Echoing the conflict in the Middle East today, Iowans were asked in a March 1978 Iowa Poll where their sympathies were in the Middle East. When asked “in the Middle East Situation are your sympathies more with the Israelis or more with the Arabs”, respondents favored Israel over the Arabs nearly four to one. 44% of respondents sympathized the Israelis, 11% with the Arabs, and 45% were unsure. A follow up question asked whether “Palestinian Arabs should or should not have their own homeland in the Middle East”. 59% responded that they should with just 10% saying they should not. When supporters were asked whether they still held this position “if this resulted in a Middle East War”, 59% of those that had initially supported it were then opposed, leaving just 16% of all respondents in favor. 

Some variation in responses was observed based on a respondent’s level of education and party identification, though overall their orderings were similar. Those that had completed a higher level of education were more twice as likely to be sympathetic to the Israelis while those who reported a lower level of education were four to five times more likely to be sympathetic to the Israelis. Democrats and Independents, in that order, were somewhat more likely to sympathize with Arabs than Republicans were, although all party identifications were more likely to sympathize with Israelis or had no opinion rather than sympathize with the Arabs.