Majority of Americans view Israel favorably: Gallup

Even as relations between the leaders of Israel and the United States deteriorate over disagreements about how to handle Iran's nuclear program, the majority of Americans still view Israel favorably, a Gallup poll released Monday showed.

U.S.-Israel relations have grabbed major headlines over the past year, and tensions between U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have worsened since the latter accepted an invitation to address Congress about Iran in March -- an offer the White House did not sanction.

70 percent of Americans now view Israel favorably, and 62 percent say they sympathize more with Israelis than Palestinians in the Mideast conflict, Gallup found.

These attitudes are unchanged from a year ago, suggesting that neither the friction between Obama and Netanyahu, nor the 50-day conflict between Israelis and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip last year, greatly affected perceptions in the U.S., according to the poll.

Israel's public image in the U.S. has been fairly strong since 2005, with an average 68 percent of Americans viewing the U.S. ally favorably. But from 2000 to 2004, when hostilities between Israelis and Palestinians were running high, its favorable score averaged 60 percent, Gallup said.

Gallup first measured Americans' impression of the Palestinian Authority, the official governing body of Palestinians, in 2000, and since then, the percentage viewing it favorably has averaged 17 percent, diverging significantly on only a few occasions.

Netanyahu plans to address the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress next week at the invitation of Republican House Speaker John Boehner about the Iranian nuclear program, but Obama and some Democratic lawmakers have decided not to attend the Israeli leader's speech. Endi