Americans Overwhelmingly Support Israel in its Fight Against Hamas

To: Interested Parties
From: The 10/7 Project
Re: Americans Overwhelmingly Support Israel in its Fight Against Hamas
Date: December 19, 2023

Contact: [email protected]

Today The 10/7 Project released a new analysis of public polling on Americans’ views toward the conflict between Israel and Hamas, along with a statement from The 10/7 Project Executive Director Josh Isay:

“Today’s New York Times story about Americans’ views on President Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war is simply misleading,” said The 10/7 Project Executive Director Josh Isay. “Our review of the most recent publicly available and highly credible national polls on this conflict clearly shows that Americans’ support for Israel remains strong. The American people support Israel’s effort to defeat Hamas.”

Throughout the New York Times/Siena survey, the pollster incorrectly asked respondents about their views of the “Israeli-Palestinian conflict” and the “dispute between Israel and the Palestinians.”

Americans hold positive views of Israel and overwhelmingly consider Israel to be an ally of the United States. According to a national poll of U.S. voters conducted by Schoen Cooperman Research in October, 64% have a favorable view of Israel, compared to just 22% who have an unfavorable view.¹ Those who have the strongest feelings about Israel have favorable views (31% very favorable/11% very unfavorable).² A Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll survey fielded in mid-December continued to find a majority of Americans have favorable views of Israel.³ Even in one of the flawed New York Times/Siena survey questions, in which respondents were incorrectly forced to choose between sympathizing between Israel and the Palestinians, a strong plurality sided with Israel (47%) over the Palestinians (20%).⁴ A poll conducted by The Economist/YouGov found more than seven in 10 U.S. adults consider Israel to be an ally or friendly to the United States, compared to just nine percent of U.S. adults who consider Israel to be an enemy or unfriendly to the United States.⁵

Americans hold very negative views of Hamas and view Hamas as a threat to the United States. The mid-December Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll survey found 65% of Americans have unfavorable views of Hamas and 14% of Americans who have favorable views of Hamas.⁶ A strong majority of U.S. adults believe Hamas poses an immediate and serious threat or a somewhat serious threat to the U.S. (57%) compared to just 25% of U.S. adults who believe Hamas poses a minor threat to the U.S. or no threat to the U.S. at all.⁷ A recent national survey from The Mellman Group found 62% of voters said Hamas was “most to blame” for the war, and only 15% said Israel was “most to blame.”⁸ According to a recent Pew Research Center poll, nearly two-thirds of Americans say Hamas has “a lot” of responsibility for Israel and Hamas currently being at war, compared to just 35% who say the Israeli government has that same level of responsibility for the war.⁹

Americans support providing U.S. aid to Israel. Despite the flaws in the New York Times/Siena poll, even that survey found majority support for “providing additional economic and military support to Israel.”¹⁰ Seven in 10 U.S. adults support the U.S. providing humanitarian aid to Israel.¹¹ A majority of registered voters specifically support sending $14 billion in aid to Israel to help in its war with Hamas (54% support), including a majority of Democrats and Republicans.¹² More generally, 60% of Americans say it is important for the U.S. government to provide funding for military aid to Israel, compared to 40% who say it is not important.¹³ A plurality of U.S. adults support sending weapons to Israel (41% good idea/29% bad idea).¹⁴

Americans support Israel’s approach to its war against Hamas. A majority of U.S. adults believe the Israeli government’s response to the attack by Hamas has been “about right” or “not harsh enough” (54%) compared to just 18% of U.S. adults who say the response has been “too harsh.” In the Pew Recent Center poll, less than three in 10 Americans said Israel is “going too far” in its military operation against Hamas, compared to 41% who believe Israel is “taking the right approach” in its military operation against Hamas or “not going far enough.”¹⁵ Meanwhile, the vast majority of voters say Israel “should only agree to a ceasefire with Hamas after Hamas has been disarmed and dismantled and the hostages they took are released” (61%) compared to less than two in 10 voters who believe “Israel should agree to an immediate, permanent ceasefire with Hamas.”¹⁶

¹ https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sZl9oisyln5aSVT8up0glVQGqCJSdGDU/view

² Ibid.

³ https://harvardharrispoll.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/HHP_Dec23_KeyResults.pdf

⁴ https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/12/19/us/elections/times-siena-poll-registered-voter-crosstabs.html

⁵ https://d3nkl3psvxxpe9.cloudfront.net/documents/econTabReport_uXN5Bmo.pdf

⁶ https://harvardharrispoll.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/HHP_Dec23_KeyResults.pdf

⁷ https://d3nkl3psvxxpe9.cloudfront.net/documents/econTabReport_uXN5Bmo.pdf

⁸ https://cdn.sanity.io/files/ifn0l6bs/production/67aab48941cb7cf28aac0eb1aeb8e4af0335a645.pdf

⁹ https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2023/12/08/americans-views-of-the-israel-hamas-war/

¹⁰ https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/12/19/us/elections/times-siena-poll-registered-voter-crosstabs.html

¹¹ https://d3nkl3psvxxpe9.cloudfront.net/documents/econTabReport_uXN5Bmo.pdf

¹² https://harvardharrispoll.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/HHP_Dec23_KeyResults.pdf