Israel has been gradually losing support among the American public over the past few years, often because of the role of social media which is able to provide “news in your pocket” on the mobile phones that the younger generation is using.
This trend of declining support for Israel did not start with Hamas’ Operation Al-Aqsa Flood against Israel on 7 October 2023, however. Instead, it has been gradually building up over the years. The Israeli military operations as a result of the Sheikh Jarrah events in May 2021, when Palestinian families in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah were threatened with eviction, caused many Americans, especially young Democrats, to abandon their support for Israel.
It reached a high point when The New York Times published a front-page story in May 2021 featuring pictures of 67 Gazan children killed by Israeli air raids and titled “They Were Only Children”. The newspaper ran this story in order to keep up with the declining support for Israel among its readership and to show that its traditional mode of reporting could keep up with that done by social media.
Four years later, it seems that Israel has lost even more support among the American public. The number of celebrities speaking out against Israel, the amount of anti-Israeli mass protests in American streets, and the volume of student protests at American universities have all increased significantly.
During the past two years following the 7 October 2023 attacks, there has been a large number of polls that have shown this decline in support for Israel among the American public. In March this year, a Gallup poll found that only 46 per cent of Americans expressed support for Israel, for example, the lowest level in 25 years, while 33 per cent said that they sympathised with the Palestinians, the highest ever reading.
Most of these changes have been found in younger members of the Democratic Party. Even so, between 2022 and 2025, the Pew Research Centre found that the proportion of Republicans who said they had unfavourable views of Israel rose from 27 to 37 per cent, while most of that change came from young Republicans under the age of 49.
Another poll by the New York Times and Siena University last month found that 34 per cent of American voters support Israel, while 35 per cent support the Palestinians, and 31 per cent said that they were unsure or supported both sides equally. Compare this to the direct aftermath of the Hamas-led attacks on Israel two years ago, when 47 per cent of American voters supported Israel and only 20 per cent supported the Palestinians.
Furthermore, says the New York Times/Siena poll, a majority of American voters now oppose sending additional economic and military aid to Israel, another major reversal in public opinion since the 7 October attacks, as six out of 10 voters said that Israel should end its military campaign against Gaza even if the remaining Israeli hostages are not released or Hamas eliminated.
Forty per cent of voters said that Israel was intentionally killing civilians in Gaza, which is nearly double the number of voters who agreed with this statement in the 2023 poll. Again, these changes are driven by younger members of the Democratic Party.
The change is happening even among American Jews. A recent poll by The Washington Post of American Jews found that 39 per cent of them accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, while 51 per cent said that Israel had not committed genocide. Sixty-eight per cent of American Jews said that Hamas bore the brunt of the blame for civilian deaths in Gaza.
By contrast, just 32 per cent mainly blamed Tel Aviv. Nearly all respondents, 94 per cent, said that Hamas had committed war crimes. Regarding the Israeli prime minister, 68 per cent of American Jews disapprove of Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies, the survey found, while 32 per cent approve of his leadership.
Younger American Jews are less emotionally attached to Israel than older American Jews. Fifty-six per cent of the latter feel emotionally attached to Israel. However, among American Jews aged 18 to 34, only 36 per cent feel an emotional attachment to Israel.
ELECTIONS: The Gaza war also impacted the 2024 US presidential elections.
While observers say that the main reason Democratic candidate then vice president Kamala Harris lost to Republican candidate Donald Trump in 2024 was inflation and rising consumer prices resulting from the economic recovery after the lifting of the Covid-19 lockdowns, a secondary reason may have been the Gaza war.
Trump promised that he would solve the inflation problem, something that has not happened as of the time of writing, and he also presented himself as a “man of the people” in touch with the “average Joe”, unlike Harris, who was seen as the candidate of the educated middle class leaning towards the left. But a January 2025 poll by the Institute of Middle East Understanding and YouGov.com showed that a third of the voters who voted for former president Joe Biden in 2020 changed their vote in 2024 and voted for Trump because of Harris’s support for the Israeli actions in Gaza.
Observers do not agree with the logic of those who voted for Trump instead of Harris to “punish” the latter over Gaza, since Trump has always been a big supporter of Israel and expressed his support for Israel’s actions during his election campaign. Even so, he called Biden “Genocide Joe” for his support of Israel during the war, confirming his reputation for mixed messaging, and during his first term in office he practically recognised East Jerusalem as the capital of Israel when he moved the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to East Jerusalem in 2018.
However, while the change of American public attitudes towards Israel may be a reflection of the hyper-polarised environment in the US today, it is unlikely to affect Washington’s foreign policy towards Israel, at least in the short term, since this is still governed by the pro-Israel White House and Congress. Israel still enjoys considerable support among the leaderships of the Democratic and the Republican Parties.
Despite Trump’s promises to end the Gaza war “soon”, and despite his occasional criticisms of Netanyahu, he has not pressured the latter to end the war — and in fact the Senate voted 72-27 in July to allow a further $675 million in arms sales to Israel.
Regarding the military and strategic situation in the Middle East arena, Israel is getting stronger and has been bombing groups that Washington sees as a threat, such as the Houthis in Yemen or the Islamic regime in Iran. This is another reason why Washington remains in support of Israel. The hope of the Arabs and Palestinians regaining their rights, on the other hand, is getting weaker. Despite the rise of international support for these rights, it is still unlikely that Washington will support the establishment of a Palestinian state.
But one important test of the change in US public opinion will come in 2028, when the Trump administration renegotiates the memorandum of understanding that governs the defence agreement between Israel and the US. This is renewed about every 10 years. The current agreement is set to expire in 2028, and the renewal negotiations will begin a long time before the expiration date.
In the meantime, Arab Americans should take advantage of the changes in American public perceptions of Israel. They should practise the art of political lobbying more effectively and challenge pro-Israel lobbies such as the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee and other similar groups.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 9 October, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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