Under the feckless Biden-Harris administration, the terrorist organization Hamas felt emboldened enough, with help from Iran, to attack Israel on October 7, 2023. What followed in the aftermath of those attacks was a tepid response from the White House. It should be no surprise, sadly, that Democrats are now seriously lacking in their support for Israel, as multiple recent polls have confirmed.
On Thursday, Gallup released a poll with a chilling headline, "Less Than Half in U.S. Now Sympathetic Toward Israelis." That's not the only noteworthy takeaway, though. Further, like most issues in this country, even supposedly bipartisan ones such as support for our ally in the Middle East, the poll results are impacted by partisans. It may also have been affected by recent events going on at the time.
According to the poll, 46 percent of Americans say they're more sympathetic toward Israelis, while 33 percent say they are with Palestinians.
As the poll's write-up mentioned:
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Although Americans remain more likely to say their sympathies in the Middle East situation are with the Israelis rather than the Palestinians, the 46% expressing support for Israel is the lowest in 25 years of Gallup’s annual tracking of this measure on its World Affairs survey. The previous 51% low point in this trend of Americans’ sympathy for Israelis was recorded both last year and in 2001.
At the same time, the 33% of U.S. adults who now say they sympathize with the Palestinians is up six percentage points from last year and the highest reading by two points.
...
...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%).
When comes to that partisan breakdown, it's clear that the Republican Party stands strongly with Israel, as its sympathies lie 75-10 percent in favor of Israelis over Palestinians. A majority of Democrats meanwhile sympathize with Palestinians over Israelis, 59-21 percent.
Curiously enough, Democrats were more sympathetic toward Israelis before 2022, the poll write-up mentions. This was before the October 7 attack that resulted in 1,200 Israelis being brutally slaughtered. Many of them were civilians, and not even babies or Holocaust survivors were spared from a barbaric fate. Hamas terrorists engaged in rape, torture, and kidnapping, taking approximately 250 people hostage, with some still having not been returned, and others only being returned after they were brutally murdered. This was the fate that befell Shiri Bibas, and her two young children, Kfir and Ariel, who were only 10 months old and 4 years old. Their bodies were sent back after the poll was conducted last month.
As the poll further discussed, notably referring to the terrorists as "Hamas militants" rather than the barbaric terrorists that they are:
Republicans and independents have consistently backed the Israelis since 2001, though independents’ support for the Israelis is now at its lowest in World Affairs surveys by one point. Democrats also sided with the Israelis until 2022, when roughly equal shares said they sympathized with each side. Since then, Democrats have supported the Palestinians.
Initially, Democrats’ declining sympathy for the Israelis was seemingly the result of disapproval of the nation’s right-leaning political leadership under Netanyahu. However, it has fallen further in the past two years. In February 2023, Democrats’ sympathies for the Israelis dipped to 38%, while the reading for Palestinians jumped 11 points to 49%, marking the first time Palestinian sympathies prevailed among this group.
Eight months later, on Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing over 1,000 Israelis and taking nearly 250 as hostages. Democrats’ sympathy for the Palestinian people had dipped six points by the following February. One year later, as a humanitarian crisis persists in Gaza, Democrats’ sympathy for the Palestinians is up 16 points, marking the first time it has reached the majority level.
The poll's write-up not only uses the particular term "militants," but also laments "a humanitarian crisis" in Gaza. To the extent that "a humanitarian crisis" does exist, it's been worsened by Hamas stealing aid meant for civilians. Even when it comes to such "civilians," not only did many participate in the October 7 attacks against Israel, they came out for a celebration of sorts as Hamas terrorists paraded the bodies of Shiri Bibas and her children as well as another hostage/murder victim, Oded Lifshitz, who had been 83 years old. Hamas even initially sent back the wrong body, rather than that of Shiri.
The poll also mentions how "Americans Continue to Support a Two-State Solution in the Middle East," which is driven largely by Democrats. Overall, a majority of respondents, 55 percent support giving Palestinians their own state, while 33 percent are opposed. A whopping 76 percent of Democrats are in support, as are 53 percent of Independents. Even 41 percent of Republicans are in favor.
There's again mention of these partisan breakdowns in the poll's "Bottom Line":
Americans’ sympathies with the Israelis continue to decline, largely because of Democrats’ dwindling support for the Israelis in the long-standing conflict with the Palestinians. Republicans remain overwhelmingly sympathetic toward the Israelis.
Meanwhile, the establishment of an independent Palestinian state is still supported by a majority of Americans, though by far more Democrats than Republicans. Discussion of a two-state approach for achieving peace in the region is largely on hold following the Oct. 7, 2023, attack, as world leaders wrestle with how Israel’s safety will be secured after the war, what role Hamas will play in Gaza and how the West Bank will be governed.
The Gallup poll was conducted between February 3-16. It was while the poll was being conducted, on February 4, that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with President Donald Trump at the White House, where Trump made headlines over his potential plans for Gaza, even prompting Rep. Al Green (D-TX) to reveal that he was going to file articles of impeachment against the president. It was later clarified that Trump's plans would not involve American boots on the ground.
The poll surveyed 1,004 adults living in the United States and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
It's not shocking that so many Democratic respondents would be in favor of a two-state solution and more sympathetic to Palestinians, given that the Biden-Harris administration made it an incessant talking point to speak in favor of a two-state solution, including after October 7. Further, especially once Vice President Kamala Harris had replaced President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee last summer, she tried to cater to both sides of the conflict.
The Biden-Harris administration was also often slow to respond to antisemitism in this country, especially on college campuses, with the president putting out a particularly delayed response. He even had a "both sides" moment when trying to respond to antisemitism and pro-Hamas activity on college campuses. The administration also frequently equated antisemitism with Islamophobia and White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was so particularly inartful with her framing of this issue that she had to clarify her remarks on antisemitism and was even called out by Democratic members, such as Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), who took issue with her not being able to properly condemn the ripping down of posters of hostages taken on October 7.
Beyond words or lack thereof, Biden also paused shipments to Israel last year, and Democrats repeatedly voted against providing aid to our ally in the Middle East. This was especially the case when the Senate was under Democratic control with Chuck Schumer (D-NY) leading them. Schumer even tanked a bill the same day he and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) joined Republican leaders in speaking at a pro-Israel rally held in Washington, DC, on November 14, 2023.
The Democratic Party is also home to anti-Israel Squad members. While former Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) and Cori Bush (D-MO) lost their primaries last year to pro-Israel Democrats now in Congress, members like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) are still in office.
