Israel’s rapidly declining popularity in the US is a threat to national security and must be taken seriously if the country wants to maintain sufficient support from Washington, an Israeli think tank has warned.
A new report from the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) has highlighted the consequences of the steep decline in Israel’s standing with the United States and said that if American public opinion does not change drastically Israel will soon find itself without enough support there.
The report published on Monday by the INSS, which has affiliations to the army and Tel Aviv University, refers to polling from the Pew Research Centre released earlier in April, which found that 60 percent of US adults have an unfavourable view of Israel - up from 53 percent last year.
Data published for the first time following a collaboration between the INSS and the Washington-based Pew found that 75 percent of young American adults between the ages of 18 and 29 hold a negative view of Israel. That figure is 67 percent for those aged between 30 and 49.
According to the Pew poll, 80 percent of Democrats have a very or somewhat unfavourable view of Israel, while that figure is 41 percent among Republicans.
