WASHINGTON — Support for Israel in the American public is at its lowest point in a decade, according new Gallup poll released Wednesday, with a whopping decline among self-identified Republicans who said they sympathized more with Israelis than Palestinians.
Whereas 65 percent of Americans said they were “more sympathetic” to Israel over the Palestinians in 2018, 59% said the same in 2019, marking a six point drop. That decline is the biggest over a one-year period in the history of the poll, which began in 2001. The number of Americans who said they sympathized more with the Palestinians, however, went unchanged over the last year, remaining at 21 percent.
The 2019 survey found that the decline in sympathy for Israel extended to both Democrats and Republicans. While support for Israel among Democrats dropped by 6%, Republican support declined by 13%, a staggering figure in light of Republican President Donald Trump’s cultivation of an intensely close relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“The percentage of Republicans saying they sympathize more with Israel in the conflict fell from an all-time high of 87% in 2018 to 76% today,” the poll said.
The percentage of people who identified as political independents remained the same over the last year, with 60% sympathizing more with Israel.
Last year’s survey came as the administration was preparing to relocate the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which infuriated Palestinians.
Since Trump officially recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2017, and subsequently moved the embassy there, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has refused to engage with the White House, which he said had compromised its ability to act as an honest mediator in any negotiations.
In ostensible retaliation for the Palestinians refusal to work with Trump’s diplomatic team, which has been trying to broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord, and in order to exact pressure to return them to the negotiating table, Trump cut American aid to the PA, the East Jerusalem Hospital Network, and even Israeli-Palestinian coexistence agencies.
The dip in American sympathy for Israel notwithstanding, the vast majority of Americans still hold a favorable view of Israel. Sixty-nine percent of the respondents said they favored Israel over the Palestinian Authority, while just 21% said they preferred the latter.
Gallup’s survey interviewed 1,016 adults from February 1 to 10; it has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
The poll was conducted amid an intense controversy regarding the US-Israel relationship in Congress. It occurred shortly after freshman Congresswoman Ilhan Omar apologized for having insinuated that wealthy American Jews paid politicians to be pro-Israel (through the machinery of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC).
Since then, the Minnesota lawmaker, one of the first female Muslim members of Congress, has sparked another conflagration for saying that pro-Israel advocates were pushing for her to have an “allegiance to a foreign country,” which some critics accused of amounting to a “dual loyalty” accusation — a longstanding anti-Semitic smear that American Jews were more loyal, or just as loyal, to Israel as America.
Her comments drew a swift backlash, with Democratic House leaders planning to vote on a resolution condemning anti-Semitism in response to Omar.
It was never high to begin with
Brainwashed, as soon as you take away the groceries and social security checks made of fiat bullshit ,which will happen sooner or later, you will see a turn coat like never before.
When things get hot, they will turn like a spoiled banana. Facebook is already losing millions of followers just because of this very scenario. F-kerberg is losing subscriptions by the second, too much Jew bullshit.
Tens of millions of individual free American nationals will wipe these freaks from the face of the planet.
F-k ’em.
As long as so many American Christians are Christian Zionist, the number will remain too damned high for my liking!–so sayeth a former Christian Zionist and before that, desired to convert to Judaism and move to Israel…and folks, that is the truth. Thanks to divine intervention and the truth about 9-11, I am now a truth-seeker and Bill of Rights supporter and defender.
Glad you saw the light DL, not an easy thing to admit to.
Thank you so much, Mark, for saying that, because it IS HARD to admit just how hood-winked I used to be! Back in 1967 when Israel attacked the USS Liberty my parents heard that on the radio and (now this is really hard to admit!) I called them “anti-semitic” (!) for being pissed off at Israel for doing that! Then a day or so later when the news changed their story to “Egypt did it” I told my parents “I told you so!”–and Mark, I learned at lot of stuff from my parents (who did not trust Jews–and they were right to think this way!), esp. my dad, who told me about fiat currency and the Fed. He worked at Banker’s Trust in NYC as a foreign exchange trader. When Nixon took the dollar completely off the gold standard, he warned me about what that would mean in the future. He was right, of course.
Well, all the new laws that congress will pass, and the current Liar in Chief will sign, making it illegal to speak poorly of Israel, should help keep a lid on this and turn support back towards the ‘state’ that did the USS Liberty and 9/11.
“Whereas 65 percent of Americans said they were “more sympathetic” to Israel over the Palestinians in 2018, 59% said the same in 2019…”
That’s STILL way too many stupid people.
HOW FREAKIN’ HARD IS IT TO RECOGNIZE BLATANT, IN-YOUR-FACE GENOCIDE, MORONS?????
I understand the WHY of it perfectly.
Far too many decades of TELEVISION ‘PROGRAMMING’ is at the root of the problem.
“Americans’ support for Israel falls to lowest point in a decade”
THEY HEARD HENRY. LMAO!!!!!
Yet the politicians have given more and more money to them than ever before. So what’s wrong with this picture? Hang all politicians and government officials for high treason.