While the Trump administration earnestly redistributes billions of dollars of American wealth to Israel, that country’s immensely-destructive war in Gaza appears to be taking a growing toll on its support among Americans. According to the latest Pew Research survey, a majority of Americans now have an unfavorable view of Israel. In a finding that will cause the greatest alarm in Israeli government offices and at US-based pro-Israel organizations, there’s now a huge generational divide within the GOP ranks.
53% of Americans now have an unfavorable view of Israel, thanks to the share of Americans with dim views of Israel surging by 11 points in three years. The comparison point is Pew’s survey in March 2022, seven months before the Oct 7 Hamas invasion of southern Israel sparked a massive military response that’s killed more than 50,000 Palestinians — about a third of them under 18 — according to health officials in Gaza. Over the same span, the proportion of Americans with “very unfavorable” views of Israel has almost doubled from 10% to 19%.
Extending back several years, support for Israel had started to sharply polarize along major-party lines, with Democrats’ affinity for Israel plummeting while GOP support held relatively steady. In the Pew survey‘s most striking statistic of all, disdain for the State of Israel among Republicans under age 50 has soared 15 points in three years, which could signal that support for Israel is poised for a bipartisan decline for years to come. Among Republicans and Republican leaners age 50 and older, unfavorable views of Israel crept up just four points since 2022, from 19% to 23%. Among the under-50 GOP set, it rose from 35% to 50%.
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