Almost half of Democrats believe that the United States needs to do more to support the Palestinians amid the Israel-Hamas war, while the share of Americans who believe the U.S. is doing “too little” to support Israel is the highest since 2001, a new Gallup poll suggests.
In a report earlier this month, Gallup outlined the views of 1,013 U.S. adults regarding the ongoing conflict between Israel and the terror group Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007. The survey also looked into Americans’ views about the treatment of Israelis and Palestinians amid the unrest.
The surveys were conducted from Dec. 1-20, 2023, and the data has an error margin of ±4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.
Gallup found that 49% of Democrat respondents believe that the United States is doing “too little” to support the Palestinians. In comparison, 35% said the U.S. is giving the “right amount” of support, and 14% said Palestinians are receiving “too much” American support.
This was well below the overall U.S. adult average of 33% of respondents saying the U.S. is giving “too little” support to the Palestinians. By contrast, only 16% of Republicans and 34% of independents characterized the U.S. support for Palestinians as “too little.”
On the other hand, 52% of Republican respondents believe that the U.S. is giving “too much” support to the Palestinians, while 28% of independent respondents agreed.
Regarding support for Israel, 40% of both Democrats and independents felt America is giving “too much” support to the Jewish nation, while only 26% of Republicans agreed.
Overall, about a quarter (24%) of American adults believe that the U.S. needs to give more support to Israel, which, according to Gallup’s tracking, marked the highest share of respondents who felt that way since October 2001.
“Gallup last measured Americans’ views of U.S. support of Israel and the Palestinians in 2006, during the Israel-Hezbollah conflict. The current percentages saying the U.S. is doing too little for both groups are higher than the 2006 figures,” the report notes.Â
“The measure on Israel has been asked periodically since 2001, and the latest 24% who say the U.S. is doing too little is the highest on record.”
The report found that a record share of Americans hold a negative view of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was facing allegations of corruption and protests over his efforts to curb the power of Israel’s supreme court before the outbreak of the war against Hamas.
Forty-seven percent of respondents hold an unfavorable view of Netanyahu, marking the highest disapproval rating for the leader going back to April 1997. Only 33% hold a favorable opinion of Netanyahu, well below the 49% favorable ranking he received in 2017.
On Oct. 7, Hamas militants launched a major series of attacks from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking over 240 hostages.
Israel responded with airstrikes and a ground invasion of Gaza, with the stated goals of destroying Hamas and freeing the hostages that the Islamic terrorist group captured.
According to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, over 24,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began. That figure makes no distinction between combatants and noncombatants and doesn’t differentiate between people killed by Israel Defense Forces and those killed by errant rockets fired by Gaza-based terror groups.Â
The fighting has displaced many Gazans, and multiple aid organizations have expressed concerns that a humanitarian crisis is underway.
In November, Israel and Hamas agreed to a temporary ceasefire, in which Hamas freed more than 100 hostages in return for Israel releasing 240 Palestinian prisoners, most of whom were women and teenagers.
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