<http://www.gallup.com/poll/releases/pr020417.asp>
POLL ANALYSES April 17, 2002
Republicans, Conservatives More Supportive of Israelis than Democrats, Liberals Pattern has persisted for at least the past decade
by David W. Moore
GALLUP NEWS SERVICE
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PRINCETON, NJ -- Recently some news commentators have noted that the politics and conflict in the Middle East have made strange bedfellows. In the current confrontation between the Israelis and the Palestinians, American Jews are rallying support for Israel and are being supported most strongly, it appears, by conservatives and Republicans. Since Jews are overwhelmingly liberal and Democratic -- they voted four-to-one for Gore over Bush in the last presidential election -- this expression of support across the ideological divide is perceived by some commentators as unusual. But an analysis of Gallup polls over the past decade and a half suggests that conservatives and Republicans in this country have persistently provided at least more verbal support for Israel than have Democrats and liberals.
Since 1988, when Gallup first asked Americans if their sympathies lay more with the Israelis or with the Palestinian Arabs, more Americans have sided with the Israelis than with the Palestinians. The percentages have varied, but the margin in favor of the Israelis has never fallen below 22 percentage points, while it reached a high of 48 points in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. In the last 14 years, Republicans have always expressed relatively more sympathy for the Israelis over the Palestinians than have the Democrats. Similarly, the margin of support for Israelis has always been higher among conservatives than among liberals.
Middle East Sympathies Compared by Party
When Gallup first asked the question about people's sympathies in 1988, Republicans chose the Israelis by a margin of 43% to 15% -- a 28-point difference. Democrats expressed the same preference, although by a slightly smaller margin of 37% to 13% -- a 24-point difference. Five years later, in September 1993, the Israeli advantage among Republicans had climbed to 37 percentage points (49% to 12%), while among Democrats it had declined to 18 points (37% to 19%). Throughout the 1990s, Republicans consistently gave larger margins of support to the Israelis over the Palestinians than did the Democrats. Independents most often gave somewhat smaller margins of support than Democrats.
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