Gee, Mearsheimer, looks like you were wrong about American attitudes on Israel—again: Americans like Israel even more since the war with Hizbullah. What a surprise—I thought W&M said Americans were siding with the terrorists. I guess they must have lied about the data again.
Americans’ view of Israel has become even more positive since the recent war between the Jewish state and Hezbollah forces, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released today. Americans see the Palestinians and Iran, both of whom are strong Hezbollah allies, as slightly less friendly to the United States than they were in a June 12 poll by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University. In addition, Syria, another Hezbollah benefactor, is viewed by the U.S. public more negatively than any country other than North Korea and Iran.
The poll of 1,080 American voters gives respondents the names of 17 countries or institutions and asks them to rate each on a scale of 0 -100 according to “how friendly or unfriendly do you think” each nation or group is to the United States.
The mean scores for each nation or institution:
1) England – 78.3
2) Canada – 71.7
3) Israel – 65.9
4) India – 53.4
5) Mexico – 51.4
6) United Nations – 49.2
7) Russia – 45.5
8) France – 43.2
9) China – 39
10) Saudi Arabia – 38.2
11) Venezuela – 35.9
12) Iraq – 27.7
13) Cuba – 24
14) Palestinian Government – 22.8
15) Syria – 21.7
16) North Korea – 15
17) Iran – 13.9
Wow, the PA ranks only slightly above Iran. How’s that for attracting hearts and minds, hm? And speaking of hearts and minds:
Saudi Arabia, which condemned the original Hezbollah attack, dropped slightly from 39.5 in June to 38.2.
“Although the changes in each case are modest, together it is reasonable to assume that they show the recent fighting increased Americans’ sympathies toward Israel and increased the animosity in the United States toward Israel’s enemies,” said Brown.
Apparently, all that Saudi money spent on all those anti-Israel college think-tanks isn’t doing the job they’d hoped it would do. You can’t fool all of the people, etc.
In response to W-M talk before CAIR someone did write (I forget which blogger)that the Saudi’s are getting their money’s worth. Apparently, though, the influence mostly stops as it leaves the ivy covered walls.
I find myself wondering where Australia and Italy would rank, especially the Aussies. I bet they’d be way, way up there.
J.