THE HARRIS POLL as per The Wall Street Journal:
you may not think so reading and watching most media outlets - nevertheless -

Most in U.S. See Israel as Friendly
And Iran as an Enemy, Poll Finds
August 30, 2006
A majority of Americans view Israel as a friendly country and Iran as an enemy, according to a new Harris Interactive poll.

The online poll of 3,685 adults measured American attitudes towards Turkey, Afghanistan and 11 others countries in the Middle East as well as attitudes toward eight leaders and organizations in the region.

The survey, conducted Aug. 8- 17, found that three-quarters of U.S. adults identify Israel as either a close ally or “a friend, but not an ally,” compared with 16% who see the nation as “not friendly, but not an enemy” and 8% who see it as “unfriendly and an enemy.”

By comparison, 76% of those polled view Iran as an enemy, while 21% see the country as not friendly, and only 4% view it as a close ally or friend.

The region’s other governments least likely to be seen as either an ally or friend were Syria (8%), Libya (12%), Lebanon (15%) and Iraq (18%).

See complete results of the poll:

“Thinking of the governments of these countries, do you believe each government is ‘a close ally’ of the U.S., ‘a friend but not a close ally,’ ‘not friendly but not an enemy,’ or ‘unfriendly and an enemy’ of the U.S.?”

Base: U.S. Adults

Note: Percentages may not add up to exactly 100% due to rounding.”We’d now like to rate your feelings toward some organizations and people on a 0-100 scale, where 100 means that you have a very warm, positive feeling toward that particular organization or person, and zero means that you have a very cold, negative feeling. A rating of 50 means that you do not feel particularly warm or cold. You can use any number from zero to 100; the higher the number, the more favorable your feelings are toward that organization or person.”

*From 100 (most positive) to 0 (most negative).Methodology:

This poll was conducted online in the U.S. between Aug. 8 and 17, 2006, among a nationwide cross section of 3,685 adults. Figures for age, sex, race, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to align them with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online. In theory, with a probability sample of this size, one can say with 95% certainty that the results have a sampling error of +/- 2 percentage points of what they would be if the entire adult population had been polled with complete accuracy.