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The Impact of Changing Narratives on American Public Opinion Toward the U.S.-Israel Relationship Wright State University CORE Scholar Browse all Theses and Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 2014 The Impact of Changing Narratives on American Public Opinion Toward the U.S.-Israel Relationship Rana Kamal Odeh Wright State University Follow this and additional works at: https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/etd_all Part of the International Relations Commons Repository Citation Odeh, Rana Kamal, "The Impact of Changing Narratives on American Public Opinion Toward the U.S.-Israel Relationship" (2014). Browse all Theses and Dissertations. 1371. https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/etd_all/1371 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at CORE Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Browse all Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of CORE Scholar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE IMPACT OF CHANGING NARRATIVES ON AMERICAN PUBLIC OPINION TOWARD THE U.S.-ISRAEL RELATIONSHIP A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts By RANA ODEH B.A. English, University of Dayton, 2009 2014 Wright State University WRIGHT STATE UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL April 30, 2014 I HEREBY RECOMMEND THAT THE THESIS PREPARED UNDER MY SUPERVISION BY Rana Odeh ENTITLED The Impact of Changing Narratives on American Public Opinion Toward the U.S.-Israel Relationship BE ACCEPTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF Master of Arts. ______________________________ Vaughn Shannon, Ph.D. Thesis Director ______________________________ Laura M. Luehrmann, Ph.D. Director, Master of Arts Program in International and Comparative Politics Committee on Final Examination: ___________________________________ Vaughn Shannon, Ph.D. Department of Political Science ___________________________________ R. William Ayres, Ph.D. Department of Political Science ___________________________________ Karen Lahm, Ph.D. Department of Sociology ______________________________ Robert E. W. Fyffe, Ph.D. Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School ABSTRACT Odeh, Rana. M.A., Department of Political Science, Wright State University, 2014. The Impact of Changing Narratives on American Public Opinion Toward the U.S.- Israel Relationship This study assesses the impact of changing narratives on public opinion toward the Palestine-Israel conflict. In contrast to other U.S.-Israel relations studies, but in accordance with some media influence and public opinion research, this study emphasizes the potential role of American public opinion in shaping U.S.-Israel relations. Furthermore, this study attempts to attribute the pro-Israel American attitude shown in Gallup polls to the lack of information about the Palestine-Israel conflict in American mainstream media. This study tests whether public opinion will shift after being exposed to different narratives that falls under one of three major perceptions reported in the current rhetoric regarding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict: 1) Israelis are the victims of Palestinian aggression 2) Israel is a geo-strategic ally of the U.S. in a hostile region, 3) Israel, like the United States, is a liberal democracy. This research includes three primary source surveys to test the impact of biased narratives and unconventional information about Palestine and Israel on public opinion toward the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page I. INTRODUCTION…………………………………………....…………………………1 Hypotheses about the U.S.-Israel relationship……………………………....…….1 Methodology………………………………………………………………………3 Survey process and issues........................................................................................6 Sample size and demographics................................................................................8 Issues with questions................................................................................................9 Chapter Breakdown……………………………………………………………....10 II. PERCEPTION AND REALITY: THE 1947-1949 ARAB-ISRAELI WAR………….11 Introduction……………………………………………………………………....11 History of the Zionist movement…………………………………………………12 History of Palestinian Nationalism……………………………………………….15 The Role of the British in the Fate of Palestine…………………………………...17 Arab expulsion and the sources of conflict……………………………………….18 UNSCOP and the making of the 1947-49 war……………………………………22 The creation of the Jewish state and escalation of the conflict……………………27 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….30 III. NARRATIVE FRAMING, PUBLIC OPINION, AND FOREIGN POLICY……….33 Introduction……………………………………………………………………....33 The Literature on Public Opinion and Foreign Policy………………………....…33 Studies of the pro-Israel Bias in American Media..................................…............40 Empirical Findings………………………………………………………….........44 Conclusion.............................................................................................................52 iv IV. PUBLIC OPINION ON ISRAEL’S STRATEGIC UTILITY FOR THE U.S............54 Introduction............................................................................................................54 U.S. Foreign Policy toward Israel: Domestic Influences or Strategic Utility.........55 Empirical Findings.................................................................................................63 Conclusion.............................................................................................................66 V. THE U.S.-ISRAEL RELATIONSHIP: PERCEIVED IDEOLOGICAL CONNECTIONS...............................................................................................................68 Introduction............................................................................................................68 The “Jewish and Democratic State:” Israel’s veiled contradiction.........................70 Defining Democracy..............................................................................................75 Israel: A Liberal Democracy, Ethnic Democracy, or Theocracy...........................80 Empirical Findings.................................................................................................89 Conlusion...............................................................................................................91 VI. CONCLUSION............................................................................................................93 Recommendations for Future Research.................................................................95 APPENDIX................................................................................................................98-109 BIBLIOGRAPHY....................................................................................................110-116 v LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1.1: Solomon six experimental design 5 1.2: Geo-strategic utility survey design 5 1.3: Democracy survey design 6 3.1: Demographics of Group 1 (pre-test, Pal. Narrative, post-test) 46 3.2: Cumulative Table for Victimhood Groups: Sympathies 48 3.3: Cumulative Table for Victimhood Groups: Victim Question 49 3.4: Cumulative Table for Victimhood Groups: U.S. Support for Israel 50 3.5: Sympathies by Respondent’s Sex Crosstabulation 51 4.1: Pre-Test Attitude on Israel’s utility for the U.S. by Respondent’s Sex Crosstabulation 64 4.2: Pre-Test Attitude on Israel’s utility for the U.S. by Respondent’s Sex Crosstabulation 65 5.1: Democracy Survey: Israel’s Political System 90 5.2: Democracy Survey: Sympathies 91 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful for the ample support I received from so many people while writing this thesis. Foremost, I would like to thank Dr. Vaughn Shannon for his expertise, guidance, invaluable feedback, and encouragement throughout the writing process. I appreciate all the time he dedicated to carefully reading multiple drafts of this thesis. I would also like to thank Dr. R. William Ayres for his instrumental advice, the literature suggestions he made early on helped give this thesis its direction. I am indebted to Dr. Karen Lahm for helping me design and interpret my experiment. She graciously offered her expertise and swift feedback on my statistical data during her sabbatical, for which I am grateful. I would also like to thank everyone who made my experiment possible. Thanks to Jodi Blacklidge for facilitating my IRB approval and amendments at Wright State University, and thanks to Dr. Toni King for facilitating my IRB approval at Denison University. I am grateful for the Original Work Grant that I was awarded by the Graduate Student Assembly, which helped fund my research expenses. I have a long list of Professors to thank for allowing me into their classrooms to survey their students, primarily, Professor Jonathan Varhola, who offered his support and time as I surveyed many of his classes over the course of this study. I would also like to thank Dr. Gary Burns, Dr. Karen Lahm, Dr. Robin Bartlett, Dr. John Jackson, Dr. Bill Kirkpatrick, Dr. Diana Mafe, Dr. Ted Burczack, Dr. Kristen Cole, Dr. Rusty Shekha, and Dr. Ahmed Soliman for offering their class time in support of my data collection. I am especially vii grateful for the hundreds of respondents to my surveys; their participation made this project possible. I would like to thank the Department of Political Science, the President’s office, the College of Liberal Arts Dean’s Office, and the University Center for International Education for funding the presentation of my preliminary thesis research at the 7th Annual Graduate
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