Two days ago we posted on a shocking new poll which shows that Americans’ support for Israel has dropped over 20 points in the past nine months. The poll itself has not yet been officially released, but the JTA is reporting more of the leaked numbers:
Some 49 percent of American voters call themselves supporters of Israel, down from 69 percent last September, according to the poll conducted for The Israel Project.
The number of voters who called themselves undecided rose during that same period, and the number of Palestinian supporters remained steady at 7 percent. The number of Israel supporters hit a low of 38 percent immediately following the 2005 disengagement from Gaza, with an equal rise in undecided voters.
The poll was conducted among 800 registered voters on June 2 and 3 by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research. It has not been officially released by The Israel Project, but was leaked to the media by someone who received the numbers the day after the poll was completed on Thursday.
According to the poll, some 44 percent of voters believe the United States should support Israel, down from 69 percent a year ago. Some 5 percent of voters believe the United States should support the Palestinians, with 32 percent undecided.
These results raise some interesting questions. It’s clear that American opinion isn’t necessarily shifting from Israeli to Palestinian “sides,” but rather it would seem that people are simply losing attachment to Israel. As the undecided number grows, Obama’s room to maneuver from a position of US interests grows as well. Although I am not optimistic that US interests by themselves will lead to a just solution to the conflict, this shift in US opinion could go a long way in redefining the “special relationship” between the US and Israel, which can only be a good thing.
Related posts:
- Shocker: Number of Americans who say U.S. should support Israel drops from 71% to 44% in one year
- Poll: Obama’s progressive base will support him in getting tough on Israel
- Touchdown! Americans Support Israel Over Palestinians, 57-6
- Americans May Sympathize With Israel, But They Want a More Even-Handed Policy, Say Walt & Mearsheimer
- Giving Obama room to maneuver, ‘Washington Post’ editor slams Israeli government’s ‘dodges’
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Only former presidents get to call spades spades: Jimmy Carter has spoken of his "grief and despair" at seeing the destruction in the Gaza Strip carried out by Israel's 22-day offensive on the territory. "This is holy land for us all and my hope is that we can have peace … all of us are children of Abraham," , the former US president said during a joint news conference with Ismail Haniya, the deposed Hamas Palestinian prime minister, in Gaza City. He said the Palestinians had been treated "like animals" and the deprivations faced by them in Gaza were unique in history. http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009...
I can remember reading a while ago that the American publc liked winners and that the Israelis were winners so the American public liked them. With Lebanon in 2006 and Gaza in 2009, Israel looks less like a winner! Yeah, I know that Israel was not defeated in Lebanon in 2006 and Gaza in 2009 but it failed to achieve its stated goals of destroying Hezbollah and Hamas respectively so it "lost"!
"It's clear that American opinion isn't necessarily shifting from Israeli to Palestinian "sides," but rather it would seem that people are simply losing attachment to Israel." I think more and more people in the US, and in the West in general, are fed up with Israel and its status as a super special best friend. At the same time, they begin to realize that the conflict with the (simplified) Muslim world is more complicated than Bush's "Shock and Awe" approach suggested, that it's not going to be solved easily and that different approaches are necessary. And slowly, very slowly, it dawns on them that Israel's arrogant, bratty behaviour is a major obstacle to that. That doesn't mean that they suddenly sympathize with the Palestinians. They are still firmly in the "part of the problem" camp for the majority. But less people are swallowing the right-wing propaganda that Israel's constantly being at odds with the entire Muslim world and dragging all of us into it is somehow a boon to our security. So, no shift to a position based on humanitarian, liberal, democratic ideals, but simply less naivite and a colder, harder look at what actual US interests are. I can live with that.
The important point is that this change in support comes while hasbara has been the official language of USA government leaders and MSM. Imagine if the US public actually knew the history of he I-P conflict, and the USA government role in it? Eventually, I don't think the average American will ignore a la Richard "Zionist as humanitarian" Witty, the disparate power involved. Americans are always for the underdog. Once they see who the underdog has been all along regarding the I-P, and if they ever get informed about how one-sided are support has been, they will react accordingly. The moat in the eye has been the Shoah Sales coupled with the image of Paul Newman in Exodus; it's hard for Americans to identify with a brown underdog unless they are obviously black or Latina… Think about the psychology represented by the originator of Curb Your Enthusiasm. A not so subtle step from Borak. In the end, David Duke will not be seen as the only bad guy type.
Testing moderation. Please ignore. Thanks, Michael
who makes up these poll questions? polls are meant to manipulate public opinion… release info for the required results and withhold what won't produce it … a better poll question would be something like "do you support israel and palestine in some type of equal manner?"… that would be much more revealing.. the usa gov't foreign policy is so out of whack with the ideal of that question, most people would be hard pressed to rationalize it, and they would be forced to consider it… that is why we have most of these stupid one way questions…. an even better suggestion would be freedom of information, specifically – who paid for the poll to be done? how many polls did they do, before they decided to make the results public? questions like these never get answered and they need to be… when they are not, these 'polls' are just paid advertising, with the exception, one knows not who paid for it… one can get an idea what they are trying to manipulate though!
I think the point that people aren't so much "switching sides" as losing their special attachment to Israel is a really interesting one. I'd add that it not only gives the Obama administration more room to maneuver, but allows more space for civil society voices that are advocating for justice, human rights, and international law. The House appropriations subcommittee that deals with military aid is meeting tomorrow. It will be fascinating to see if the issue of military aid to Israel is even raised, given the Netanyahu government's continuing intransigence. Whatever the public response of the Obama administration to Netanyahu's latest speech has been, behind closed doors they must know that the MSM is not reporting honestly when they say that Netanyahu has accepted a Palestinian state, but rather that he is spitting the same line he has been since before the last time he was PM, which is that the Palestinians can have a totally dependent, fragmented, non-sovereign entity with no control of borders, air space, or territorial integrity. Send a letter to members of the appropriations subcommittee here: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/641/t/2439/c...
The goal of 2009 had nothing to do with destroying Hamas. Just kicking the shit out of Hamas. Mission accomplished.
It's easy to kick the shit out of people who are are disarmed. 431 children were killed by well-armed adults; this is nothing to be proud of.
Wrongo. Hizbullah is EXTREMELY HEAVILY ARMED. This is how Israel lost many, many soldiers – and civilians. Hizbullah could even afford to shoot ANTI-TANK MISSILES against Israeli soldiers. I saw one 18 year old who had BOTH legs blown clear off him by such a missile. Oh, Hizbulla threatens the govt of Lebanon, as well. Iran has armed them VERY, VERY HEAVILY. This has little to do with Israel and everything to do withspreadind Shia throughout the ME. Facts bother you, I see..
What is new here? Anyone with a working brain and minimal information knows that the Jewish Zionists are nothing but another bunch of radical religious nutbags believing they are the "chosen people" of a "God" and that they have some right to a "promised land." Can you imagine supposedly intelligent people supporting such nonsense? Oh, I forgot, a majority supported Hitler, we elected Nixon, Bush, L.B.J., and now Balack (another "chosen one"). As for the Israelis, hopefully someday they will reap the whirlwind for the theft and murder.
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