In a new poll published by Pew, The famous polling agency decided to change the line of questioning they use in regards to the Israeli-Arab conflict. While in the past the agency would ask the question "In the dispute between Israel and the Palestinians, which side do you sympathize with more, Israel or the Palestinians" the polling agency has decided to start differentiating between the government and the people of Israel.
The agency noted that the original question had some issues " It presented a choice of sympathies between a country (Israel) and a people (the Palestinians). In addition, it did not include response options for those who may have sympathy for both Israel and the Palestinians, or for neither side. Since this question was first asked, relatively large shares of Americans have volunteered that they sympathized with both Israel and the Palestinians or neither one, while many others did not express an opinion."
As such, this year Pew in its poll, Pew asked 10,523 adults questions that differentiated between the people and respective governments of the two groups. The polls results showed that while "a substantial majority of Americans (64%) say they have a favorable opinion of the Israeli people, fewer than half (41%) have a favorable view of the Israeli government; a larger share (51%) views the government unfavorably." While Americans have a poor view of the Israeli government, they have an even poorer view of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas governments with only 19% have a favorable opinion of the two groups. At the same time, nearly half of Americans or 46% have a favorable view of Palestinian people.
Following current trends, when breaking down the numbers along party lines the poll found that Republicans have a more favorable image of Israeli people (77%) and the Israeli government (61%) than Democrats who while still having a positive view of Israeli people (57%) have an extremely negative view of the government (26%).