A Gallop poll of 1,004 Americans asked respondents whether they sympathized more with the Palestinians or the Israelis “in the Middle East situation.”
By Rachel Avraham
A Gallop poll of 1,004 Americans asked respondents whether they sympathized more with the Palestinians or the Israelis “in the Middle East situation.” According to the latest Gallop poll, American support for Israel has dropped to its lowest level in a quarter of a century, MSN reports.
The poll shows that 46% of Americans support Israel over the PA in the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, which is the lowest ranking for Israel over the past 25 years, MSN noted. According to the report, the previous lowest ranking of 51% was reported last year and in 2001. Meanwhile, 33% of the respondents stated that they supported the Palestinians.
Gallup has been polling the American public on their perception of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since 1999. “Since then, more Americans have supported than opposed the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and that continues today. Currently, 55% are in favor and 31% opposed, while 14% do not have an opinion,” the poll said.
According to Fox News, the survey was conducted Feb. 3-16, during the first phase of the temporary ceasefire and hostage exchange between Israel and Hamas. The poll also found a partisan divide among Americans related to the conflict. According to the Gallop Poll, “Republicans broadly sympathize with the Israelis (75%) over the Palestinians (10%), while Democrats sympathize with the Palestinians over the Israelis by a nearly 3-to-1 ratio (59% vs. 21%.”
The Forward reported that the Gallop survey, which has a 4% margin of error, is one of several to have come out in the past year showing the erosion of bipartisan support for Israel during its war in Gaza. According to the report, a Oct. 2024 poll by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research showed Democrats are more likely to blame Israel than Palestinians for the fighting. According to JTA, a decade ago, 62% of respondents sympathized more with Israelis, compared to 16% with the Palestinians; in 2022, the gap was 55% to 26%.
JTA reported that this recent Gallop survey is a considerable shift from 2022, when Democrats’ sympathies were about even at 40% for Israelis vs. 38% for Palestinians. Last year, it was 43% for Palestinians vs. 38% for Israelis. Polls taken more than a decade ago show Democratic sympathies lying more with Israelis by wide margins.
JTA added that this week’s poll found that Republican sympathies with Israelis have remained relatively steady, at 75% vs. 10% for Palestinians. Among independents, the Israeli-Palestinian split was 42% to 34%.
The Gallop poll survey was conducted at a time when anti-Semitism is at an all-time high in America. There have even been reports of anti-Semitic materials making their way into K-12 classrooms in public schools in America. According to a recent survey conducted by the American Jewish Committee, fear of antisemitism spurred 40% of American Jews to change their behavior over the past year. According to the AJC survey, 17% said they “avoided certain places, events, or situations,” 22% avoided making themselves visually identifiable as a Jew and 25% refrained from posting Jewish-related content online.
“Almost 40% of Jews have changed their behavior. This is horrible and heartbreaking data,” Holly Huffnagle, the AJC’s U.S. director for combating antisemitism, told the JTA. “But I think we can’t hide the fact that more Jews feel secure today,” she added, noting that when the surveyors asked for an explanation, “The change in the administration was by far the biggest response to that.”
The administration of US President Donald Trump has been an ardent supporter of the State of Israel and has done much to support the hostages, threatening to “break all hell loose” if the hostages are not freed. The Trump administration has met with the hostages and their families, and done much to combat anti-Semitism domestically within the United States.
According to the Gallop Survey, the February poll also finds that “40% of U.S adults approve of Trump’s handling of the situation between the Israelis and Palestinians, which trails his overall job approval rating of 45%. Partisans are sharply divided in their job ratings of Trump, and they also hold different views of Israel and the Palestinian Territories. Republicans are much more likely than Democrats to view Israel favorably (83% vs. 33%, respectively), while Democrats view the Palestinian Territories more favorably than Republicans do (45% vs. 18%).”
