed said the “real goal” of Arafat and the PLO leadership is to destroy Israel, and 59% said the American and Israeli governments are “correct in their decision to stop dealing with Yasser Arafat.”
In a statement accompanying the survey’s release, ADL national director Abraham Foxman said the results show that “the American people continue to be fair in their assessment and understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
Despite support for the alliance with Israel, Americans do not strongly approve of its current approach to peace. Only 42% said “Israelis and their leader Ariel Sharon” are “genuinely interested” in a long-term peace agreement, while 36% said their real goal is “to squeeze the Palestinians into the smallest territory possible.” Even fewer, 38%, agree with the Israeli position that a long-term solution can be reached only once Palestinian violence has stopped, while 45% said the “peace process will be strengthened” by creating a Palestinian state “as soon as possible.”
A plurality, 44% to 31%, said America should work with Arab nations for peace even if it weakens U.S. relations with Israel.
Questions about the war in Iraq reveal similar conflicts. While 52% think the war was worth fighting, a plurality — 48% — said it has made America less secure by exacerbating anti-American sentiment, and 43% said it is more secure.
The ADL study replicated the questions in the now-infamous Eurobarometer poll, conducted in October, which asked Europeans which countries they consider a threat to world peace. In that survey more Europeans named Israel (59%) and America (53%) as threats than any other country on a list of 15 nations.
Americans were far less likely than Europeans to name these two countries as threats, though strikingly high numbers of Americans still named the United States, 37%, and Israel, 43%, as threats to peace.
While America and Israel ranked lower as threats in the ADL poll than in the European poll, every other country named was ranked higher as a threat by Americans than by Europeans. Americans said the most threatening countries were North Korea, at 77%; Iran, at 76%; and Iraq, which was named by 76% even though the war was long over when the survey took place.
The survey, conducted by the Marttila Communications Group, surveyed some 1,200 persons, with a 2% margin of error. Questions on the Middle East were posed to a so-called split sample of 600 persons, with a 4% margin of error.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30