US support for Israel: more than a third see the Second Coming of JC
http://pewresearch.org/obdeck/?ObDeckID=39
The U.S. Public’s Pro-Israel History In Mid-East Conflicts, Americans Consistently Side with Israel
by Jodie T. Allen and Alec Tyson Pew Research Center July 19, 2006
A substantial plurality of the American public has been steadfast in
its support for Israel as the intensity of armed conflict in the
Middle East has waxed and waned through the years. While Americans
have on occasion voiced criticisms of specific tactics and operations
undertaken by the Israeli government, their sympathy for the Jewish
state has, with only minor variation, remained strong.
A Pew Global Attitudes survey taken in March through May of this
year, before the outbreak of the current violence, found that in the
dispute between Israel and the Palestinians, Americans were the most
sympathetic towards Israel of 15 nations surveyed. Among the U.S.
public, a 48%-plurality sympathized with Israel. Only 13% of
Americans sympathized with the Palestinians, while 4% said both sides
and 14% said neither side.
In surveys taken by the Pew Research Center for the People & the
Press, sympathy for Israel over the Palestinians has ranged from
highs of 48% in September 1997 and May 2006, to a low of 37% in July
2005. During this period the number of those saying they sympathized
most with the Palestinians in their dispute with Israel never rose
above the 21% recorded in September 1993.
Similarly in a January 2005 poll, 34% of Americans expressed the view
that “bringing about a permanent settlement between Israel and the
Arabs” should be the top U.S. foreign policy priority and another 42%
said it should be a priority though not the top priority. These
percentages have varied little in Pew polls dating back to 1993.
American attitudes toward U.S. policy in the Middle East have
registered occasional shifts. A Pew poll conducted in July 2004 found
a sharp decline in the percentage of Americans who said they regard
U.S. policies in the Middle East as fair: 35% judged them fair, down
from 47% in May 2003.
Still, in an August 2005 Pew survey, when asked whether “thinking
about the Mideast situation these days, do you think the U.S. should
take Israel’s side more, less or about as much as in the past?” 47%
of Americans said “as much” and an additional 16% said “more.”
By contrast, European countries are divided in their views. In the
2006 Pew Global Attitudes survey, a 29%-plurality in Great Britain
and 32% of Spaniards sided with the Palestinians over Israel. In
Germany and Russia, however, the publics sided with Israel (by
37%-18% in Germany and 21%-16% in Russia), while the French public
divided its sympathies evenly between Israel and the Palestinians
(38%-38%). In both Germany and France, sympathy with Israel had
increased significantly since 2004. In most Muslim nations surveyed,
however, vast majorities sided with the Palestinians, including 97%
of the public in Jordan.
Internationally, American policy is widely viewed as favoring Israel
excessively. In the May 2003 Global Attitudes survey, which covered
21 countries, pluralities or majorities in every country except the
United States expressed the view that American policies in the Middle
East favor Israel over the Palestinians too much.
Notably, this opinion of U.S. policy tilt was shared in Israel
itself. Nearly half (47%) of Israelis expressed the belief that the
U.S. favors Israel too much, while 38% said the policy is fair and
11% said the U.S. favors the Palestinians too much. But Israel was
the only country, aside from the U.S., in which a majority said that
U.S. policies lead to more stability in the region. Most Muslim
populations saw U.S. policies bringing less stability to the Middle
East, while people elsewhere were divided in their evaluations of the
impact of U.S. policies.
Similarly, a nine-country Pew survey in the spring of 2004, found
that among those who had doubts about the sincerity of U.S. motives
in the anti-terrorism effort, large percentages in predominantly
Muslim countries (ranging from 44% in Pakistan to 70% in Jordan) saw
protection of Israel as an important reason for U.S. actions.
The American public is not unaware that U.S. policies in the Middle
East have strengthened anti-American feelings around the world in
recent years. In a November 2005 poll, about four-in-ten (39%) of the
U.S. public said that U.S. support for Israel is a major reason that
people around the world are unhappy with the U.S. (though far more
fingered U.S. wealth and power and the war on terrorism as major
reasons). Another 39% saw it as a minor reason. Opinion leaders,
questioned in the same survey, were more emphatic on this point.
Fully 78% of members of the news media and 72% of security experts
and military leaders interviewed saw U.S. support for Israel as a
“major reason why there is discontent with the U.S. around the
world.” Only the Iraq war was designated by higher percentages of the
experts and leaders as a major source of global discomfort with the U.S.
As Andrew Kohut and Bruce Stokes describe in their book, America
Against the World, Americans’ attitudes toward Israel appear to be
influenced to no small extent by religion. In a July 2003 Pew survey,
fully 44% of Americans expressed their belief that God gave the land
that is now Israel to the Jewish people. In a Pew survey a year ago
in August 2005, 22% of Americans said that their religious beliefs
were the biggest influence in determining their support for the
Jewish state. And among Americans who sympathize with Israel, one-in-
three Americans said their sympathy arises from their religious beliefs.
That religious-based support is by no means confined to — or even
centered on — Americans of the Jewish faith. In the same 2003
survey, 36% of U.S. adults expressed the belief that creation of the
state of Israel is a step toward the Second Coming of Jesus.
That survey also finds that white Evangelicals are significantly more
pro-Israel than are Americans in general — with more than half of
saying they sympathize more with Israel in its dispute with the
Palestinians, compared with 40 percent of Americans overall who held
this view. Further, white Evangelicals who self-identified as
political conservatives were more than three times as likely to back
Israel as were Evangelicals who identified themselves as moderates.
However, in terms of support for Palestine, Evangelicals differed
little from the general American population, which, as noted earlier,
voices very weak support for the Palestinian cause.