Even as relations between the leaders of Israel and the United States reportedly deteriorate over disagreement about how to handle Iran's nuclear program and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at the Congress next week, a new Gallup poll shows that 70% of Americans now view Israel favorably and 62% say they sympathize more with the Israelis than the Palestinians in the Mideast conflict.
By contrast, 17% currently view the Palestinian Authority favorably, and 16% sympathize more with the Palestinians.
These attitudes, from Gallup's Feb. 8-11 World Affairs survey, are unchanged from a year ago, suggesting that neither the evident friction between President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, nor the 50-day conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip last year, greatly affected how each is perceived in the U.S.
In fact, Israel's public image in the U.S. has been fairly strong since 2005, with an average 68% of Americans viewing it favorably. But from 2000 to 2004, when hostilities between Israel and the Palestinians were running high, its favorable score averaged 60%.
A key reason Americans' sympathy for Israel has solidified at a sizable majority level is that Republicans' support for the Jewish state has increased considerably, rising from 53% in 2000 to more than 80% since 2014 -- with just 7% choosing the Palestinian Authority. A particularly large jump in GOP sympathy for Israel occurred in the first few years after 9/11 and at the start of the 2003 Iraq War.
Democrats' support for Israel has also risen since 2000, but not quite as sharply as Republicans'. Additionally, the percentage of Democrats sympathizing with Israel fell 10 points this year to 48%, possibly reflecting the tension between Obama and Netanyahu.
Prior to that, Israel's favorable rating was even more volatile, reflecting other Mideast events, including the 1991 Gulf War, when positive views of Israel soared after that country suffered Iraqi rocket attacks.
Gallup first measured Americans' impression of the Palestinian Authority, the official governing body of the Palestinians, in 2000, and since then, the percentage viewing it favorably has averaged 17%, diverging significantly on only a few occasions. One of these came in 2005, when favorable opinion of the Palestinians increased in polling conducted shortly after Mahmoud Abbas was elected to succeed Yasser Arafat as Palestinian president.