Poll: 74% Republicans, 33% Democrats sympathize with Israel over Palestinians
Largest gap found between Republicans, Democrats on Israeli-Palestinian issue
By JTAUpdated: JANUARY 13, 2017 12:01Israel US flags(photo credit: REUTERS)
The difference between the proportion of Republicans and Democrats who sympathize with Israel over the Palestinians is the largest it has been in surveys dating to 1978, according to a new report.While 74% of Republicans sympathize more with Israel than the Palestinians, the number is 33% for Democrats, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted Jan. 4-9 and published Thursday.Eleven percent of Republicans sympathize with the Palestinians over Israel, and 15% sympathize with neither, both sides or did not express a view. Among Democrats, those numbers were 31% and 35%, respectively.The findings represent the first time in surveys conducted by Pew that Democrats were about as likely to sympathize with the Palestinians as with Israel. Among “liberal Democrats,” 38% of respondents sympathized more with the Palestinians while 26% sympathized more with Israel.The Barack Obama presidency and Israel: How will it be remembered? Interview with Michael WilnerPartisan gap in Mideast sympathies is now wider than at any point since 1978The proportion of Republicans sympathizing more with Israel has risen since 1978 while it has fallen for Democrats. In that year, 49% of Republicans and 44% of Democrats sympathized more with the Jewish state, according to data from the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations obtained by Pew.A majority of Democrats, 60%, said there is a way for Israel and a Palestinian state to coexist peacefully, while less than half of Republicans, 44%, believed that to be possible, the new Pew survey found.A higher proportion of Republican and Republican-leaning respondents viewed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu favorably, 50%, than did their Democratic and Democratic-leaning counterparts, 21%.
