Overwhelming Majority of U.S. Voters Support Israel in its War with Hamas

[Frodo]

There's our silent majority:

Vast majority of Americans back Israel over Hamas: Poll

An overwhelming majority of Americans support Israel in its war against Hamas over the militant group running the Gaza Strip, according to a new poll.

The Harvard CAPS-Harris survey shared with The Hill showed 80 percent of registered voters said they support Israel more in the war, while 20 percent said they support Hamas more. That is about in line with the poll’s findings from last month, when 79 percent indicated they support Israel more.

In this month’s poll, older age groups were much more likely to be supportive of Israel than younger respondents, though a clear majority of each age group supported Israel more than Hamas. More than 90 percent of those 65 years old and older and of those 55 to 64 said they support Israel more, while 85 percent of those 45 to 54 and three-quarters of those 35 to 44 said the same.

Support for Israel was the lowest among the youngest age groups. Pollsters found 64 percent of those 25 to 34 and 57 percent of those 18 to 24 said they support Israel more, while the rest of those age groups said they support Hamas more.

[GM Team Member and Deputy PPT WB]

I mean, I support Israel more than Hamas but that's not really saying too much because I don't like either current government.

[GeneralMacArthur]

The polling on the war has been absurdly inconsistent and I think reveals how ignorant people are about the war/region and how prone they are to simply agree with anything that sounds good.

I mean if you believe the polling, 70% of voters support Israel, but think we are too close to Israel; however, they do not want us to cut aid to Israel, unless that money could be repurposed for domestic priorities, in which case they want Israel to receive $0.  They support Israel in its war against Hamas, but want there to be an immediate and permanent ceasefire, even if no hostages are returned.  But they do want the hostages returned, and think Israel should continue the war until it gets the hostages back.  Lastly, they believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, but they support an Israeli invasion of Rafah, and think Israeli politicians should be investigated and convicted by the ICC/ICJ, but not Hamas; however, Israel are the good guys and Hamas are the bad guys, and Israel should continue the war until Hamas is defeated, but also sign an unconditional permanent ceasefire with Hamas.

[Oregon Eagle Politics]

The polling on the war has been absurdly inconsistent and I think reveals how ignorant people are about the war/region and how prone they are to simply agree with anything that sounds good.

I mean if you believe the polling, 70% of voters support Israel, but think we are too close to Israel; however, they do not want us to cut aid to Israel, unless that money could be repurposed for domestic priorities, in which case they want Israel to receive $0.  They support Israel in its war against Hamas, but want there to be an immediate and permanent ceasefire, even if no hostages are returned.  But they do want the hostages returned, and think Israel should continue the war until it gets the hostages back.  Lastly, they believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, but they support an Israeli invasion of Rafah, and think Israeli politicians should be investigated and convicted by the ICC/ICJ, but not Hamas; however, Israel are the good guys and Hamas are the bad guys, and Israel should continue the war until Hamas is defeated.  But also sign an unconditional permanent ceasefire with Hamas.

It’s all about how it is phrased. Thats why polls are so inconsistent.

[No War, but the War on Christmas]

I don't understand how a poll in which I'd probably be on the Israeli side, too, is suppose to tell us anything?

And furthermore, I am once again begging the mods for a mega-thread.

[Progressive Pessimist]

The polling on the war has been absurdly inconsistent and I think reveals how ignorant people are about the war/region and how prone they are to simply agree with anything that sounds good.

I mean if you believe the polling, 70% of voters support Israel, but think we are too close to Israel; however, they do not want us to cut aid to Israel, unless that money could be repurposed for domestic priorities, in which case they want Israel to receive $0.  They support Israel in its war against Hamas, but want there to be an immediate and permanent ceasefire, even if no hostages are returned.  But they do want the hostages returned, and think Israel should continue the war until it gets the hostages back.  Lastly, they believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, but they support an Israeli invasion of Rafah, and think Israeli politicians should be investigated and convicted by the ICC/ICJ, but not Hamas; however, Israel are the good guys and Hamas are the bad guys, and Israel should continue the war until Hamas is defeated, but also sign an unconditional permanent ceasefire with Hamas.

Perhaps peoples' feelings are complicated. I know mine are.

Essentially I can only distill it down now to: "Hamas sucks, Bibi sucks, but please don't screw over Biden and the country (and world) just because both sides of the conflict suck and are prolonging the conflict."

[GeneralMacArthur]

I think voters want Israel to defeat Hamas and get the hostages back, but they don't like what they've heard about Israeli war crimes, and don't want to feel like they're personally culpable for them.

In other words, they'd really like it to be a clean war, and although they'd prefer Israel to fight and win a dirty war over the continued existence of Hamas, they'll cling to pretty much any alternative you present to them, no matter how unlikely a hypothetical it may be.

"Ceasefire" is also a nice vague term because both sides can envision it being a ceasefire with terms favorable to their side.  Liberals can imagine a "ceasefire" where Hamas abandons the Gaza Strip and returns the hostages, and they say "yes I would support that" since said ceasefire is basically an Israeli victory.  Leftists can imagine a "ceasefire" where Hamas keeps control of the Gaza Strip and keeps the hostages and Israel goes home with its tail between its legs, and they say "yes I would support that" since said ceasefire is basically a Hamas victory.  If your polling just says "do you support a ceasefire" then everyone will say yes!

[Dr. MB]

The framing around all these polls has been very weird. Totally not biased whatsoever

[emailking]

That number is hard to believe.

[ingemann]

That number is hard to believe.

Yes, these polls smells like desperation. It’s pretty obvious that in the real world USA is going through paradigm shift around the view of Israel, it have been underway for several decades but it have been hasten by Bibi’s behavior under the Trump administration.

[GM Team Member and Deputy PPT WB]

The framing around all these polls has been very weird. Totally not biased whatsoever

yeah, the reason the polls have been all over the place is because like 75% of them are push polls in one way or another.

[Ⓐnarchy in the ☭☭☭P!]

The framing around all these polls has been very weird. Totally not biased whatsoever

yeah, the reason the polls have been all over the place is because like 75% of them are push polls in one way or another.

and this one is like a textbook example of a push poll, unfortunately the article itself doesn't give the exact wording and I didn't save the picture but the question about Rafah was practically "Do you want Israel to go into Rafah to save all the hostages and end Hamas forever or do you want to let the terrorists win"

The very premise that it's an either-or is absurd. There's zero reason to think they'll achieve anything from going into Rafah that they weren't able to from Gaza City or Khan Younis, with the added risk of provoking a diplomatic crisis with Egypt. It's pretty obvious that going into Rafah is more likely to get the hostages killed than rescued but if the question was posed like that then it wouldn't work as a push poll so that disconnected boomers can pretend that any discontent around Israel is the fault of Iranian hackers or something.