Gallup’s Report on Israel Makes the Case for Zion

The finding by Gallup that Americans sympathize with Palestinian Arabs more than with Israelis by a margin of 41 percent to 36 percent is a bracing result. The flip, Gallop says, “contrasts with a clear lead for the Israelis only a year ago and larger leads over the prior 24 years.” Between 2001 and 2018, Israelis were favored by an average of 43 points. The pundit Matthew Yglesias reckons that “it’s over for pro-Israel politics once today’s seniors pass along.”Yet the whole point of Zionism — and now Zion — is that Jewish survival is not a popularity contest. The polls also show that the decline in support for Israel is not evenly distributed. Among Democrats, a shocking 65 percent favor the Palestinian Arabs and only 17 percent back the Israelis. That asymmetry is reversed among Republicans, with seven in ten backing Israel and only 13 percent behind the Palestinians. The GOP is overwhelmingly pro-Israel.Sympathy for the Palestinian cause is spreading, Gallup finds, with remarkable rapidity among Independents and the young. Shifts in sentiment trace back to 2020 but accelerated following Hamas’s attack at Israel on October 7, 2023. Sympathies deepened for Palestinians and waned for Israelis as the war in Gaza wore on and as Americans’ television and social media filled with images of suffering and destruction in the Strip. While a trend seems clear, it is far from set in stone. The outcome of the Iran crisis, for one, could change the trajectory. Gadflies on the left and right claim that only Israel will benefit from a war with the “Death to America” mullahs. Yet a quick and decisive American-Israeli operation that ends in the removal of the Mideast’s most malign player and suffers only a small number of American casualties could raise sympathy for the Jewish state. Israel, in any event, is no stranger to the tides of public opinion. The Jewish state has weathered waves of public scrutiny dating back to its establishment in 1948. The persecution of the Jewish people stretches back centuries further still. A slump in American sympathy, however striking, is unlikely to spell doom for the Jewish state. Prime Minister Netanyahu is making strides toward reducing Israel’s reliance on American security assistance. In December, Mr. Netanyahu announced his intention not to seek full renewal of the current $3.8 billion annual security aid package with America, set to expire in 2028. “I want to reduce military aid within the next 10 years.” He answered “yes” when asked if full independence was the goal. Such autonomy would free Israel from the vicissitudes of American sentiment — and the possibly fickle foreign policy of whoever next holds the White House.

Gallup’s Report on Israel Makes the Case for Zion

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