ABSTRACT
To assess the trends in public support for Israel, this chapter examines survey data since the establishment of Israel. During this period, hundreds of surveys from different polling agencies have asked Americans for their views on events in the Middle East, their support for US policies in the region, their attitudes toward Arab and Israeli leaders, and so forth. During the 1990s, a large number of Americans viewed Egypt and Jordan favorably. By then these two countries, however, had ended their military conflict with Israel and strengthened their ties with the United States. The relationship between the two countries have been available only since 1977, when pollsters began routinely to ask Americans whether they saw Israel as a US ally, a friendly country, an unfriendly country, or a US enemy. American foreign policy toward Israel has always been influenced by global and regional processes as well as opportunities and restrictions imposed by internal domestic politics, greatly determined by public opinion.
