American Evangelicals and Israel
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Recent surveys by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life
demonstrate that American evangelical Protestants have distinctive — and
highly positive — attitudes towards the state of Israel. This group is
important both because it constitutes a large share of the American
population — about 26% — and because it provided President George W. Bush
with 40% of his total votes in the 2004 presidential election.
In June-July 2003, the Forum and the Pew Research Center for
The People & The Press conducted a joint nationwide survey of
Americans' views on religion, politics, and public policy. Concerning
Israel, people were asked...
- whether they sympathized more with Israel or the Palestinians in
their longstanding dispute;
- whether religious beliefs or other factors had the biggest influence
on their thinking on this issue;
- whether they believed God gave the land that is now Israel to the
Jewish people;
- whether they believed the state of Israel fulfills the biblical
prophecy about Jesus' second coming.
Compared to other Americans, the survey found that white
evangelical Protestants were...
- significantly more sympathetic to Israel than to the Palestinians —
55% sympathized more with Israel,
only 6% with the Palestinians
(versus 41% and 13%, respectively, of all those surveyed).
- significantly more likely to say that religious beliefs were the
single biggest influence in leading them to sympathize more with Israel
— 46% versus 26% of all those surveyed.
- significantly more likely to believe that God gave the land of
Israel to the Jews — 72% versus 44% of all those surveyed.
- significantly more likely to believe that Israel fulfills the
biblical prophecy about Jesus' second coming — 63% versus 36% of all
those surveyed.
More recently, in March-May 2004, the Pew Forum on Religion
& Public Life sponsored a nationwide survey in which people were
asked: "Should the U.S. support Israel over the Palestinians?" Unlike the
questions in the 2003 survey, this one specifically asked Americans what
they think about U.S. policy towards Israel and the Palestinians. The
complete results are provided in the table below.
- As the table indicates, Americans overall were fairly evenly divided
as to whether the U.S. should support Israel over the Palestinians: 35%
agreed, while 38% disagreed, with 27% expressing no opinion.
If
anything, slightly more Americans believe that the U.S. should not
support Israel over the Palestinians than believe that it should.
- As one would expect from the 2003 survey results, the picture is
dramatically different for white evangelical Protestants. Overall, more
than twice as many white evangelicals agreed that the U.S. should
support Israel over the Palestinians than disagreed: 52% agreed, while
25% disagreed, with 23% expressing no opinion.
- The survey also found that "traditionalist" evangelicals — who are
characterized by a high level of orthodox belief and a high level of
church attendance, and who are the largest subgroup of evangelicals —
are even more likely to agree that U.S. policy should tilt towards
Israel: 64% agreed, while 18% disagreed, with 18% expressing no opinion.
(According to a post-election analysis sponsored by the Pew Forum,
"traditionalist" evangelicals provided Bush with 27% of his vote total
in 2004.)
- Pew Forum-sponsored surveys show that, between 2000 and 2004,
evangelicals showed the greatest increase in support for Israel of any
religious group: up 14% since 2000, to 52%.
- The survey found that white evangelicals are virtually the mirror
opposite of "secular" Americans in their attitudes towards Israel: only
23% of seculars agree that the U.S. should support Israel over the
Palestinians, while 51% disagree, with 26% expressing no
opinion.
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