(RNS) — More than half of U.S. adults now express an unfavorable opinion of Israel, and younger generations on both sides of the political divide are growing more negative in their view of the country.
Those are among the findings of a new Pew Research Center poll released Tuesday (April 8).
The poll found that 53% of Americans now express a “somewhat” or “very unfavorable” opinion of Israel. This marks an 11-point increase in unfavorable views since March 2022, when Pew asked the same question.
In the intervening years, Israel has launched a devastating attack on Gaza, killing some 50,000 Palestinians, the majority of them women and children. The war in Gaza followed the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel that killed 1,200.
“Among both Republicans and Democrats, older Americans are more likely to say war between Israel and Hamas is important to them and to U.S. interests” (Graphic courtesy Pew Research Center)
The share of U.S. adults who voice “very unfavorable” views of Israel has roughly doubled over this three-year period, from 10% in 2022 to 19% in 2025. Democrats, the poll found, are much more likely to express unfavorable opinions of Israel than Republicans (69% vs. 37%).
“In some sense this marks the culmination of a process by which Israel is no longer perceived as David, but as Goliath,” said David Myers, a professor of history at the University of California, Los Angeles. “There’s been a shift in the perception of who’s the powerful and who’s the powerless, who’s the oppressor and who’s the oppressed.”
The poll, conducted from March 24-30 among 3,605 Americans, may mark a watershed in American public opinion about Israel.
The United States used to be an outlier among other countries of the world because of its positive view of Israel, said Ian Lustick, a retired political scientist from the University of Pennsylvania and a Middle East scholar. “Now we’re seeing that the United States is more in alignment with the rest of the world on this issue,” Lustick said.
Significantly, the poll found, younger Republicans, aged 18-49, have also soured on Israel, though less than young Democrats. Half of Republicans under 50 now have negative views on Israel, up from 35% in 2022. In 2022, they were much more likely to see Israel positively than negatively (63% vs. 35%).
Among Democrats under 50 years old, 71% had negative views of Israel, up from 62% in 2022.
“What is most interesting about these numbers is that it’s no longer a shift that’s happening on only one side of the political spectrum,” said Yousef Munayyer, director of the Palestine/Israel Program at the Arab Center, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that focuses on U.S. policy toward the Arab world.
“What younger voters are seeing happening in Gaza — and they have been seeing it for some time now — they don’t want to be associated with that,” he added. “It’s not just something that they don’t want to be associated with as Republicans, but something that they don’t want to be associated with as Americans.”
“U.S. religious groups differ widely in views of Israel” (Graphic courtesy Pew Research Center)
Among religious groups, Jews and white evangelicals hold the most positive views of Israel: 73% and 72%, respectively. Muslim Americans hold the most negative views of Israel — 81% — followed by the religiously unaffiliated (69%) and Catholics (53%). White mainline Protestants are about evenly divided among those who see Israel favorably and unfavorably.
Half of Americans (52%) have little or no confidence that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will “do the right thing regarding world affairs.”
When it comes to solutions to the Israel-Palestinian conflict, Democrats are much more likely than Republicans (56% vs. 36%) to say a two-state solution is possible. Fewer than half of American Jews (47%) say a two-state solution is possible. Muslim Americans are a bit more sanguine about a two-state solution: 56% say it’s possible.
The war in Gaza is personally important to 93% of Jewish Americans, the poll found, and 68% of Muslim-Americans.
But Americans Jews are divided on whether President Donald Trump is favoring Israel: 36% say Trump is favoring Israelis too much, while 43% say he’s striking the right balance. Unsurprisingly, 70% of Muslim Americans say Trump is favoring Israelis too much.
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Smoke and explosions rise inside the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, March 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Two months ago, Trump proposed a radical idea: The United States would take control of the Gaza Strip, relocate about 2 million Palestinians and turn the ruins of the seaside enclave into a resort. Americans are unconvinced: 38% of Americans do not think it is likely the president will pursue this policy. On Monday, at a meeting with Netanyahu in the White House, Trump also appeared to have moved on, saying it was “a concept that I had.”
Lustick pointed out the poll illustrates an expanding gap between what the American public thinks of Israel and how the Trump administration is treating Israel.
“Policies toward Israel by the government have actually gone in the other direction, of almost obsequious support for an extreme far-right government in Israel,” Lustick said, and that is not about to change, he added. “American foreign policy on this issue is not driven by public opinion. It’s driven by domestic political calculations, meaning money, not votes.”
The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
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