A majority of Democrats believe Israel has done “too much” in response to the October 7 Hamas terror attack, according to data from a recent poll.
The poll, conducted November 6 through 9 by NPR, PBS NewsHour, and Marist, found that 56 percent of Democrats said Israel has gone overboard in responding to the slaughter of 1,400 of its citizens, up 21 points from a poll taken last month, in the immediate aftermath of the attack.
The trend is not limited to Democrats: the tide of national opinion has been shifting against Israel in recent weeks. Among all respondents, the number of people who said Israel’s response has gone too far is up 12 points from an October poll — the needle moved from 26 percent to 38 percent in the course of a month. However, the majority of Americans — 61 percent — still sympathize with the Israeli cause.
In response to the question “Do you think Israel’s military response to the attack by Hamas has been too much, too little or about right?” the November poll found that 38 percent of Americans thought the response “too much,” another 38 percent thought “about right,” and 17 percent thought “too little.”
The results were in large part driven by younger respondents, who were far more likely than their older counterparts to say Israel’s response has been too aggressive. (Respondents under 45 were 17 points more likely than those over 45 to say the response been too much.)
There was also a racial divide among respondents: Non-whites were 15 points more likely than whites to say Israel’s response has been too much.
Those who fall in the “too much” category align with pro-Biden groups. Fifty-nine percent of Biden voters believe Israel’s response has been too much.
When asked whether their sympathies lie more with the Israelis or the Palestinians in the conflict, Democrats split evenly down the middle, 45 percent to 45 percent. Seventy-nine percent of Republicans, however, reported that their sympathies lie with Israel.
Again, racial and generational divides proved to be major factors. Half of Generation Z and Millennial respondents said they sympathize more with the Palestinians.
Respondents were also asked, “Thinking about the United States’ role in the world, which comes closer to your opinion, even if neither is exactly right …” and were presented with two options. The first: “It’s crucial for the U.S. to play a major leadership role in world events.” The second: “the U.S. should focus on its own problems and play less of a leadership role.”
Sixty-six percent of Democrats said the U.S. should maintain its leadership role, while 56 percent of independents and 51 percent of Republicans said the nation should focus more on its own problems and play less of a leadership role. However, Republicans were much more supportive of American involvement in Israel than Democrats, and Democrats were much more supportive of American involvement in Ukraine than Republicans.
The results of the poll were released at a time when conflicting coverage of the war in Gaza has taken center stage in Western news cycles, particularly with regards to Hamas’s use of al-Shifa Hospital as cover for its military operations.
On Tuesday, the March for Israel on the National Mall inf D.C. gathered nearly 300,000 supporters of Israel’s cause, displaying the general popular support of Americans for the Israeli cause.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) spoke to the crowd, addressing the horrors perpetuated by Hamas on October 7.
“When Hamas says ‘from the river to the sea,’ they mean all of present-day Israel should be a Jewish-free land. In fact, Hamas has said that what they did — the horror that they did on October 7 to the Jewish communities near the Gaza border — they should do to all Israelis. Just look at Hamas’s founding document. It says, ‘Is that a Jew behind the tree? Cut down the tree so you can shoot him.’ That is the evil of Hamas. Never, never, never will we forget the evil of Hamas.”