Over the past decade, US Democrats have been increasingly favoring PA Arabs over Israelis, until a Thursday Gallup poll showed that the gap has turned into a chasm, as 49% of Democrats prefer the Arab side in the conflict over 38% who stick with Israel. These are European numbers, folks.
Gallup announced: “Today’s attitudes reflect an 11-percentage-point increase over the past year in Democrats’ sympathy with the Palestinians. At the same time, the percentages sympathizing more with the Israelis (38%) and those not favoring a side (13%) have dipped to new lows.”
As a result, Gallup noted, “sympathy toward the Palestinians among US adults is at a new high of 31%, while the proportion not favoring a side is at a new low of 15%. The 54% of Americans sympathizing more with the Israelis is similar to last year’s 55% but is the lowest since 2005.”
Republican Jewish Coalition CEO responded on Thursday: “This is an extremely troubling trend. Many elected Democrats claim to be pro-Israel, but party activists and rank-and-file members are increasingly indifferent and even hostile to the Jewish state. It’s long past time for Democratic leaders to admit they have a problem that must be addressed to restore the historic bipartisan support for Israel.”
Not sure how that’s going to happen, with Israeli leftists campaigning vigorously across the US against the legitimacy of their government, and so many Jewish-American groups following suit.
Gallup’s bottom line had to do with generational differences: “Net sympathy toward Israel––the percentage sympathizing more with the Israelis than the Palestinians––is solidly positive among older generations, including baby boomers (+46 points), Generation X (+32) and the Silent Generation (+31). By contrast, millennials are now evenly divided, with 42% sympathizing more with the Palestinians and 40% with the Israelis, yielding a -2 net-Israel sympathy score.”
Gallup expects Generation Z (aged 18 to 22) to be closer to the millennials when their turn comes up to participate in public opinion polls.
With these figures, Israel can no longer rely on automatic support from the US. At this point, help would come from a red wave in the 2024 elections – but judging by the last red wave in 2022, maybe we shouldn’t raise our hopes too high.
