U.S. opinions of Israel have grown more negative in recent years, led by Democrats who are sharply critical of the nation’s conduct in the Israel-Gaza war, according to an AP-NORC poll released Tuesday.
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The survey found that 40 percent said the U.S. is “too supportive” of Israel in its conflict with the Palestinians, ticking up from 37 percent in January 2024 but rising significantly from 27 percent in August 2023, before Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
A 58 percent majority of Democrats now say the U.S. supports Israel too much, up from 45 percent two years ago, according to the poll. Fewer Republicans said the U.S. is too supportive of Israel, 27 percent, little changed from 25 percent two years ago.
Asked whether Israel’s actions in the war in Gaza amounted to genocide, 31 percent said yes, 20 percent said no and 49 percent said they didn’t know enough to say. About half of Democrats said Israel committed genocide, 52 percent, compared with 13 percent of Republicans.
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Other polls find a dramatic shift in views of Israel since the war began. In February, for the first time in over two decades, a Gallup poll found more Americans sympathizing with Palestinians than Israelis, 41 percent versus 36 percent. In early 2023, Americans sympathized more with Israel than Palestinians by 54 percent to 31 percent.
The AP-NORC survey was conducted online and by phone June 11-17 among 3,040 U.S. adults through the AmeriSpeak panel, an ongoing survey panel recruited through random sampling of U.S. households. The sample was weighted to match the U.S. population by census demographics, 2024 presidential vote and Jewish identity.
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