Americans are more pro-Israeli in their views today than they were 10 and 20 years ago, but they are also more polarized, according to a recent Gallup poll.
Pro-Israel Jews gathering in Washington D.C.
Photo: AP , AP
Sympathy for Israelis has increased substantially, and sympathy for Palestinians has increased slightly.
The percentage of Americans who are impartial regarding the Israeli-Palestinian dispute - either favoring both sides, favoring neither side or having no opinion - has decreased. A combined 78 percent of Americans favor either the Israelis or Palestinians, while 22% are impartial. Two years ago, 30% of Americans said they were impartial, while 14 years ago 43% said they were.
The random poll of 1,007 adults was carried out on February 4-7 and has a 3% margin of error.
The figures have varied slightly from year to year, but averaging all polls conducted from 1993-1999 and comparing these with all polls conducted since 2000, Gallup trends show that the average level of sympathy for Israelis rose from 41% to 53%, while the average sympathy for Palestinians rose from 13% to 16%.
Gallup polls from 1988-1993 had a slightly different method of recording no opinion responses, which makes them not directly comparable to polls conducted since 1993.
As Americans have moved out of the "no preference" columns, they have moved disproportionately into the pro-Israeli column, according to the Gallop polls.
