Support for Israel grew by four percentage points among U.S. Democrats despite the debate over the Iran nuclear deal in 2015.
According to a new Gallup poll released on Monday, 53 percent of Democrats sympathize with Israel in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, up from 49 percent in the 2015 poll. In comparison, 79 percent of Republicans sympathize with Israel over the Palestinians.
Overall, Americans’ views about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remained steady over the past year, with 62 percent of Americans saying their sympathies lie more with the Israelis and 15 percent favoring the Palestinians. About one in four continue to be neutral, including 9 percent who sympathize with neither side and 3 percent who sympathize with both.
Separately, Gallup measured Americans’ favorability toward Israel and the Palestinian Authority individually. The results are similar to the “sympathies” split, with 71 percent of Americans holding a very or mostly favorable view of Israel, versus 19 percent viewing the Palestinian Authority favorably.
“Americans have become more sympathetic toward Israel over the past 15 years, and that more pro-Israel view held steady in the past year,” Gallup noted. “While Republicans show extraordinarily high support for Israel — an affinity evident at the Republican presidential debate in Houston last week, where every candidate professed his strong support for the Jewish state — the majority of Democrats and independents are also on the same page.”
The Republican presidential frontrunner, Donald Trump, suggested last week that he would be “neutral” on Israel, while Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton vowed to warm relations with the Israeli government and enhance the U.S. strategic partnership with Israel.
