Americans sympathize with Israel and support its right to target Hamas but worry about a broader conflict, polls show
Israelis raise American and Israeli flags outside the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv on March 30, 2023. Photo by Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images
By Jacob Kornbluh October 15, 2023
Americans are highly supportive of Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in Gaza and favor continued U.S. assistance to Israel, according to a set of new polls published over the weekend. At the same time, most Americans are concerned that a broader conflict may arise from the war between Israel and Hamas, and voters remain divided on how Biden is handling the conflict.
A CNN-SSRS poll of 1,000 adults conducted on Thursday and Friday by text message showed that 50% justified Israel’s military response to Hamas’ attacks while an overwhelming majority — 71% — felt a lot of sympathy for the Israeli people, with nearly all, 96%, expressing at least some sympathy for them.
A similar poll conducted by ABC News and Ipsos on Friday and Saturday of 518 adults found a slight majority — 53% — think the U.S. has a responsibility to protect Israeli civilians. Both polls had a respective margin error of plus or minus 4 and 4.5 percentage points.
A Quinnipiac survey of 1,552 U.S. voters, published on Monday, found that 76% think supporting Israel is in the national interest of the U.S. A clear majority — 64% — approve of the military aid package to Israel. That includes 59% of Democrats. The poll has a margin of error of plus of minus 2.5 percentage points.
The surveys come more than a week after the Hamas-led surprise attack on Israel’s southern border, resulting in the deaths of more than 1,400 people, including 29 American citizens. At least 120 Israeli and other nationals were abducted and held captive by Hamas in Gaza, among them 15 U.S. citizens and one legal permanent U.S. resident.
President Joe Biden expressed strong U.S. support for Israel’s right to defend itself. The U.S. sent two U.S carriers to deter Israel’s enemies from the north and other actors to attack the Jewish state.
But Biden, who is running for reelection next year, doesn’t yet seem to benefit politically from his public show of support.
A joint NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll of 1,113 U.S. adults — with a 3.8 percentage points margin of error — showed 52% of respondents disapproved of Biden’s approach. That includes 19% of Democrats, 58% of independents and 80% of Republicans. In the ABC News poll, 54% disapprove of the president’s handling of the conflict between Israel and Hamas, while 41% approve. According to the CNN poll, 47% of Americans trust Biden to make the right decisions on the crisis in Israel.
International scrutiny of Israel is expected to intensify in the coming days as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza continues to escalate. Israeli air strikes in Gaza have killed more than 2,670 Palestinians and some 1,000 people are reported missing under the rubble of destroyed buildings, according to Palestinian authorities. On Sunday, the Israeli military said it is preparing for an aggressive ground assault on Gaza to dismantle the key leadership of Hamas. The Biden administration announced Sunday the appointment of former Ambassador David Satterfield as the U.S. special envoy on humanitarian issues in the region.
A Morning Consult survey published on Thursday of 2,000 registered voters — with a margin of error of 2 percentage points — found that 41% of U.S. voters sympathize more with the Israelis than the Palestinians in the conflict.
The set of polls also showed a partisan divide between Republicans and Democrats and an age gap between older and younger Americans. More Democrats and younger Americans are likelier to express an equal amount of sympathy for the Palestinian people.
A far larger amount of Americans are concerned that the war will lead to a broader conflict in the Middle East and at least two out of three Americans are worried that the fighting between Israel and Hamas will lead to terrorism in the U.S.
This post was updated on 10-18-23 to include results from the Quinnipiac poll and an updated number of Israeli casualties in the Oct. 7 attack.
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