Public Opinion Toward Israel

By Mitchell Bard

(Updated December 16, 2011)

Support for Israel is not restricted to the Jewish community. Americans of all ages, races and religions sympathize with Israel. This support is also nonpartisan, with a majority of Democrats and Republicans consistently favoring Israel by large margins over the Arabs.

The best indication of Americans' attitude toward Israel is found in the response to the most consistently asked question about the Middle East: “In the Middle East situation, are your sympathies more with Israel or with the Arab nations?” The organization that has conducted the most surveys is Gallup. Support for Israel in Gallup Polls has remained consistently around the 50% mark since 1967. The most recent poll, reported by Gallup in February 2011, found that sympathy for Israel was 63% compared to 17% for the Palestinians. Israel’s popularity only exceeded this figure during the Gulf War. In recent years Gallup has noted that many Americans have moved from “no preference” into the pro-Israeli column. A CNN poll in May 2011, after President Obama made a major Middle East speech that included a controversial remark about using the 1967 borders as a benchmark for negotiations, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rebuffed the president and gave a speech to a joint session of Congress outlining his vision, found that 67% of Amerian supported Israel and 16% sympathized with the Palestinians. This is the second highest level of support in any poll (July 2008 Israel Project poll was record 69%)

Despite the violence of the preceding years, and a steady stream of negative media coverage, this exceeds the level of support (56%) Israel enjoyed after the 1967 war, when many people mistakenly believe that Israel was overwhelmingly popular. Israel reached the zenith of its popularity during the Gulf War. In January 1991, sympathy for Israel reached a record high of 64%. Meanwhile, support for the Arabs dropped to 8% and the margin was a record 56 points.

In 82 Gallup polls, going back to 1967, Israel has had the support of an average of 47% of the American people compared to 12% for the Arab states/Palestinians. The results are similar (47%-11%) when all 205 polls asking similar questions are included. Americans have slightly more sympathy for the Palestinians than for the Arab states, but the results of polls asking respondents to choose between Israel and the Palestinians have not differed significantly from the other surveys.

Overall, support for Israel has been on the upswing since 1967. In the 1970s, the average level of support for Israel was 44%, in the 1980s, it was 46%, and, in the 1990s, 47%, including the record highs during the Gulf War. Since 2000, support for Israel is averaging 51%.

Meanwhile, support for the Arabs/Palestinians has actually declined in the last two decades from an anemic average just below 15% in the 1980s to less than 11% since 2000. On average, Israel is favored by more than 3 to 1.

Gallup also takes regular polls on world affairs. Overall favorable ratings of Israel in February 2010 were 67%, ranking fifth behind Canada, Great Britain, Germany and Japan. By contrast, just 20% of Americans have a favorable opinion of the Palestinian Authority, while 70% have an unfavorable view. The PA is rated just above Afghanistan (18%), North Korea (14%) and Iran (10%) as the least popular countries. The same poll also found that 58% of Americans have an unfavorable view of Saudi Arabia.

Since 1998, roughly three-fourths of respondents have said the United States should take neither side in the conflict, but those who do pick a side overwhelmingly choose Israel (32% vs. 1% for the Palestinian's side in CNN's May 2011 survey). More than three-fourths of Americans also believe Palestinian-Israeli peace is somewhat or very important to the United States.

Polls also indicate the public views Israel as a reliable U.S. ally, a feeling that grew stronger during the Gulf crisis. In May 2011, CNN found that 82% of Americans believed Israel is “friendly” or an “ally.”