Americans’ Sympathy for Israel, Support for Military Aid Dip to New Lows

The first year of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza took a toll on its image among Americans, but two months ahead of the conflict’s second anniversary, it’s clear that the situation has devolved into a genuine public relations disaster for the Jewish state.

Our latest Morning Consult survey tracking voters’ views on the Israel-Hamas war, conducted Aug. 1-3, finds public opinion continuing to shift away from Israel, and toward the Palestinians in Gaza.

Let’s start with Americans’ general sentiment about the conflict between the two sides. When asked which side they sympathize with more — Israelis, Palestinians or both sides equally — voters are now only 7 percentage points more likely to side with the Israelis than the Palestinians.

It’s a far cry from responses gathered at the outset of the conflict and one year later, when Americans’ sympathies were heavily slanted toward the Israelis by respective 32- and 23-point margins.

The record-low 25% share of sympathy for Israelis is the product of a bipartisan vibe shift. 

Just 10% of Democrats say they sympathize most with Israelis, down from 17% in late 2024 and 28% in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks. The 21% of independents who agree is similarly down by a respective 11 and 19 points over that time frame. 

Even Republicans, who at 43% remain by far the most sympathetic to the Israelis, are now 12 points less likely to say so than they were in October 2023, with the vast majority of the movement occurring since President Donald Trump was elected in November.

Those shifts are mirrored by changes in sentiment on America’s relationship with Israel. 

For the first time in 13 surveys regularly tracking views on the conflict, U.S. voters are now slightly more likely to say America should not provide military aid to Israel than they are to say they should.

That 3-point net opposition to military aid for Israel represents a massive shift from the previous two Octobers, when voters were at least 15 points more likely to favor than oppose arming the Jewish state.

Both Democrats and independents are now nearly 20 points more likely to oppose the U.S. provision of aid for Israel than to support it. And though a majority of Republicans continue to say the United States should arm Israel, they’re increasingly unshare about it.

The bottom line

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the conflict quickly wore thin with left-leaning Americans, creating a political nightmare for the Democratic Party. 

Torn between their disagreement with the Biden administration’s stance on the conflict (which they found too conciliatory to Netanyahu) and their concern that any public criticism would only help Trump on the campaign trail (ultimately redounding to a more dire humanitarian situation in Gaza), many Democratic lawmakers tried to have it both ways and came across as mealy-mouthed.

The changing of the partisan guard in Washington appears to be depolarizing the public’s views on the conflict, helped along by an increasing number of influential voices from the American left and right criticizing the status quo in Gaza. 

Though Republican support for Israel remains relatively staunch, the growing predilection for isolationism within strains of the GOP grassroots and the Jewish state’s loss of favor with America’s broader population means Netanyahu may no longer be able to take Israel’s influence stateside for granted.