A new poll has revealed that 61% of Americans support the United States coming to the military defense of Israel if it strikes Iranian nuclear facilities and Iran retaliates. The December Survey of The Israel Project, carried out during December 14-16, also found that 51% of Americans favor military strikes by the U.S. and its allies if Iran does not stop its quest to obtain nuclear weapons.

Other findings include the following:

• More than two-thirds of Americans – 68% – support the United States coming to Israel’s military defense if Iran uses Hamas and Hezbollah to strike Israel, and Israel then attacks Iran in response.
  
• 78% of Americans agree with the statement that “even with all the problems America faces at home now, we must still work hard to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons.”
  
• While Americans overwhelmingly continue to favor diplomacy and sanctions against Iran, most think there is little (27%) or hardly any chance (34%) that multinational negotiations and diplomacy will succeed (Israel Project December National Survey, December 14-16, 2009)

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “The results in this poll show the American public to possess an increasingly realistic sense of the looming danger posed to America, Israel and the democratic world generally by an Iranian regime intent on obtaining nuclear weapons.

“As this survey demonstrates, since May 2006, the poll numbers on this subject have completely turned around. Whereas in May 2006, only 29% of Americans supported American military strikes on Iran if diplomacy failed while 69% opposed them, today, 51% support such strikes, while 48% oppose them. Moreover, since May 2006 strong support for such strikes has more than doubled (from 14% to 32%) while strong opposition to suck strikes has more than halved (50% to 24%).

“The American public wants to achieve the ending of the Iranian nuclear weapons program peacefully, but is deeply skeptical that negotiations will actually produce this vital result. That is why we are seeing today majority support for military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities, should this be the only avenue remaining to achieve the desired goal.

“Also noteworthy is the fact that such findings are consistent with majority levels of support among American Jews in a 2009 poll for American (56%) or Israeli (66%) military action against Iran if its nuclear weapons’ program is not stopped peacefully.”