The latest Pew survey on American attitudes about Israel and Palestine documents the growing partisan divide over Israel in the U.S. Four out of five Republicans sympathize more with Israel than the Palestinians, but solidarity with Palestinians is surging in the Democratic base.
Currently, nearly twice as many liberal Democrats say they sympathize more with the Palestinians than with Israel (35% vs. 19%)
The Israel sympathy number has cratered in just two years:
The share of liberal Democrats who sympathize more with Israel than the Palestinians has declined from 33% to 19% since 2016.
And Israel’s favorability among conservative Dems is also falling fast:
However, the share of conservative and moderate Democrats who sympathize more with Israel has declined 18 percentage points since 2016 (from 53% to 35%).
The poll clearly points to Benjamin Netanyahu’s role in driving these attitudes:
Netanyahu remains a deeply polarizing figure in the U.S… Nearly three times as many Republicans (52%) as Democrats (18%) have favorable impressions of Israel’s leader.
Pew reports that overall, American sympathies are the same as they were 40 years ago:
46% of Americans say they sympathize more with the Israelis, 16% say they sympathize more with the Palestinians
Back in 1978, it was 45 to 14! But when you sort people by party, you see the differences. Republicans are overwhelmingly on Israel’s side, Dems are divided.
Nearly eight-in-ten Republicans (79%) sympathize more with Israel than the Palestinians, while just 6% sympathize more with the Palestinians
27% of Democrats say they sympathize more with Israel, while 25% say they sympathize more with the Palestinians.
The Dems have shifted in the last two years:
As recently as two years ago, in April 2016, Democrats were more likely to sympathize more with Israel (43%) than with the Palestinians (29%), with 16% saying they sympathized with both or neither.
Among liberal Democrats, there’s not a lot of argument. Palestinian solidarity!
The share of liberal Democrats who sympathize more with Israel than the Palestinians has declined from 33% to 19% since 2016. Currently, nearly twice as many liberal Democrats say they sympathize more with the Palestinians than with Israel (35% vs. 19%)
I think we must attribute the change to Israel’s ugly international image under Netanyahu–
among liberal Democrats, more than three times as many have an unfavorable view of Netanyahu (49%) than a favorable opinion (15%).
Also to the percentage of Dems who see Trump as too favorable to Israel, per the survey. And the greater sympathy that young people have for Palestinians:
About a third of those under 30 (32%) say they sympathize more with Israel, compared with 23% who sympathize more with the Palestinians.
For all Americans above age 50, it’s 56 percent favoring Israel to 12 or 13 percent for Palestine.
And though all mainline religious groups have a more favorable view of Israel than Palestinians, when Pew polls the “unaffiliated,” the numbers flip: 29 percent to 26 percent more sympathetic to Palestinians. The unaffiliated are the young.
The young believe that a two-state solution is possible, by 60 to 28 percent, but older Americans are far more equivocal. Overall, half of Americans say the two-state solution is possible (49 percent), while 39 percent say it isn’t. Interestingly, Democrats are more likely to say so than Republicans.
The poll is based on 1500 adults interviewed between January 10-15.
I think the lousy (as I see it) preference for Israel over Palestinians among DEMs is due to the failures of MSM. Pnce upon a time (1980?) Americans were much more sympathetic to Palestinians as I recall. Is there a way to dredge up old numbers?
PHIL- “…but solidarity with Palestinians is surging in the Democratic base.”
Big deal. That and $2 will get you a tall drip coffee at Starbucks. The Democratic Party fat-cats are not influenced by the Democratic Party base. And the party base is loyal to a fault, ignoring strong Democratic support for Israel. How could it be otherwise in view of funding of the Party and its candidates by Jewish Zionists? Besides, Democratic unrest is centered primarily on Netanyahu and Likud, not Israel per se.
This significant fall in support for the Apartheid Regime makes it much easier for Dick and Jane to openly condemn Israel without fear of accusationns of Antisemitism.
No more will those who support equality and the right of self determination for Palestinians be cowed into silence by zioniist control of the media and the political whores .
No siree , and boy will they be p—-d off when they realise they have been hoodwinked for decades and have coughed up in excess of 200 billion dollars of their tax money to sustain this Apartheid entity.
Would not want to be a zionist in that environment.
One other thing, I would not want to be Jewish either , given that the Apartheid Regime has spent decades telling folks that Zioniist = Jewish and Jewish =Zionist.
Of course , I would hope that those real Jews who have opposed the Apartheid Regimes actions for decades would not fall victim to any vengeful acts.
We will witness , Israel,s staunchest allies and propagandists (MW is littered with same) turn tail and claim they never supported the Apartheid Regime.
You just cannot trust a zionist.
With Republican Americans even more united on this issue and Democrats even more divided, Republicans will certainly exploit it as a wedge issue in 2018 and 2020 by attempting to carve-off Israeli-supporting Democrats. I can see it now. The DNC will counter by adopting more pro-Israel rhetoric and suppressing Democratic supporters of Palestinian rights. Sentiment for Palestinians will be attacked as helping Trump and the GOP. At times the Democratic establishment will smear us with invective in order to keep our voice from being heard.
Both the GOP and Israel live in a parallel reality where torture is love and war is peace. Zionism and Fox are hateful ideologies. Dems don’t watch Fox. They have universal values. Jewish Israelis do not.