RASMUSSEN– Forty-nine percent (49%) of U.S. voters believe pro-Palestinian activists on the Gaza-bound aid ships raided by Israeli forces are to blame for the deaths that resulted in the high-profile incident.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 19% of voters think the Israelis are to blame. Thirty-two percent (32%) more are not sure.

But 51% say Israel should allow an international investigation of the incident. Twenty-five percent (25%) agree with the Israeli government and reject the idea of an international probe. Another 24% are undecided.

In the May 31 incident, nine people were killed when Israeli commandos raided an aid ship headed from Turkey to break the Israeli blockade imposed on the Palestinian Gaza Strip.

While a number of countries have called for an international investigation of the incident, the Israeli government is skeptical of such probes arguing that the participants are often biased against the Jewish state.

Nearly half (49%) of U.S. voters agree that, generally speaking, most countries are too critical of Israel. Twenty-one percent (21%) say those countries are not critical enough. Seventeen percent (17%) say neither.

The survey of 1,000 Likely U.S. Voters was conducted on June 3-4, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

At the United Nations and in other international forums, the United States often finds itself as one of Israel’s few defenders, but just 24% say, generally speaking, America is too supportive of Israel. Thirty-three percent (33%) say the United States is not supportive enough, while 32% say neither is the case.

Israel is one of only five countries that most Americans are willing to defend militarily.

Republicans feel much more strongly than Democrats and voters not affiliated with either party that pro-Palestinian activists are to blame for the deadly outcome on the Gaza-bound aid ships.

While 65% of Democrats and 50% of unaffiliateds favor an international investigation, Republicans are evenly divided on the idea.

One possible explanation is that nearly two-thirds (65%) of GOP voters think most countries are too critical of Israel, a view shared by just 37% of Democrats and a plurality (46%) of unaffiliated voters.

Similarly, Republicans are more than twice as likely as Democrats to think the United States is not supportive enough of Israel. Unaffiliated voters are more narrowly divided.

Last year at this time, 35% criticized President Obama for not being supportive enough of Israel, while 48% said the president’s Middle East policy was about right.

Seventy percent (70%) of voters say they have been following recent news reports about the incident involving the ships carrying aid to the Gaza Strip at least somewhat closely. Twenty-eight percent (28%) have not been following closely, if at all.

Seventy-three percent (73%) of voters think it is unlikely that lasting peace between the Israelis and Palestinians will be achieved in the next 10 years, consistent with findings going back several years.  Fifty-eight percent (58%) view Israel as a U.S. ally and two percent (2%) as an enemy, with 32% saying the country is somewhere in between the two.

By comparison, just 30% see the United Nations, which has been pushing for an international probe of the ship incident, as an ally of the United States.  Sixteen percent (16%) see the UN as America’s enemy, and 49% put it somewhere in between.

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© COPYRIGHT RASMUSSEN, 2010