The Arab_Israeli Conflict

by Jonathan Rynhold

  56 “Americans Continue to Rate Iran as Greatest U.S. Enemy”; “Americans Continue to Tilt Pro-Israel,” Gallup, http://www.gallup.com/poll/153092/Americans-Continue-Tilt-Pro-Israel.aspx.

  57 Elizabeth Mendes, “Americans Continue to Tilt Pro-Israel: More view Israel Favorably than the Palestinian Authority or Iran,” Gallup, March 2, 2012, http://www.gallup.com/poll/153092/Americans-Continue-Tilt-Pro-Israel.aspx.

  58 U.S. Department of State, “State Sponsors of Terrorism Overview,” April 30, 2007, http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/crt/2006/82736.htm.

  59 Lydia Saad, “Canada Remains Americans’ Most Favored Nation,” Gallup, February 19, 2009, http://www.gallup.com/poll/115258/canada-remains-americans-favored-nation.aspx; “Country Ratings,” Gallup, http://www.gallup.com/poll/1624/Perceptions-Foreign-Countries.aspx; see also Harris polls on states regarded as unfriendly or enemies from the 1990s until 2006, which are available at “American Opinion on National Allies,” Jewish Virtual Library, http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/poally.html; Jeffrey Jones, “Americans Continue to Rate Iran as Greatest U.S. Enemy: North Korea, China Tie for Second; Mentions of Iraq Down Significantly,” Gallup, February 18, 2011, http://www.gallup.com/poll/146165/americans-continue-rate-iran-greatest-enemy.aspx.

  60 Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy.

  61 Eytan Gilboa, American Public Opinion toward Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict (Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 1987), 306–307.

  62 “Unfavorable Views of Both Jews and Muslims on the Increase in Europe,” Pew Research Global Attitudes Project, September 17, 2008, http://www.pewglobal.org/2008/09/17/unfavorable-views-of-jews-and-muslims-on-the-increase-in-europe/; “Muslim-Western Tensions Persist,” Pew Research Global Attitudes Project, July 21, 2011, http://www.pewglobal.org/files/2011/07/Pew-Global-Attitudes-Muslim-Western-Relations-FINAL-FOR-PRINT-July-21–2011.pdf.

  63 “Diminished Public Appetite for Military Force and Mideast Oil: Five Years Later,” Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, September 6, 2006, http://people-press.org/report/288/diminished-public-appetite-for-military-force-and-mideast-oil.

  64 “Views of Islam Remain Sharply Divided: Plurality Sees Islam as More Likely to Encourage Violence,” Pew Research and Public Life Project, September 9, 2004, http://www.pewforum.org/2004/09/09/views-of-islam-remain-sharply-divided/; “Public Expresses Mixed Views of Islam, Mormonism,” Pew Research and Public Life Project, September 25, 2007, http://www.pewforum.org/2007/09/26/public-expresses-mixed-views-of-islam-mormonism/.

  65 Frank Newport, “Complex But Hopeful Pattern of American Attitudes toward Muslims: Little Change in Opinions since 2002 Survey,” Gallup, March 23, 2006, http://www.gallup.com/poll/22021/complex-hopeful-pattern-american-attitudes-toward-muslims.aspx.

  66 Anthony Cordesman and Khalid R. Al-Rodhan, The Changing Dynamics of Energy in the Middle East (Westport, CT: Praeger Security International, 2006), 120, 125; Arab Human Development Reports, http://www.arab-hdr.org/.

  67 Cited in Kenneth Pollack, A Path Out of the Dessert: A Grand Strategy for America in the Middle East (New York: Random House, 2008), 33, 102.

  68 Robert Weisbrod and Richard Kazarian, Israel in the Black American Perspective (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1985); Melani McAlister, Epic Encounters: Culture, Media, and U.S. Interests in the Middle East, 1945–2000 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001), 84–115.

  69 Quoted in Richard T. Hughes, Myths America Lives By (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2003), 11.

  70 Martin Luther King Jr., “I Have a Dream,” speech delivered at the March on Washington, DC, August 28, 1963, Historic Documents, UShistory.org, http://www.ushistory.org/documents/i-have-a-dream.htm.

  71 Quoted in Seymour Martin Lipset, “The Socialism of Fools: The Left, the Jews, and Israel,” Encounter, 33, no. 6 (1969): 24.

  72 Arnold Forster, “American Radicals and Israel,” in Robert S. Wistrich, ed., The Left against Zion: Communism, Israel and the Middle East (London: Vallentine Mitchell, 1979), 221–225.

  73 Robert Ruby, “A Six-Day War: Its Aftermath in American Public Opinion,” Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, May 30, 2007, http://pewresearch.org/pubs/491/six-day-war; Gilboa, American Public Opinion toward Israel, 20–21.

  74 Mitchell Bard, “Public Opinion toward Israel,” Jewish Virtual Library, http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/American_attitudes_toward_Israel.html; “Gallup Polls on American Sympathy oward Israel and the Arabs/Palestinians,” Jewish Virtual Library, http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/gallup.html.

  75 Gilboa, American Public Opinion toward Israel, 181–201; Gallup polls from 1994 to 2002, cited in “American Attitudes toward Yasser Arafat,” Jewish Virtual Library, http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/arafatpo.html.

  76 Ruby, “A Six-Day War”; Gilboa, American Public Opinion toward Israel, 181–183.

  77 Ruby, “A Six-Day War.”

  78 Jodie Allen and Alec Tyson, “The U.S. Public’s Pro-Israel History,” Pew Research Center, July 19, 2006, http://www.pewresearch.org/pubs/39/the-us-publics-pro-israel-history.

  79 Lydia Saad, “Support for Israel in U.S. at 63%, Near Record High,” Gallup, February 24, 2010, http://www.gallup.com/poll/126155/Support-Israel-Near-Record-High.aspx?CSTS=alert.

  80 Ibid.

  81 Lydia Saad, “Americans’ Support for Israel Unchanged Since Gaza Conflict: Most Americans Sympathize with Israel, View It Favorably,” Gallup, March 3, 2009, http://www.gallup.com/poll/116308/Americans-Support-Israel-Unchanged-Gaza-Conflict.aspx.

  82 See several NBC/Wall Street Journal polls taken between July and December 1991 and several Harris polls taken in 1997 and 1998, available at “American Public Opinion Polls: Attitudes toward the Peace Process (1991–1999),” Jewish Virtual Library, http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/popeace1.html.

  83 Polls available at PollingReport.com, http://www.pollingreport.com/israel3.htm; and “American Public Opinion Polls: Attitudes toward the Peace Process (2000–2002),” Jewish Virtual Library, http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/popeace2.html.

  84 “Modest Backing for Israel in Gaza Crisis.” Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, January 13, 2009,http://www.people-press.org/2009/01/13/modest-backing-for-israel-in-gaza-crisis/.

  85 TIP Public Opinion Strategies, September 9, 11, 12, 2010. See “New Poll Finds Strong Support of Israel among Americans,” The Israel Project, http://www.kintera.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=ewJXKcOUJlIaG&b=7717029&ct=11142797#.VAYuX8VdWSo.

  86 Over the rest of the decade, support for a Palestinian state fell back to 51 percent, while opposition increased to 29 percent. Lydia Saad, “Americans Remain Skeptical about Middle East Peace,” Gallup, June 4, 2009, http://www.gallup.com/poll/120728/americans-remain-skeptical-middle-east-peace.aspx.

  87 Polls available at “American Public Opinion Polls: Views on Palestinian Statehood,” Jewish Virtual Library, http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/popalhome.html.

  88 “The ADL 2005 Survey of American Attitudes Toward Israel and the Middle East,” Anti-Defamation League, http://archive.adl.org/israel/us_israel_200503_files/frame.html; see also the 2007, 2009, and 2011 surveys by the ADL, available at http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/popalhome.html.

  89 PIPA survey, May 8, 2002, cited in “American Public Opinion Polls: Attitudes toward the Peace Process (2000–2002)”; Constrained Internationalism.

  90 Louis Harris, “Pro-Israel Support Still Strong,” The Harris Survey, September 22, 1991; Kurt Holden, “Public Opinion: Clinton’s Tilt toward Israel Losing Public Opinion Support,” Washington Report on Middle East Affairs (June–July 1997), 50–54; see also numerous polls available at “American Public Opinion Polls: Attitudes Regarding Jerusalem,” Jewish Virtual Library, http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/pousjeru.html; see also polls conducted by Harris in 2002, available at PollingReport.com, http://www.polling
report.com/israel2.htm; see also the poll conducted by Greenberg Quinlin Rosner Research for the Israel Project in December 2010.

  91 Middle East Gallup Polls, http://www.gallup.com/poll/1639/middle-east.aspx; “American Polls: American Attitudes toward the Peace Process,” Jewish Virtual Library, http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/popeace.html; Constrained Internationalism.

  92 Guth and Kenan, “Religious Factors and American Public Support for Israel: 1992–2008.”

  93 Polls available at PollingReport.com, http://www.pollingreport.com/israel3.htm.

  94 “Modest Backing for Israel in Gaza Crisis.”

  95 Benjamin Phillips, Eszter Lengyel, and Leonard Saxe, American Attitudes toward Israel (Waltham, MA: Brandeis University, Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies, 2002), 64.

  96 USA Today, August 1991, Time/CNN, August 1991, Wall Street Journal/NBC News, April 5–7, 2002; Newsweek polls from 2001 and 2002, all cited in “American Polls: American Attitudes toward the Peace Process.”

  97 Gallup polls 2007, 2008, 2013, available at “Middle East,” Gallup, http://www.gallup.com/poll/1639/middle-east.aspx; Lydia Saad, “Americans Favor More Pressure on Palestinians than Israelis,” Gallup, March 18, 2013, http://www.gallup.com/poll/161405/americans-favor-pressure-palestinians-israelis.aspx.

  98 The data for the U.S. is available by clicking on the “View methodology, full question results, and trend data” link at http://www.gallup.com/poll152735/Americans-Give-Record-High-Ratings-Several-Allies.aspx. The 2011 data from the UK and France is taken from surveys by Greenberg Rosner Quinlin Research for the Israel Project: “Opinions on Israeli-Palestinian Peace Talks in UK/France conducted April 2011,” http://www.theisraelproject.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=hsJPK0PIJpH&b=689705&ct=9357717 (no longer available). The data for Spain in 2010 is taken from a DYM Institute survey undertaken for Casa Sefarad Israel, http://www.sefarad-israel.es/otros550125_inf_rev%207-9.pdf (no longer available). The data for Europe 2002–2007 comes from surveys conducting for the Anti-Defamation League available in “Attitudes toward Jews, Israel and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in Ten European Countries,” April 2004, http://archive.adl.org/anti_semitism/european_attitudes_april_2004.pdf.

  99 “Despite Their Wide Differences, Many Israelis and Palestinians Want Bigger Role for Obama in Resolving Conflict,” Pew Research Global Attitudes Project, May 9, 2013, http://www.pewglobal.org/2013/05/09/despite-their-wide-differences-many-israelis-and-palestinians-want-bigger-role-for-obama-in-resolving-conflict/; “Americans and Europeans Differ Widely on Foreign Policy Issues,” Pew Research Global Attitudes Project, April 17, 2002, http://www.pewglobal.org/2002/04/17/americans-and-europeans-differ-widely-on-foreign-policy-issues/; “America’s Image Slips, But Allies Share U.S. Concerns over Iran, Hamas,” Pew Research Global Attitudes Project, June 13, 2006, http://www.pewglobal.org/reports/display.php?ReportID=252; “Ideological Gaps over Israel on Both Sides of Atlantic,” Pew Research Global Attitudes Project.

  100 Penn Schoen Berland and First International Resources, January 25 and February 17, 2001, available at “American Public Opinion Polls: Attitudes toward the Peace Process (2000–2002)”; “American Attitudes toward the Middle East,” Anti-Defamation League, December 2003, http://www.adl.org/Israel/am_attitudes_2003/am_attitudes_2003.pdf.

  101 “Modest Backing for Israel in Gaza Crisis.”

  102 Yougov Poll for the Daily Telegraph, July 24–26, 2006, http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/today_uk_import/YG-Archives-pol-dTel-ConflictLebanon-060728.pdf; Yougov Poll for the Jewish Chronicle, January 28–29, 2009 .

  103 “‘American Attitudes toward the Middle East,” Anti-Defamation League, October 2009, http://www.adl.org/Israel/poll_israel2009/poll_israel2009.pdf.

  104 Populus Polls in the UK opinion, 2010 (unpublished poll).

  105 On opinion in the UK and France, see polls by Greenberg Quinlin Rosner for the Israel Project: “As Israeli PM Ariel Sharon Heads to France, Polls Show that Europeans and Americans Support Israel’s Plan to Withdraw from Gaza and Parts of West Bank,” June 17–21 2005, and May 2010 (unpublished poll), http://www.theisraelproject.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=hsJPK0PIJpH&b=5708939&ct=7791679; “New European Polling Shows Huge Drop in Support for Palestinians,” June 6, 2006, http://www.theisraelproject.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=hsJPK0PIJpH&b=5708939&ct=7791659; “British Attitudes toward Israel and the Palestinians,” May 2010 (unpublished); see also “Ten Years of British Attitudes toward the Middle East Conflict,” Populus Polling Report, August 2010 (unpublished).

  106 “Transatlantic Trends 2011,” German Marshall Fund, http://www.gmfus.org/publications_/TT/TT2011_final_web.pdf.

  107 Eurobarometer Survey, conducted by Taylor Nelson Sofres / EOS Gallup Europe, October 8–16 2003; “‘American Attitudes toward the Middle East,” Anti-Defamation League, December 2003.

  108 “The American-Western European Values Gap: American Exceptionalism Subsides,” Pew Research Global Attitudes Project, November 17, 2011, http://www.pewglobal.org/2011/11/17/the-american-western-european-values-gap/; Peter Ford, “What Place for God in Europe?” Christian Science Monitor, February 22, 2005.

  109 Gertrude Himmelfarb, The People of the Book: Philosemitism in England from Cromwell to Churchill (New York: Encounter, 2011), chapter 5; Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword: England and Palestine from the Bronze Age to Balfour (New York: New York University Press, 1956).

  110 On Polish attitudes see “Unfavorable Views of Both Jews and Muslims on the Increase in Europe,” Pew Research Global Attitudes Project; “Worldviews 2002 European Public Opinion and Foreign Policy,” Chicago Council on Global Affairs, 10, http://www.thechicagocouncil.org/UserFiles/File/POS_Topline%20Reports/POS%202002/2002_Europe_Report.pdf.; “Ideological Gaps over Israel on Both Sides of Atlantic,” Pew Research Global Attitudes Project, January 29, 2009, http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1097/america-europe-ideological-gaps-over-israel.

  111 Anatol Lieven, America, Right or Wrong: An Anatomy of American Nationalism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 19; Lipset, American Exceptionalism, 51.

  112 “Two Decades after the Wall’s Fall,” Pew Research Global Attitudes Project, November 2, 2009, 58, http://www.pewglobal.org/files/2009/11/Pew-Global-Attitudes-2009-Pulse-of-Europe-Report-Nov-2-1030am-NOT-EMBARGOED.pdf

  113 “Transatlantic Trends 2011.”

  114 On Holocaust remembrance in Europe see Elisabeth Kuebler, “Holocaust Remembrance in the Council of Europe: Deplorable Victims and Evil Ideologies without Perpetrators,” Jewish Political Studies Review 22, no. 3–4 (Fall 2010). On the way the Holocaust is interpreted in Europe to inform an anti-Israeli position, see Alain Finkielkraut, “The Religion of Humanity and the Sin of the Jews,” Azure 21 (Summer 2005).

  115 See polls conducted by the Anti-Defamation League: “Attitudes toward Jews in Twelve European Countries,” May 2005, http://www.adl.org/anti_semitism/european_attitudes_may_2005.pdf; “Attitudes toward Jews and the Middle East in Six European Countries,” July 2007, http://www.adl.org/anti_semitism/European_Attitudes_Survey_July_2007.pdf; “Attitudes toward Jews and the Middle East in Five European Countries,” May 2007, http://www.adl.org/anti_semitism/European_Attitudes_Survey_May_2007.pdf; “Attitudes toward Jews in Seven European Countries,” February 2009, http://www.adl.org/Public%20ADL%20Anti-Semitism%20Presentation%20February%202009%20_3_.pdf;

  Marttila Strategies, “A Survey Of American Attitudes toward Jews in America,” October 2011, http://www.adl.org/anti_semitism_domestic/ADL-2011-Anti-Semitism_Presentation.pdf.

  116 Lipset, American Exceptionalism, 35, 81–88; Russell Dalton, Citizen Politics: Public Opinion and Political Parties in Advanced Industrial Democracies, 5th ed. (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2008), 85, 116. On the relative liberalism of the American Left vis-à-vis Europe, see Paul Berman, A Tale of Two Utopias: The Political Journey of the Generation of 1968 (New York: W. W. Norton, 1996), 49–52.

  117 Mark Visser et al., “Support for Radical Left Ideologies in Euro
pe,” European Journal of Political Research 53, no. 3 (August 2014): 541–558.

  118 Jonathan Rynhold and Jonathan Spyer, “British Policy in the Arab-Israeli Arena, 1973–2004,” British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 34, no. 2 (2007).

  119 “Unfavorable Views of Both Jews and Muslims on the Increase in Europe,” Pew Research Global Attitudes Project.