Poll shows US public's support for Israel eroding

US public support for Israel has fallen in the past year, and the nation's sympathies are now almost evenly divided between Israel and the Arab world, an opinion poll shows.

The poll, conducted for Newsweek by the Gallup organization, shows 32 percent sympathizing with Israel and 28 percent with the Arab nations. In a July 1981 Newsweek poll, those proportions were 49 percent and 10 percent, respectively.

The survey shows 81 percent believed Israel must bear some degree of responsibility for the recent massacre in Lebanon. Among American Jews questioned in the survey, 65 percent assigned Israel some degree of responsibility.