Sympathy for Israelis dropped 14% among Republicans over the last year, underscoring waning support for Israel as the country’s ongoing offensive in Gaza wages on, according to a new poll released Wednesday by Quinnipiac University.
Among Republicans, the new poll found that 64% said their sympathies lay with the Israelis, while 7% said it was with Palestinians. In a May 2024 Quinnipiac poll, Republicans sympathy for Israel was at 78%.
The poll also found dwindling support for Israel among Democrats, who had already sharply trailed Republicans in saying they viewed Israel favorably.
Just 12% said their sympathies lay more with Israelis, while 60% sympathized more with Palestinians. Last year, 30% of Democrats said they sympathized more with Israelis.
Among American voters writ large, the poll reflected an all-time high for sympathy with Palestinians and an all-time low for sympathy with Israelis among American voters since the Quinnipiac University Poll began asking the question in 2001.
In both parties, a third of voters did not give an opinion on the question of sympathy for Palestinians and Israelis. Among Republicans, respondents who did not have an opinion grew by 13 percentage points over the year, signalling uncertainty within the party.
The partisan gap between Republicans and Democrats on Israel reached over 50 percentage points in Quinnipiac’s recent poll.
Shrinking support for Israel has been echoed in other recent polls of American voters. In February, a Gallup poll found that one third of Democrats viewed Israel favorably, a figure that had plummeted 30 points over a span of three years.
The decline among previously stalwart Republicans may reflect frustration within the Trump administration and its media allies with a war that Israel does not appear eager to end. When Trump travelled to the region last month, it was considered conspicuous that he did not stop in Israel and instead sidelined its leadership as he held talks with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
In April, another poll by the Pew Research Center following President Donald Trump’s announcement that the United States would take over Gaza found that 62% of Americans opposed the proposal, including 44% of Republicans.
Among Jewish voters, recent polling has also found that attachment to Israel has taken a hit. A poll last month found that the share who described themselves as very or somewhat attached to Israel had declined from 82% before Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack to 69% now.
The Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday also found that nearly three quarters of American voters think that prejudice against Jewish people in the United States today is either a very serious problem or a somewhat serious problem.
On the topic of antisemitism in the United States, the survey found that 38% overall believe prejudice against Jewish people in the United States today is a very serious problem, while 35% think it is a somewhat serious problem. Sixteen percent of American voters think antisemitism is a not so serious problem, while 6% think it is not a problem at all.
“With no end to the Israel-Gaza conflict in sight, Israel’s standing with voters slips significantly. At the same time, here in the U.S., there is broad empathy for victims of antisemitism,” said Quinnipiac University polling analyst Tim Malloy in a statement.
When asked how confident they were that Israel and Hamas would agree to a permanent ceasefire in the near future, 17% of American voters said they were either very confident or somewhat confident, according to the poll.
In response to President Donald Trump’s handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict, 35% of American voters approved, 52% disapproved, and 13% did not offer an opinion.
When asked how they thought about President Donald Trump’s combatting of antisemitism, 36% of voters approved while 49% disapproved, and 15% did not offer an opinion.
The Trump administration’s campaign against antisemitism has included multi-billion dollar federal funding cuts to universities and crackdowns on pro-Palestinian protesters. When asked about Trump’s handling of universities, 37% of respondents approved, 54% disapproved, and 9% did not offer an opinion.
The Quinnipiac University poll was conducted from June 5 to June 9 and polled 1,265 self-identified registered voters nationwide. It reported a margin of error of +/- 2.8 percentage points.
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