Dear colleagues and friends,
I am pleased to share with you several items on timely issues of the day. The first is an article in Lawfare that analyzes our latest public opinion poll on Russia and Ukraine on the eve of the meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska. Among the poll's findings was that for the first time most Americans want the U.S. to stay the course in supporting Ukraine "for as long as it takes." This is the highest percentage of Americans saying so since we started asking this question in 2023.
In addition, the poll found increasing sympathy (64%) with Ukraine as well as practically no sympathy (2%) with Russia. Strikingly, Republican sympathy with Ukraine has increased since last March from 45% to 55%.
In an open-ended question, respondents were asked to list three leaders who posed the greatest threat to international peace and security. Respondents identified Putin most frequently as the leader posing the greatest threat, followed by President Trump. You can find the article in Lawfare here and the questionnaire here.
I would also like to share two media commentaries about the Israeli-Palestinian issue: one on National Public Radio (NPR) and the second on NBC Now. As momentum builds among Western countries to recognize a state of Palestine at the upcoming UNGA meeting, I am also including a link to a PDF version of my recent co-authored article in Foreign Affairs on "The Promise and Peril of Recognizing Palestine" here.
In the next few weeks, we will be releasing additional analyses of the findings of our latest, extensive poll that includes American public attitudes toward racial, ethnic and religious prejudice; toward democracy and human rights; and toward the Israeli-Palestinian issue.
Sincerely,
Shibley Telhami