Aftandilian in The Arab Weekly on U.S. Attitudes Toward Middle East
Gregory Aftandilian, Lecturer at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, published a recent Op-Ed on what polling data reveals on American attitudes toward Middle East issues.
Aftandilian’s Op-Ed, entitled “Americans Want No War With Iran, Split on Israel-Palestine,” was published in The Arab Weekly on July 27, 2019.
From the text of the article:
Recent polling data indicate interesting details about the mood of the American public regarding key issues related to the Middle East.
A Hill-Harris survey of US voters, taken June 22-23, stated that 58% of respondents said there should be a “non-military” response to the Iranian downing of a US drone near the Strait of Hormuz: 49% said they wanted a negotiated solution and 9% said no action should be taken.
Interestingly, despite negative American attitudes towards the Iranian regime, only 19% of those asked said there should be a military response.
Although the US electorate is sharply divided between Republicans and Democrats, there was not a very large difference in the responses between adherents of these political parties. About 50% of Republican respondents said they want a non-military response compared with 67% of Democrats asked. Among independents, 54% said they wanted a non-military response.
Aftandilian spent over 21 years in government service, most recently on Capitol Hill where he was foreign policy adviser to Congressman Chris Van Hollen (2007-2008), professional staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and foreign policy adviser to Senator Paul Sarbanes (2000-2004), and foreign policy fellow to the late Senator Edward Kennedy (1999).