About 6 in 10 Americans say Israel has valid reasons for fighting Hamas, but only about 4 in 10 say Israel’s conduct in the war against the Palestinian militant group has been acceptable, according to a Pew Research Center survey.
Pollsters surveyed enough Jewish and Muslim respondents to provide a breakout of how those groups view the conflict, Pew said.
Hamas terrorists raided southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing at least 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostage in Gaza. The Israeli military’s operation to destroy Hamas has razed much of Gaza, killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and left hundreds of thousands homeless. The Palestinian enclave is on the brink of famine, U.N. officials say.
Overall, 58% of respondents said Israel has good reason to fight Hamas and 38% said the Jewish state’s response has been acceptable in the survey, which was conducted in the second half of February.
But 89% of American Jews and 18% of U.S. Muslims said Israel has a valid reason to fight the militant group.
What’s more, 49% of Muslims said Hamas’ reasons for fighting Israel were valid, and 21% said Hamas’ attack on Israel was completely or somewhat acceptable. Only 16% of U.S. Jews polled said Hamas’ reasons for its attack on Israel were valid.
The survey denotes a shift among Americans younger than 30: About 38% said Israel’s reasons for fighting Hamas are valid and 46% said Israel’s actions are “unacceptable.” In addition, the percentage who expressed a favorable view of Israelis fell by 17 percentage points since 2019, while the views of Palestinians did not change.
Pew said its survey shows a political divide in how Americans view Israel and how President Biden has responded to the crisis.
Fifty-two percent of Democratic/Democrat-leaning respondents said Israel’s response in Gaza is “unacceptable,” while 17% of Republican/Republican-leading respondents held that view.
Pew said Democrats are divided over whether Mr. Biden “is tilting too far” in favor of Israel (34%) or “striking the right balance” (29%). Just 3% of Democrats said the president favors Palestinians “too much,” a view held by 32% of Republicans.
Fifty percent of Republicans and 25% of Democrats approved the U.S. sending military aid to Israel.
Meanwhile, 68% of all respondents said the prospect for lasting peace is unlikely, while only 3% said it is “extremely or very” likely and 9% said it’s “somewhat” likely. Forty percent favored a two-state solution, defined as “splitting the land into two counties, one with an Israeli government and one with a Palestinian government.” That’s an increase from 35% in 2022, Pew said.
The survey was conducted Feb. 13-25 among a nationally representative sample of 12,693 U.S. adults, with 10,642 respondents from the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP). An additional 2,051 respondents were drawn from survey panels — Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel, SSRS’s Opinion Panel, and NORC at the University of Chicago’s AmeriSpeak Panel — in which respondents identified as Jewish or Muslim.
The margin of error for the sample of 12,693 respondents is plus or minus 1.5 percentage points.