American public opinion toward the Israeli people has declined sharply over the past four years, with favorable views dropping 15 percentage points since 2022, according to a Pew Research Center survey released Thursday. The shift comes as protests on college campuses and partisan divides over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have intensified, particularly among younger Americans and Democrats.
The survey, which polled 12,574 US adults from May 4 to May 17, 2026, found that 52% now hold a favorable opinion of the Israeli people, down from 67% in 2022. Unfavorable views rose from 25% to 42% over the same period. Views of Palestinians remained relatively stable, with 50% holding a favorable opinion compared to 53% in 2022. The margin of error for the full sample was plus or minus 1.3 percentage points.
The Partisan Divide
The survey revealed a stark partisan split. Among Republicans, 65% held a favorable view of Israelis, while only 43% of Democrats did. The Democratic shift has been dramatic: just over half of Democrats now hold an unfavorable view of Israelis, up from 31% in 2022. Even among Republicans, unfavorable views nearly doubled from 17% to 31% over the same period.
Roughly two-thirds of Democrats held a favorable view of Palestinians, compared to one-third of Republicans. The generational gap proved even more pronounced. US adults under 30 were more likely to hold a favorable view of Palestinians, at 58%, than Israelis, at 32%. Young Democrats drove this trend, with 72% holding a positive view toward Palestinians and just 26% toward Israelis.
Government vs. People
Americans distinguished sharply between populations and their governments. The majority of Americans, 62%, held unfavorable views of the Israeli government. But views of Palestinian leadership were even more negative: 69% said they held an unfavorable opinion of the Palestinian Authority, which governs in the West Bank, and 84% had an unfavorable view of Hamas.
The survey was conducted prior to Hamas' announcement 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 Jewish American Response
Among Jewish respondents, attitudes toward both the Israeli people and government had also declined. Since 2024, favorable views of the Israeli people among Jewish Americans fell from 89% to 83%, and favorable opinions toward the Israeli government dropped from 54% to 47%. The poll found that 40% of Jewish adults in the US view the Palestinian people favorably, compared to 58% who viewed Palestinians unfavorably. Just 10% of Jewish adults said they held a favorable view toward the Palestinian Authority, and 2% held a favorable view of Hamas.
The decline in American support for Israel comes despite widespread rejection of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. Americans appear to be separating their views of ordinary Israelis from their views of Israeli policy, while simultaneously maintaining deep skepticism toward Palestinian governance structures that have failed to deliver peace or prosperity.
Why This Matters:
The erosion of American public support for Israel represents a significant shift in the strategic relationship between the two countries, driven largely by younger voters and Democrats who will shape US policy for decades. What's striking isn't just the decline in favorable views of Israelis, but the fact that it's occurring even as Americans overwhelmingly reject Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. The survey reveals a public that's grown weary of the conflict itself rather than convinced by one side's narrative. For Israel, the challenge isn't just defending its actions to a skeptical international audience—it's maintaining support among a younger American generation that views the conflict through a different moral framework. The partisan divide also threatens the bipartisan consensus that has underpinned US-Israel relations for generations. Yet the survey also shows that Americans remain deeply critical of Palestinian leadership, suggesting the decline in support for Israel doesn't automatically translate into support for Palestinian governance structures that continue to fail their own people.