Surveying Americans about U.S. aid to Israel requires putting it into proper perspective. Given Israel’s position as the leading single U.S. foreign aid recipient (by a wide margin), asking the foreign aid question requires embedding relevant data to obtain a bona fide response. When such data is included, the majority of Americans (60.7 percent) believe U.S. aid to Israel is excessive. The major response, that aid to Israel is “Much too much” is 33.9 percent of Americans. Some 26.8 percent believe it is “too much” while 25.9 percent believe it is “about right.” Only 13.4 percent of Americans believe U.S. aid to Israel is not enough.
The policy and political implications of this finding are stark. Elected officials passing ever larger aid packages and supplemental spending for Israel simply cannot claim they are representing the majority interests of their constituents. American presidents proclaiming the U.S.‐Israel bond is “unbreakable” cannot claim such a bond is willingly underwritten by U.S. taxpayers.
| Much too much | 33.9% | |
| Too much | 26.8% | |
| About right | 25.9% | |
| Too little | 6.1% | |
| Much too little | 7.3% |
Survey developed by: IRmep
Survey fielded: Google Surveys 9/27/2014
Population surveyed: US Adult Internet Users
Representative Sample size: 2,109 Statistically significan
Raw survey data from Google (Download)