ELECTRONIC INTIFADA – If you look at the headline numbers, Israel should not have too much to worry about: 54 percent of Americans sympathize more with Israel, while 19 percent sympathize more with the Palestinians.
About 17 percent say they stand with neither or equally with both.
Strong public support is seen by Israel backers as an essential guarantee that the US will remain Israel’s biggest financier and arms supplier long into the future.
According to Pew, the number of Americans sympathizing with the Palestinians has gone up by five percentage points since July 2014 – the beginning of Israel’s 51-day assault on Gazathat killed more than 2,200 people, including 551 children.
Pew calls that a “modest” increase – though across the country it would represent millions of people changing their views.
But dig deeper into the findings and it is apparent that Israel’s support is eroding in key sectors of the US population.
The young are the hope as their minds are more open.