Bipartisan American Support for Israel Remains at Historically High Levels

By Daily TIP

The Israel Project

February 29, 2016

The survey found that 62% of Americans had sympathy for Israel, while only 15% sympathized more with the Palestinians. The remaining 23% were sympathetic to neither or both sides, or had no opinion.

While majorities in both the Democratic and Republican parties have long sympathized with Israel, Gallup noted that overall sympathy for the Jewish state sharply increased after the terrorist group Hamas won the Palestinian legislative elections in 2006. (Hamas’ victory followed Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip a few months earlier.) Support for Israel has since grown among members of both parties, though less dramatically among Democrats. Notably, Democratic sympathies for Israel increased by 4% since 2015, and grew by 18% since 2000.

A separate Gallup poll also found that 71% of all Americans have a favorable view of Israel, showing “increased favorability toward Israel compared with 2000.” In contrast, only 19% of Americans regard the Palestinian Authority positively.

These attitudes are consistent with the results of a study published in The Washington Post in November, which also found growing bipartisan support for Israel. Dina Smeltz, a senior fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, which conducted the surveys cited in the report, noted that 53% of Americans would support U.S. military intervention if Israel were to be attacked by an enemy, a figure that “is currently at the highest level recorded among […] Republicans, Democrats and Independents.”

A poll commissioned by The Israel Project in 2014 revealed that American voters overwhelmingly held the Palestinian Authority responsible for a breakdown in peace talks, with over two-thirds of respondents agreeing that Jerusalem couldn’t be expected to negotiate with a Palestinian unity government that includes the designated terror group Hamas. Another survey commissioned by The Israel Project later that year, during Operation Protective Edge, found that 65% Americans agreed that Hamas is a terrorist organization and must be stopped. The Israel Project publishes The Tower. (via TheTower.org)