'Stunning Reversal': New York Times Poll Finds US Support for Israel Has Plummeted

As Israel's bombardment of Gaza and starvation policy in the exclave nears the beginning of its third year, the assault that has killed more than 66,000 Palestinians has driven US support for Israel "off a cliff," suggested one commentator in response to a poll released Monday by The New York Times and Siena College.

The survey of 1,313 registered voters found that for the first time since the newspaper and university have polled Americans on their sympathies regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since 1998, more respondents said they support Palestinians than Israelis.

Thirty-five percent expressed sympathy with the Palestinian side, while 34% said they support Israelis and 31% said they were unsure or had equal sympathy for both sides.

The poll did not show a majority of respondents backing Palestinians, who have demanded the right to self-determination and an end to Israel's occupation and apartheid policies since Zionist forces ethnically cleansed hundreds of Palestinian towns and cities, killed 15,000 people, and expelled at least 750,000 Palestinians from their homes in order to establish the Jewish-majority state of Israel in the 1940s.

But the shift in support toward Palestinians was still viewed as seismic among political observers including journalist Krystal Ball, who said the poll showed that "Israel has lost the American people."

Support for Israel and the United States' policy of providing the country with more than $300 billion in aid—mostly military aid—since its founding have long appeared unbreakable among lawmakers from both major political parties, and the public has followed suit for decades.

In 2011, a Gallup poll found that US adults were more than four times as likely to express sympathy and support for Israelis than for Palestinians. Between 1988 and 2011, the survey never found more than 20% of Americans siding with Palestinians.

The Times/Siena poll has found similar results, with 47% of respondents telling survey-takers that they supported Israel in the aftermath of the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023 and just 20% expressing sympathy with Palestinians.

In December 2023, only 22% of Americans told the Times and Siena they believed Israel was intentionally killing Palestinian civilians—despite numerous statements by Israeli officials suggesting that their policy was to do so. In the first weeks of the war, then-Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the government as cutting off deliveries of water, food, and fuel to Gaza because Israel was "fighting human animals," and President Isaac Herzog said Gaza's population of more than 2 million Palestinians were all "responsible" for the Hamas attack, denying that there were civilians who were "not involved."

Nearly two years later, Americans have changed their view, with 40% saying Israel is intentionally killing Palestinians. A quarter of respondents said Israel is doing enough to prevent civilian casualties, down from 30% in 2023, and 16% said Israel is unintentionally killing civilians, down from 21%.

The Times reported a "stunning reversal" in public opinion regarding the continuation of US aid to Israel since October 2023. More than half of registered voters now oppose providing Israel with military and economic aid. Opposition was the highest among voters under the age of 44; 62% of those aged 30-44 said the US should stop funding Israel, while 68% of voters aged 18-29 said the same.

Last month, a Quinnipiac University survey showed similar results, with 60% of voters from across the political spectrum saying they opposed more military aid for Israel—the most significant opposition level recorded by the university since it first asked the question in November 2023.

The Times survey displayed "absolutely staggering public opinion polling on Israel's collapse among young Americans," said journalist Glenn Greenwald.

"Though this was utterly unthinkable even five years ago," said Greenwald, "it's now reflected in poll after poll, and is so entrenched it's hard to imagine it can be reversed."

The poll was released as progressive commentator Hasan Piker said in a video posted on social media by Current Affairs that Democratic lawmakers must abandon the idea that supporting Israel is "pragmatic," pointing out that New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani easily won the primary election in June after being outspoken in his criticism of Israel's policies in the occupied Palestinian territories.

"It's not an area that you will be punished for, no matter how fearful you are of corporate donors, no matter how fearful you are of lobbying interests," said Piker. "The people will back you, as we have seen with the primary victory for Zohran."

Continuing to support Israel is "not pragmatic," he added. "It's actually the opposite of pragmatism."