Picking Sides
While trying to track down the poll that Beinart refers to here, I found a remarkable international poll that showed the general consensus around the world that other nations should not take sides in the Israel-Palestine conflict. Those favouring support for the Israeli side was greatest in India (24%) and, as might be expected, here in the U.S. at 21%, but an overwhelming majority (71%) thinks the U.S. should not take sides. Certainly, when Americans are asked whether they support Israelis or Palestinians, they will tend to prefer the former when compelled to make a choice between the two, but the striking thing about this poll is that most Americans are uninterested in picking a side. There were two nations where supporting the Palestinian side commanded a majority (Iran at 63% and Egypt at 86%), but they were distinctly in the minority of the eighteen countries included in the poll. Naturally, Muslim nations lean towards the Palestinians, but there are also sizeable constituencies in Turkey and Indonesia that support neutrality. For all of the endless talk about how “pro-Israel” policies have the support of the American public, those who endorse a simple pro-Israel line are a distinct minority even in the United States.
[...] Here is the poll I was looking for, and there are some interesting things to be found in it. While it is true that only 12% of Americans agree with the statement that the U.S. should “withdraw from most efforts to solve international problems,” that is actually tremendously strong support for a degree of withdrawal from the globe that even most non-interventionists wouldn’t support. There are, after all, humanitarian, financial, commercial and diplomatic means to address international problems that would not necessarily violate the counsel of Washington and Jefferson to avoid permanent and entangling alliances. It is a caricature of the non-interventionist and neutralist positions that they would involve some kind of autarchic separation from the rest of the planet, and even then 12% would embrace such a policy. [...]