The American public holds vastly different opinions of Israeli society and the Israeli government, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center published Wednesday, with 64% holding favorable views of the people but only 41% holding favorable views of their elected leaders.
Americans' evaluations of Palestinian society and government followed a similar trend. While 46% held favorable views of the Palestinian people, only 19% had a positive impression of their government.
It is not clear how respondents reconciled the fragmented nature of the Palestinian government -- with the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority government at loggerheads with the Islamist Hamas terrorist group that runs a rival administration in the Gaza Strip.
The survey, which polled 10,523 adult respondents between April 1 and April 15, also found a significant partisan divide on attitudes towards both Israelis and Palestinians.
Seventy-seven percent of Republicans viewed Israelis favorably as opposed to 57% of Democrats. This divide was even more pronounced when it came to evaluations of the Israeli government, with more than twice as many Republicans, 61%, hold favorable views of the Israeli government, than Democrats, 26% of which said they held positive views of the government in Jerusalem.
At 73%, evangelical Christians, who represent a considerable force in the Republican voter-base, were most likely to hold positive views of the Israeli government, the Pew Research Center found.
Opinions towards the Palestinian people, meanwhile, were far more favorable among Democrats, at 58%, than among Republicans, at 32%. While members of both parties said they held negative views of the Palestinian government, Republicans, at 81%, were more likely to feel this way than Democrats, 65% of whom shared this sentiment.
The release of the survey's findings comes as U.S.-Israel relations are an all-time high under Republican U.S. President Donald Trump, and US-Palestinian relations at an all-time low.
Since taking office, Trump has implemented a number of pro-Israel moves, including recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's official capital and Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.
The moves were accompanied by the Trump administration's slashing of the United States' once generous aid programs to the Palestinians in a bid to pressure them to play ball on the long-awaited US peace plan, which Palestinians believe will be heavily biased towards Israel.
According to the Pew survey, the vast majority of Republicans, 79%, believe Trump is "striking the right balance" on the Israeli-Palestinian issue. Among Democrats, however, 53% say Trump is "favoring the Israelis too much."
While support for Israel in U.S. politics has historically been bipartisan, a new wave of young progressive Democrats vocally critical of Israel's policies have raised concerns of a growing divide in support for the Jewish state.
This article was originally published by i24NEWS. Read more at https://www.i24news.tv/en.
