Yesterday I covered American public opinion regarding Gaza based on material from two polls, by Gallup and Rasmussen. A new PEW poll confirms many of the previous conclusions, but also adds some interesting dimensions to the picture:

As to the situation in Gaza itself, more than three times as many people blame Hamas for the outbreak of violence there as blame Israel (by 41% to 12%). Nonetheless, just 40% approve of the military action Israel has taken in Gaza; 33% disapprove. Half of Americans say Israel’s response to the current conflict with Hamas has been about right, while 24% believe Israel has gone too far. These views also are almost identical to those expressed about Israel and Hezbollah in the summer of 2006.

Wondering who these people are, who know full well Hamas is to blame yet do not wholeheartedly approve of Israel’s response?

By nearly three-to-one (55% to 20%), Republicans approve of the military action Israel has taken in the Gaza Strip. Independents, by a smaller margin (44% to 29%), also approve of Israel’s actions. However, a plurality of Democrats (45%) disapproves of Israel’s military campaign, while just 29% express a positive opinion.

This is a sad and unambiguous reality: Most Democrats recognize Hamas’s responsibility for the crisis, do not seek greater U.S. involvement,  support Israel in general terms, but cannot bring themselves to approve of the Gaza operation. One question naturally arises from such inconsistent attitudes: To what line of action would all those Democrats subscribe? Not diplomacy mediated by the U.S. (71% are against “more” involvement); not military action by Israel (45% disapprove, while only 29% approve). Is there any other alternative they can think of that eluded the pollsters?

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 14th, 2009 at 4:56 PM and is filed under Contentions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.