American public sympathy has declined for Israel and risen for the Arab nations since the beginning of the Palestinian uprising, according to a Roper poll conducted in April on behalf of the American Jewish Committee.
However, while sympathy for Israel declined by 11 percentage points since February 1987–from 48 percent to 37 percent — sympathy with the Arab nations increased by only three percentage points, from 8 percent polled in February 1987 to 11 percent in April 1988.
In addition, a March poll taken by the Roper Organization that asked an identical question about sympathies in the Middle East conflict indicates that sympathy with Israel may be on the upswing. The March poll showed sympathy for Israel as low as 30 percent and sympathy with the Arabs at 12 percent.
The latest poll is the fifth in an annual series conducted by Roper and AJCommittee that probes American public attitudes toward Israel and American Jews.
Four identical questions have been included since the first poll was conducted in 1984, allowing for what Dr. David Singer, director of AJCommittee’s Information and Research Services Department, called “a clear and consistent trend-line established over time.” The previous poll was taken in February 1987.
Roper interviewed 1,982 respondents — a representative national sample of men and women 18 and older — in their homes between April 16 and April 29.
Roper did not report a sampling error.
While a plurality of correspondents continue to believe that Israel is a reliable ally of the United States, the number dropped to 43 percent in April from 49 percent in February 1987. Still, Egypt and Jordan continue to be regarded as unreliable by a plurality of respondents, and Syria by a clear majority at 60 percent.
FEELINGS ABOUT UPRISING
Responding to specific questions about recent events, an almost equal number thought Israel’s response to the uprising was “too harsh” (28 percent) as felt it was “about right” (26 percent). Eleven percent felt it was “too lenient.”
A majority of those having an opinion — 36 percent — favored some form of Palestinian autonomy as a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
But 59 percent indicated they did not know which they preferred as a solution, saying they hadn’t followed the situation closely enough.
Asked about Israel’s refusal to negotiate with the Palestine Liberation Organization, 44 percent said they agreed with Israel and 27 percent disagreed.
On the matter of whether the news media have shown bias against Israel in their coverage of the uprising, 31 percent said the media had shown bias and 36 percent said they had not.
The current poll’s findings are slightly less upbeat than similar polls conducted recently by both the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith and the American Jewish Congress.
NO DOUBT IMAGE HAS CHANGED
Singer said that optimists can conclude from the poll that a decline in support for Israel is “not as bad as one might have imagined.”
However, Singer added, “anyone who wants to claim that Israel’s image has not changed in any way, those people are simply wrong.”
AJCommittee executive vice president Ira Silverman said in a statement that “recent events have clearly had an impact, but the basic core of American sympathy for Israel remains strong.”
The uprising clearly had no impact on the public’s attitudes toward American Jews, with the poll indicating little change over the generally positive perception found a year ago.
Twice as many respondents (48 percent) continue to disagree with the statement “Most American Jews are more loyal to Israel than to the United States” than agree with it (24 percent).
In addition, only eight percent of the respondents believe Jews have too much power on the United States, an increase of only one percent over the February 1987 figure. Arab interests (20 percent), Orientals (15 percent), blacks (14 percent) and the Catholic Church (9 percent) were all cited ahead of Jews as being too powerful.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
