Poll: US Support for PA Near All-Time Low

Dec. 17, 2012

Only 10 percent of Americans sympathize with the Palestinian Authority, according to a new Pew poll.

Only 10 percent of Americans sympathize with the Palestinian Authority, according to a new Pew Center poll, which shows that the United States public is also going isolationist.

In answer to the question, “In the dispute between Israel and the Palestinians, which side do you sympathize with more, Israel or the Palestinians?" 50 percent identified with Israeli and only 10 percent with the Arabs.

The figures were the most extreme since 1978, when a Chicago Council on Foreign Relations survey conducted by the Gallup Organization asked respondents if they had ever “heard or read about the situation in the Middle East." They approached results in 2006, when 52 percent said they were favorable to Israel concerning US military aid and arms sales to the Jewish state. In the same year, 12 percent were favorable to Palestinian Authority Arabs.

Answers to other questions indicate that the United States continues to go isolationist, as was indicated in last month’s presidential elections when economic and social issues far outweighed foreign policy as factors for voting preferences.

More respondents said they have heard or read only a “little” about the recent political violence in Syria than those who were exposed to “a lot” of the news. One quarter of the respondents said they knew nothing at all about Syrian violence.

The overwhelming support for Israel in the poll was more prominent among Republicans and evangelical Christians,

“Conservative Republicans maintain strong support for Israel with fully 75% saying they sympathize with Israel compared with just 2% who sympathize with the Palestinians,” Pew reported.

“By contrast, liberal Democrats are much more divided: 33% sympathize more with Israel, 22% with the Palestinians. Independents sympathize more with Israel by a 47% to 13% margin.

“Among religious groups, white evangelical Protestants remain strongly supportive of Israel. Two-thirds (67%) say they sympathize more with Israel; only 5% say they sympathize more with the Palestinians.

“Opinion among other religious groups is more mixed. Catholics, for example, offer more sympathy for Israel than the Palestinians by a 44% to 11% margin.”


source: