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AP/NORC Center Poll

January 2024

Methodology

The January 2024 update to The Associated Press – NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, surveyed 1,152 U.S. adults (not necessarily registered voters) between January 25-29, 2024. 

Key Takeaways

Americans’ patience is waning when it comes to the ground offensive by Israel following the events of October 7th, 2023. This is to be expected but also indicates that we’re not providing enough content that justifies our continued existence in Gaza by now.

In terms of messaging, the hostage crisis remains the most important issue to highlight. If we double down on continued creation of awareness for the fact there are still 130 hostages, that may affect Americans’ acceptance of the military efforts that are taking a toll on the Palestinians in Gaza.

Focus attention on anti-Semitism in America. The discomfort of Americans when it comes to prejudice against Jews remains high, which indicates that another message we should be highlighting in America is the anti-Semitic incidents and fear for safety experienced by Jewish Americans.

The Details

1. Approval for Biden’s handling of the conflict drops, and perception of Israel having shared values with Americans is lower than in previous months.

  • We see a drop in approval ratings for Biden in terms of his handling of the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians, from 37% last month, to 31% this month. 

  • This also explains the drop in perceiving Israel as an ally that shares America’s interests and values, from 44% in November to 35% in January. 

  • On the other hand, there’s an increase in those who perceive Israel as a partner the U.S. should cooperate with, but doesn’t share its interests and values (up from 40% in November, to 44% in January).

2. Americans feel the U.S. support to Israel for its military operation is too high, and support for Palestinians (provision of humanitarian relief) is too low.

  • When asked if Israel is too supportive, not supportive enough or providing just about the right amount of support to Israel, we see less people thinking the support is just about right (down from 39% in November to 33% in January), which mostly shifted into the “too much” answer (up from 32% in November to 37% in January).

  • The opposite is true of how Americans perceive the support given to the Palestinians.

3. Concern for anti-Semitism and Islamophobia remains high.

  • Americans are still concerned that the war is increasing prejudice against Jews (77% - almost the same as in November, but with a shift from “Extremely” or “Very” concerned to “Somewhat concerned”). The same applies to prejudice against Muslims, but to a slightly lesser degree (68% concerned, with less “Extremely” or “Very” concerned compared to November).

4. The recovery of the hostages remains the most important thing Americans think needs to be done in terms of the U.S. government’s foreign policy.

5. America feels Israel has gone too far with its military incursion. 

  • We see a marked increase in Americans’ concern that Israel has gone too far in its military response, up from 40% in November to 50% in January, and as a result a decrease in those who think Israel’s response has been about right (from 38% in November to 31% in January), and a small decrease in those who think Israel’s response hasn’t gone far enough (from 18% in November to 15% in January). 

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