New polls released just ahead of President Obama’s trip to Israel this week find that Americans continue to sympathize more with Israel than with the Palestinians. But few want the United States to take a leading role in resolving the conflict there, and most do not anticipate that the trip will do much to ease regional tensions.
In an ABC News/Washington Post poll, 55 percent of the public said their sympathies were more with Israel, while just 9 percent said they were more with the Palestinian Authority. The rest said they sided with neither or both, or were undecided. A Pew Research Center poll found similar results, with Americans far more likely to sympathize with Israel in the dispute than with the Palestinians, 49 percent to 12 percent.
Sympathies with Israel peak among Republicans, evangelical white Protestants and older Americans.
More Americans in the ABC/Post poll also said that the Obama administration had put too little pressure on the Palestinian Authority than too much. They were closely divided on whether the administration had pressured Israel too much or too little. About 4 in 10 Americans said that the Obama administration had put the right amount of pressure on each side.
And a Gallup poll conducted last month found that Americans were much more likely to say the United States should put more pressure on the Palestinians to make necessary compromises to resolve the conflict (48 percent said so), rather than on the Israelis (25 percent said so).
At the same time, though, a wide majority of Americans in the ABC/Post poll - about 7 in 10 - wanted to leave resolution of the conflict to the Israelis and Palestinians themselves, while just a quarter said the United States should take the leading role in trying to arrange a peace settlement. Fewer than half of Americans (44 percent) in the Gallup poll said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was a critical threat to vital United States interests, substantially fewer than the roughly 8 in 10 who said so about the development of nuclear weapons by Iran or by North Korea, or about international terrorism.
All told, the public does not think much will come of the president’s trip. In a new McClatchy-Marist poll, two-thirds of voters said the president’s visit would not make a difference in easing tensions in the region. And Americans remain pessimistic as to whether Israel and the Arab nations will ever be able to settle their difference and live in peace - in a new CNN/ORC International poll, two-thirds thought not.
Each national poll was conducted by telephone, including landlines and cellphones. The ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted March 7-10 among 1,001 adults and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. The Pew poll was conducted March 13-17 among 1,501 adults and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. The Gallup poll was conducted Feb. 7-10 among 1,015 adults and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. The McClatchy-Marist poll was conducted March 4-7 among 1,068 registered voters and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. The CNN/ORC International poll was conducted March 15-17 among 1,021 adults and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
