55% of Americans sympathize more with Israel, 9% sympathize more with the Palestinians according to Washington Post-ABC poll.
Only 26% of Americans think US should take leading role in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
A large majority of Americans (69 percent) believe that the administration of US President Barack Obama should leave the handling of the peace process to Israel and the Palestinians rather than taking the lead in resolving the conflict between the sides, a Washington Post-ABC News poll released Monday found.
The poll showed a serious decline among Americans in the desire that the US should take a leading role in arranging an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. In an April 2002 poll, 42% of respondents called for the US to lead the peace process, whereas 54% said Washington should leave it to the Israelis and Palestinians to resolve the conflict.
According to the poll, 55% of Americans sympathize more with Israel, 9% sympathize more with the Palestinians and 35% of respondents had no opinion or preference between the two sides.
Just 17% of respondents said the Obama administration was exerting too much pressure on Israel in its efforts to enact a peace agreement, whereas 21% said that Washington should be putting more pressure on the Jewish state. Forty-one percent believed Obama was putting about the right amount of pressure on Israel, and 20% of respondents had no opinion on the matter.
A larger number of respondents called for more pressure (34%) to be exerted on the Palestinian Authority.
The survey was conducted by telephone March 7-10, 2013, among a random sample of 1,001 adults.
View original Jerusalem Post publication at: http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Poll-69-percent-of-Americans-against-US-leading-peace-process-306793
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