Two recent polls have shown that while less Americans see themselves as pro-Israel, more Americans support coming to Israel's aid if Iran attacks it.
A recent Rasmussen poll found that 49 percent of Americans thought the U.S. should help Israel if the Jewish state attacks Iran’s nuclear facilities. 37 percent said the the United States should do nothing while 2 percent believed the U.S. should help Iran.
Last summer, just 42 percent of Americans said their country should help Israel while 46 percent said it should do nothing.
Israel support down or up?
These poll results seem to contradict another poll, which was conducted for The Israel Project and leaked to the media in an unofficial manner earlier this month. The poll found that 49 percent of American voters called themselves supporters of Israel, down a whopping 20 points from 69 percent last September.
That poll was conducted among 800 registered voters by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, JTA reported. It found that 44 percent of voters thought the United States should support Israel, down from 69 percent a year ago. Five percent of voters believed the United States should support the Palestinians, and 32 percent were undecided.
One way to reconcile the two polls would be to say that while less Americans identify themselves as pro-Israel in general, the American public has become more aware of the Iranian threat and would want the U.S. to help Israel if push came to shove between it and the Islamist country.
Support of Israel has fluctuated in past years as well: according to the JTA report, the number of Israel supporters hit a low of 38 percent immediately following the 2005 Disengagement from Gaza.
Americans more pessimistic on PA Peace
Recent polls have also found that many Americans and Israelis think peace between the Jewish State and the Palestinian Authority is unlikely any time soon.
According to a Rasmussen poll released Tuesday, 74 percent of Americans think it unlikely there will be a lasting peace between Israel and the PA in the next 10 years. These numbers are even lower than those among Israeli Jews: in the Peace Index poll released earlier in the month by Tel Aviv University, 67.5 percent of Jewish Israelis agree that peace with the PA is an unlikely prospect.
Eighty-one percent of Americans said that PA leaders must recognize Israel’s right to exist. Only seven percent disagreed with this statement. On the other hand, only 27 percent believed it was even somewhat likely PA leaders would make such a concession.
35 percent of Americans thought President Obama was not supportive enough of Israel, 48 percent thought the U.S. President’s Israel policy was just about right, and 10 percent said he was too supportive of the Jewish state.
6 of 10 Jewish Israelis distrust Obama
According to the Peace Index poll, 55.1 percent of Jewish Israelis think Obama’s Israel policy is pro-Arab. On the other hand, 31.3 percent say the U.S. President’s policy is neutral, and only 5.4 percent thought it is pro-Israeli. Furthermore, 59.8 percent said they do not trust Obama, although 37.7 percent said they did. The ratio of Jewish Israelis who distrust Obama vs. those who trust him is therefore roughly 3:2.
A slight majority -- 51.6 percent -- of Jewish Israelis were opposed to the "two-state solution" if it means significant concessions, while only 41.2 approved. When asked if Judea and Samaria should be evacuated in return for a peace agreement with the Palestinian Authority, 53.2 percent were opposed while 30.9 percent approved.