Drawing on several polls about perceptions of the Israel-Palestinian conflict published in 2021 and 2022, Elliott Abrams reaches some sobering conclusions:
In late May, the Pew Research Center reported again on support for Israel in the United States and once again found a significant partisan gap.
The report . . . states that “Republicans are far more likely than Democrats to view the Israeli people favorably and the Palestinian people unfavorably (44 percent vs. 12 percent).” Pew also found that “Republicans and those who lean to the GOP are much more likely to express a favorable view of the Israeli people (78 percent) than of the Palestinian people (37 percent). Among Democrats and Democratic-leaners, on the other hand, similar shares express favorable views toward both groups (60 percent and 64 percent, respectively).”
In each poll the numbers differ but the conclusion is the same: Republicans are significantly more supportive than Democrats of Israel, while Democrats are now more sympathetic to Palestinians. Whether this is good or bad news depends, of course, on one’s own views of the Middle East and one’s own partisan leanings. But it is certainly a message to pro-Israel Democrats, and to the pro-Israel community, that whatever is being done to maintain—or better, to recover—Democratic support for Israel is not working.
Read more on Pressure Points: https://www.cfr.org/blog/partisan-gap-support-israel-seems-permanent