Overall, 42 percent of Americans support Israel, while only 10 percent support the Palestinians.
Yet about the same amount surveyed say they remain neutral in the conflict — favoring neither side or backing both equally — a marked erosion of longstanding support for Israel.
In addition, most want the Bush administration to pressure both Israel and the Palestinians to negotiate, and they overwhelmingly support a two-state solution to the Mideast conflict — even if it includes the “right of return” for Palestinians to Israel.
These assessments arise from a series of surveys last month that show support for Israel slipping from 50 percent less than a year ago, turning instead to apathy or disgust with violence by both sides.
“The moral edge that Israel has always enjoyed is that it has always appeared strongly desirous of peace and generally willing to accept the partition of the land of Israel,” said Steven Cohen, professor at the Melton Centre at Hebrew University. “Insofar as we don’t look like we are committed to peace or interested in a two-state solution, we suffer in the eyes of public opinion.”
In the surveys, taken by Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg and funded by several Jewish organizations and private donors, many Americans said the conflict seems “hopeless.” They characterize it as a “holy war” that has endured for thousands of years and could last centuries more without peace.
The Jewish organizations hope to fight that ambivalence with a multimillion-dollar national ad campaign emphasizing Israeli democracy and its shared values with the United States, its willingness to make peace and its importance as a strategic American ally.
The forces behind what’s being called the Israel PR Project are Democratic political consultant Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, Republican strategist Frank Luntz and Greenberg. They’re hoping to convince American Jewish organizations — and the Israeli government — to adapt their communications strategy.
The executive director of the American Jewish Committee, David Harris, said the organization is prepared to make “a significant commitment” in funding the centerpiece of the PR campaign, a series of upcoming national ads on CNN, Fox News and MSNBC.
“The time for talking about the problem has come to an end, and the time for seeking a solution is long overdue,” Harris said. TV is “where the battleground really is. The way to shape it is with ads.”
The AJCommittee was the first to sign onto the new strategy. Others include the United Jewish Communities and Israel 21C, a group of pro-Israel high-tech entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley.
So far the AJCommittee has supplied a portion of the $700,000 required for the initial polling and for cable TV ads that have run recently in the Washington area. The rest of the money has come from private family foundations and donors, with Mizrahi, who initiated the project, bearing the initial $50,000 tab.
Twice this month, the AJCommittee and the pollsters sought to win wider support for the new strategy in meetings with leaders of Jewish groups, including the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the American Jewish Congress, Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, the American Zionist Movement and CAMERA, the media watchdog group.
They also met in Jerusalem in recent weeks with senior Israeli officials, including Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, army officials, government spokespeople and academics. More meetings are being planned with groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel lobby.
The mid-July surveys measure attitudes about Israel and the Palestinians among five different groups: “opinion elites,” general voters, Jews, African-Americans and college students.
Asked where their sympathies lie, 42 percent of opinion leaders did not choose any side, while 41 percent said Israel. African-Americans, college students and registered voters tend to be more negative about Israel. Only 37 percent support U.S. military intervention if Israel is attacked, compared to 65 percent among opinion leaders.