Percentage of Americans Who Support Israel

The 46% support for Israel is the lowest percentage in 25 years of tracking of this metric on its World Affairs survey, even though Americans are still more inclined to say they sympathize with Israelis than with Palestinians on the Middle East issue. Both last year and in 2001, Americans’ affection for Israel fell to its lowest point in history, at 51%. Meanwhile, 33% of American adults now say they sympathize with Palestinians, which is a two-point increase from the previous year and the highest reading to date.

The most recent reading comes from a poll taken between February 3 and 16, when Israel and Hamas maintained their hostage-taking and temporary ceasefire that began in mid-January. The poll started the day before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the White House and met with President Donald Trump for a joint press conference. Trump stated his intention for the United States to possess and reconstruct the Gaza Strip at a news conference on February 4.

Less than half of the US is now sympathetic toward Israel

Partisans’ positive assessments of the two nations are consistent with their sympathies for the Middle East crisis. In other words, Democrats are almost three times more likely to identify with the Palestinians than with the Israelis (59% vs. 21%), but Republicans are more likely to sympathize with the Israelis (75%). The sympathies of independents are comparable to those of the national average.

Although independents’ support for Israel is currently at its lowest level in World Affairs polls by one point, Republicans and independents have continuously supported Israel since 2001. Democrats have backed the Palestinians ever since. At first, it appeared that Democrats’ waning support for Israel was due to their dislike of Netanyahu’s right-wing political leadership. But over the last two years, it has dropped much further. The figure for Palestinian sympathies surged 11 points to 49% in February 2023, the first time that Palestinian sympathies were the majority among Democrats, while the reading for Israeli sympathies fell to 38%.

When Hamas militants struck Israel on October 7, 2023, eight months later, they had killed more than 1,000 Israelis and captured about 250 more. By February of the following year, Democrats’ support for the Palestinian people had fallen six points. Democrats’ sympathy for the Palestinians has increased by 16 points, reaching the majority level for the first time in a year, despite the ongoing humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Americans continue to support a two-state solution in the Middle East

Since 1999, it has been tracking Americans’ opinions on this. Since then, Americans have been increasingly in favor of and still are in favor of the creation of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Before that, Americans’ support for an independent Palestinian state was still more than their opposition, but it was still well below the majority. 

Democrats are generally in favor of an independent Palestinian state, which makes sense given their majority-level sympathy for the Palestinians. Approximately 76% of Democrats support such a state, while only 53% of independents share the same view. 49% of Republicans reject a Palestinian state, compared to 41% who favor it. Since 2021, Democrats’ support for a Palestinian state has been increasing, while independents’ support has remained largely stable during that time. Support for Republicans has increased by 15 points since it fell precipitously the previous year.

Impact of Israeli military actions and human rights concerns

The views have been fueled by prevalent dissatisfaction with the actions of the Israeli military force in Gaza, especially after the 2023 Hamas-Israel conflict. Many Americans