‘Significant’ Downturn in Americans’ Support for Israel: Poll

‘Significant’ Downturn in Americans’ Support for Israel: Poll

Thursday, 10 April 2025 2:38 AM

Press TV

A recent survey has reflected rising disillusionment with the Israeli regime’s policies, its US-backed war of genocide in the Gaza Strip, and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hostile and warlike approaches.

The poll by the Pew Research Center, an American think tank, reveled that a growing number of Americans were now distancing themselves from the regime amid the war.

The poll, conducted from March 24 to 30, whose results were published on Monday, showed a marked decline in public support for the regime, both in general sentiment and specific policies.

While 42% of US adults had expressed unfavorable opinions of the regime in 2022, that figure had surged to 53% in 2025, the center’s data pointed out.

Alarmingly for Israeli officials, the share of Americans with very unfavorable views had now nearly doubled, jumping from 10% to 19% over the same period.

This trend was particularly pronounced among Democrats, with nearly seven in 10 (69%) now viewing the regime negatively, up from 53% in 2022. Among Republicans, the rise was more modest, but still significant, increasing from 27% to 37%. Younger Republicans had shifted dramatically, with 50% now holding unfavorable views compared to just 35% three years ago.

Fading interest in Israeli war

The American public was also showing signs of war fatigue. While 65% of Americans had said in January 2024 that the war was personally important to them, that number had now fallen to 54%. Similarly, the share, who considered the war to be important to the United States national interests had dropped from 75% to 66%.

Age and political affiliation had factored into the shift. Older Americans remained more engaged, while younger citizens, particularly Republicans, were increasingly unsure about the war's relevance. Among religious groups, concern remained high among Muslims (68%) and White evangelical Protestants (66%), while Catholics (56%) and religiously unaffiliated Americans (47%) expressed lower levels of engagement.

Trump’s Israel stance divides Americans

When it came to US President Donald Trump’s staunch support for the Israeli regime, the American public was sharply divided. Some 31% believed he favored the regime too much, while 29% thought he was striking the right balance. A sizable 37% remained unsure.

Among Jewish Americans, 36% believed Trump leant too heavily in favor of Tel Aviv, reflecting a broader community split. In contrast, just 13% of Jewish Americans in early 2024 had said his predecessor Joe Biden was overly supportive of the regime.

Muslim Americans remained the most critical of Trump’s stance, with a striking 70% saying he was too biased towards the regime, mirroring their prior views on Biden’s approach.

Waning confidence in Netanyahu

Netanyahu, on whose orders the genocide began in October 2023, had failed to inspire confidence among Americans. Just 32% of US adults said they trusted him to “do the right thing regarding world affairs,” while a clear majority, namely 52%, expressed little or no confidence in him.

This sentiment remained largely unchanged from 2024, but followed a steep decline in public trust between 2023 and 2024.

Diminishing hope for ‘two-state solution’

The latest data also pointed to declining optimism regarding the so-called “two-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Just 46% of Americans now believed that the regime and a future Palestinian state could “coexist peacefully” as the heavily-Washington-backed approach dictates. The figure was down from 52% in late 2023.

Public rejects Trump’s ‘Gaza takeover’ proposal

The American public also reflected on an incendiary proposal forwarded by Trump earlier this year for the US to start “owning” Gaza.

In a meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu, President Trump again floated the controversial idea of taking over the Gaza Strip, calling the Palestinian territory “an incredible piece of important real estate.”

According to Pew, 62% of Americans opposed the idea, with nearly half (49%) being strongly opposed to it. Only 15% supported the proposal, while 22% remained uncertain.

The shift in American sentiment coincided with growing international condemnation of the Israeli regime’s ongoing atrocities in Gaza, which is receiving direct and robust American political and military support.

Earlier, six leading United Nations agencies demanded a ceasefire, citing the collapse of basic humanitarian infrastructure, widespread starvation, and the death toll among children in the violence-wracked coastal sliver.

The death toll from US airstrikes on a residential neighborhood in Yemen’s port city of Hodeida has risen to 12.

The bodies, including UNICEF and the World Food Program, jointly called for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in Gaza, warning that famine and disease threatened to claim even more lives.

source https://panafricannews.blogspot.com/2025/04/significant-downturn-in-americans.html