Jewish Americans Are Trending Conservative as the Israel-Hamas War Trudges On

Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza is among the most galvanizing issues for American progressives in recent years, with high-profile demonstrations in favor of Palestinian rights driving wall-to-wall media coverage and unifying leftists in opposition to Democratic leaders’ approach to the issue.

But those efforts to advocate for Palestinians — and to criticize Israel’s government — haven’t come without political consequences at home. On the contrary, Morning Consult tracking data suggests those demonstrations have alienated some of their nominal ideological bedfellows, Jewish Americans.

Monthly surveys conducted among thousands of Jewish Americans indicate the group has shifted rightward in the almost two years since Israel invaded Gaza in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attacks. 

According to data collected throughout July, 33% of Jewish Americans identify as conservative, up from 27% in September 2023. Meanwhile, 40% identify as liberal, down from 42% at that time. (For comparison, the broader U.S. population’s ideological leanings are unchanged over this time frame.)

Examining the multiyear trend line a little more closely, the shift toward conservatism, and away from liberalism, looks sharpest since the summer of 2024, when then-Vice President Kamala Harris replaced then-President Joe Biden at the top of the ticket — and around the time Israel ignored Biden’s so-called red line on the conflict with its Rafah offensive.

Though Harris’ campaign saw little substantive break from Biden’s position on Israel’s conduct in the war, there were subtle rhetorical differences between the two, particularly when it came to the plight of the Palestinian people. Domestic and international backlash to the Rafah offensive was also widespread. 

These dynamics could help explain the emergence of a clear rightward shift among Jewish Americans, which has continued into 2025 as the Democratic establishment has become more openly hostile to Netanyahu’s government and its handling of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

The bottom line

If recent comments by influential Democratic voices on Israel are any indication, the party is preparing for a more antagonistic relationship with Israel. On that basis, it’s reasonable to expect these rightward ideological shifts among Jewish Americans to continue.

In gaming out the political implications for such a shift, it’s important to understand which Jewish Americans are leaving the left side of the ideological spectrum behind.

As our data shows, the rightward shift among Jewish Americans is especially concentrated among those between the ages of 45 and 64, who have become 9 points more likely to identify as conservative since September 2023. (We also observe small rightward shifts among Jewish Americans ages 35-44 and 65 or older.)

The fact that these older Americans are more likely to vote poses an obvious short-term problem for a Democratic Party looking to take a different tack with Israel. 

In many Democrats’ view, that might be a worthy trade-off from the perspective of politics and policy. But these conversations must acknowledge that there are indeed trade-offs when it comes to domestic politics on the Middle East conflict.