A Pew Research Center survey released Thursday found that 62% of Americans held an unfavorable view of the Israeli government, 69% had an unfavorable opinion of the Palestinian Authority, and 84% viewed Hamas unfavorably. The numbers land like a small referendum on the people who claim to govern everyone else. The public, at least in this survey, doesn’t seem eager to bless any of them.
The People, the Rulers, the Gap
The survey questioned 12,574 US adults from May 4 to May 17, 2026, with a margin of error of plus or minus 1.3 percentage points. It found that 52% had a favorable opinion of the Israeli people, while 42% held an unfavorable opinion. Palestinians drew a similar split: 50% favorable and 44% unfavorable. The figures are about people, not states. That distinction matters, because the institutions speaking in their names are the ones Americans now reject most sharply.
Views of Israelis have grown more negative in recent years. In 2022, 67% of US adults held a favorable view of Israelis. This year, that number fell to 52%. Unfavorable views rose from 25% in 2022 to 42% in 2026. Views of Palestinians shifted less dramatically. Favorable views slipped from 53% in 2022 to 50% this year, while unfavorable views rose from 39% to 44%.
The survey was conducted before Hamas announced Monday that it will dissolve its government in Gaza ahead of its transfer to the Palestinian technocratic committee established by US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace. The announcement doesn’t erase the basic fact that Hamas, like the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli government, appears in the poll chiefly as a governing structure people distrust. Different flags. Same appetite for control.
The State Monopoly Problem
Among Republicans and Democrats, opinions of Israeli and Palestinian people split along familiar lines. Sixty-five percent of Republicans held a favorable view of Israelis, compared with 43% of Democrats. Roughly two-thirds of Democrats held a favorable view of Palestinians, compared with one-third of Republicans. Even here, the trend line cuts through the usual partisan theater: just over half of Democrats now hold an unfavorable view of Israelis, up from 31% in 2022. Among Republicans, negative views of Israelis also rose, from 17% in 2022 to 31% in 2026.
Younger Americans were more likely to favor Palestinians than Israelis. Among US adults under 30, 58% held a favorable view of Palestinians, while 32% held a favorable view of Israelis. Pollsters said that attitude was largely driven by young Democrats, 72% of whom held a positive view toward Palestinians and just 26% a positive view of Israelis.
The survey also found declining favorability among Jewish respondents toward the Israeli people and government. Since 2024, favorable views of the Israeli people fell from 89% to 83%, and favorable opinions of the Israeli government dropped from 54% to 47%. Among Jewish adults in the US, 40% viewed the Palestinian people favorably, while 58% viewed them unfavorably. Just 10% said they held a favorable view of the Palestinian Authority, and 2% said they held a favorable view of Hamas.
No Mandate, No Mercy
The Palestinian Authority, which governs in the West Bank, drew an unfavorable view from 69% of Americans. Hamas, after years of ruling Gaza, drew an even harsher response. The Israeli government fared little better. The poll doesn’t hand out legitimacy to any of them. It records something simpler: a widening public disgust with the institutions that claim authority over Palestinians and Israelis alike.
That’s the part the rulers never like. People can be viewed differently from the governments that speak in their name. The survey makes that split plain, and it leaves the governing class on all sides looking exactly like what it is: unpopular, distrusted, and still in charge.